RURAL ROUTES/Margot Ford McMillen

Look Out for Bad Bills at Every Level of Government

There’s a sneaking suspicion going around farm groups that all the hubbub in Washington, for example around Trump’s peccadilloes with Russian prostitutes, is nothing more than a distraction from the real issues. The real news, we’re beginning to think, is around the farm bill. And that never gets covered by the urban-dominated media.

One big new law could take out all of the protections for local foods that we’ve worked so hard, for decades, to put in place. HR 4879/3599 has been introduced as the “Protect Interstate Commerce Act.” If passed, it would be an amendment to the 2018 Farm Bill. Iowa’s own Rep. Steve King (R) wants to wipe out state and local regulations that help farmers in their own ecosystems. Not only could this bill destroy the local food system, it could make consumers more vulnerable and dependent on multinational corporations that import bad food into America.

For many years, you’ve read in this column about the importance of knowing the folks who raise your foods. I hope it’s made you sensitive to news about recalls, like the recent recall of lettuces that affect thousands of consumers. Moving to a system that allows more farmers to raise food makes sense in terms of food safety. It also guarantees fresher food, shipped fewer miles, delivered with more nutrients to your store or farmers’ market.

Worse yet, the King amendment could open the door to additional legislation that renders state and local laws, and state and local programs to help farmers and nourish eaters in food deserts, impotent. For socially-disadvantaged farmers, like the black farmers in Mississippi or women farmers all over the nation, the King amendment would strip supports for niche markets and food promotion programs. It could cut the legs out from under the thriving farmers’ market system. At a time when we’re just beginning to see farmers adopt ecologically sound strategies like using cover crops, the King amendment would wipe out environmental standards imposed at a state or local level.

A couple of national organizations are fighting the King amendment and other affronts to rural life. Check out the National Family Farm Coalition, Organization for Competitive Markets, for one, and Family Farm Action and look for information on the farm bill.

And while you’re googling around, I sure hope you’re keeping track of the shenanigans at your state capitol. And, if your favorite environmental, educational, medical or other group has asked you to make phone calls to your legislature or called a lobby day to meet and greet the lawmakers, I hope you’ve done it. Our dysfunctional throw-it-to-the-multinationals federal government has left the doors wide open for the dysfunctional state legislatures to do their worst. And they are trying.

Here in Missouri, the irresponsibles in the legislature are getting more and more clever about hiding the bad stuff introduced in their bills. Last year, for example, they snuck in a change that made it possible for the governor to replace independent members of the Clean Water Commission with non-independent members beholden to industry. Guess how they’ve voted on issues to protect Missouri water!

This year, one particularly obtuse foray is a Senate Bill (627) that could destroy the ability of counties to make their own regulations concerning Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. These football-field-size metal buildings contain small pens where animals are bred and fed to feed tailgaters that must have chicken wings and bacon.

Well, to be fair, the folks that buy meat from the multinationals eat chicken breasts and sausage also, but the point for rural folks is that these CAFOs produce as much manure and urine as large cities, and that effluent just bakes in lagoons under the buildings until they leak or are finally pumped out and spread on the ground. In the bill, local regulations regarding this waste would be removed.

And, speaking of water, another pending Missouri bill would raise the standards of allowable heavy metals in the water system, which is a bone thrown to the electrical power industry. The industry, see, has ponds full of arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead, dumped into water as coal ash when they clean out the hoppers. By raising the standard of allowable heavy metals, especially lead, in the water, the power industry can avoid cleanup. The ponds, which leak as all ponds do, will eject into creeks and even into the groundwater. What’s worse, the city of Springfield would get a special shield for its coal ash landfill which is built on top of karst geology—that waffly rock structure, with all its holes and nooks and crannies that underlies much of Missouri, including the Springfield area.

So, yeah. Keep watching that national news for affronts on the federal level, but don’t forget the killer stuff going on at your state and local levels!

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. Her latest book is The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History. Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 15, 2018

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