The EPA is hoping to finally end speculation about the agency and farm dust. The agency on Monday wrote a letter to Congress, saying it is prepared to propose to keep the current standard for so-called PM10 when it is sent to the Office of Management and Budget.
Here’s the entire news release from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:
Particulate matter in the air we breathe can cause Americans to get sick, and can even cause premature death. For more than two decades, EPA has been working to reduce this pollution to improve our health while growing our economy.
In progressing this work, some have raised the common myth that we are planning to tighten standards of dust from farms.
EPA has repeatedly said that it has no plans to tighten this regulation.
As further proof and upon careful consideration of the scientific record, analysis by Agency scientists, and advice from the independent Clean Air Science Advisory Committee, EPA today wrote Congress that it is prepared to propose to keep the current standard for PM10 when it is sent to OMB for interagency review.
EPA hopes that this action finally puts an end to the myth that the Agency is planning to tighten this regulation which has been place since 1987.
Wednesday, both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate are expected to vote on U.S. Free Trade Agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. The American Soybean Association is urging Congress to swiftly pass the implementing legislation so the FTAs may enter into force as soon as possible.
To make sure all goes well, ASA is soliciting active grassroots support. In an ASA action alert, soybean growers are being asked to contact Members of Congress as soon as possible before Wednesday’s vote and emphasize the need for passage of the pending U.S. trade agreements. Contact information is available at: www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml.
ASA leadership points to five talking points: 1/ The trade agreements represent nearly 3-billion dollars of additional agricultural exports. 2/ Previous lost U.S. market share and economic growth. 3/ The Colombia FTA will immediately eliminate tariffs on soybeans, soybean meal and soybean flour, and phase-out tariffs for crude soybean oil and refined soybean oil over 5 years. 4/ The Korea FTA will increase exports of the major grain, oilseed, fiber, fruit and vegetable, and livestock products by 1.8-billion dollars annually. And 5/ The Panama FTA will remove immediately the tariffs on U.S. soybeans, soybean meal, and crude vegetable oils.
Eight percent of the energy produced during the first six months of 2011 came from renewable energy sources such as biomass and biofuels, geothermal energy, solar power, wind energy and hydropower. According to data released by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration renewable energy sources provided 4.687 quadrillion BTUs of energy, or 12.25 percent of the nation’s total. By comparison, renewables accounted for 11.05 percent of domestic production during the first half of 2010 and 10.50 percent during the first half of 2009.
When considering all energy sectors, including electricity, transportation and thermal, renewable energy production, including hydropower, has gone up some 15 percent when compared with the first six months of 2010, and by nearly 23 percent compared to the first half of 2009. Among sources of renewable energy produced in the first six months of this year, biomass and biofuels accounted for 46 percent, hydropower at 37 percent, wind energy at 13.4 percent, geothermal power at 2.33 percent and solar power at 1.22 percent.
In the electricity sector alone, the EIA says that renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) accounted for nearly 14 percent of net U.S. electrical generation from January through June of 2011, up 26 percent from the same period in 2010.
Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. Last week the House Ways and Means Committee passed the enabling legislation. The Senate could vote on the pending free-trade agreements as soon as this Wednesday. The House could also vote this week.
White House Chief of Staff William Daley says passing the accords as well as Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition is an – essential piece of the president’s jobs agenda.
On October 3, President Barack Obama sent Congress legislation for the trade accords reached four years ago after House Speaker John Boehner said he would consider the worker assistance in tandem with the trade deals. Action by both chambers would send the accords to Obama on the eve of a state visit by South Korea’s President Lee Myung Bak.
At its annual membership meeting, the Renewable Fuels Association re-elected Chuck Woodside, CEO of KAAPA Ethanol in Minden, Nebraska, as Chairman of the Board of Directors of RFA. Re-elected officers include: Vice Chairman Neill McKinstray; Treasurer Randall Doyal; Secretary Walter Wendland; and President Bob Dinneen.
Woodside says – America cannot afford to backslide on its investments in domestic ethanol production. Whether it’s the nearly 14-billion gallons of ethanol production from grain today or the countless billions of gallons from a wide range of feedstocks in the future, a strong domestic ethanol industry will provide this country with unparalleled economic, environmental and energy security benefits for generations to come.
Woodside continues, – America’s ethanol producers are answering the call by creating jobs, reducing oil imports, and cleaning our environment while others continuously tell us we can’t.
Senator Dick Lugar and Representative Marlin Stutzman have introduced the Rural Economic Farm and Ranch Sustainability and Hunger Act or REFRESH. The bill targets 40-billion dollars in USDA cuts to help met federal deficit reduction goals. Roughly two-thirds of the savings would come from farm and conservation programs, and a third from nutrition programs, which represent three-fourths of the USDA budget.
Under the bill, funding for farm programs would be cut 16-billion dollars, a 24.5 percent reduction. Conservation programs would be updated and streamlined for a savings of 11.3-billion, a 17.6 percent reduction. And nutrition program eligibility loopholes would be closed saving 13.9-billion, only a 2 percent reduction.
Senator Lugar, who was Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee in 1996, says – we offer our bill as a thoughtful option for consideration by the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, as well as the Congressional Deficit Reduction ‘Super’ Committee charged with making real federal spending cuts by the end of the year.
Representative Stutzman says – long before I came to Washington, I’ve opposed the direct payments that handcuff farmers and manipulate markets. I’m happy to introduce legislation with Senator Lugar that ends those direct payments. We’ve proposed genuine safety nets – options that give confidence and expand opportunities for farmers, not outdated systems that restrict their options.
An updated drought declaration for several counties in Kansas has triggered the emergency use of water from state lakes.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback made the change, moving 13 counties from warning status up to emergency status. Six other counties were added to the drought watch list.
In a news release, Brownback said three-quarters of Kansas counties are well below normal in available soil moisture, because of below normal precipitation patterns and drying conditions. Stream flows and lake levels also are being affected.
Tracy Streeter, Director of the Kansas Water Office and Chair of the Governor’s Drought Response Team, recommended the update.
“Water supply conditions continue to decline in many areas. Emergency stage triggers the Kansas Water Office Memorandum of Understanding with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism which allows emergency use of water from certain state fishing lakes by contracting the Kansas Water Office,” Streeter said.
“This will allow small communities and individuals within the emergency counties category to pump water from named state fishing lakes if they are in dire need of water”.
Kansas Drought Conditions Map 10/3/2011
Streeter says individuals and communities need to contact the Kansas Water Office for a water supply request prior to any withdrawals from lakes.
They will in turn be referred to the appropriate office to obtain the necessary permit.
There are limits to the types of water use available, and a fee may be set for use of the state fishing lakes’ water supply.
Wildlife and Parks Secretary Robin Jennison says the priorities are domestic, municipal and then livestock uses, while also protecting the lakes’ fish populations.
The list of state fishing lakes designated for emergency water withdrawals include Atchison, Barber, Brown, Bourbon, Butler, Chase, Clark, Crawford, Goodman, Jewell, Kingman, Leavenworth, Lyon, Pottawatomie #1, Pottawatomie #2, McPherson, Miami, Mined Lands (Pits), Neosho, Osage, Ottawa, Saline, Scott, Shawnee, Sheridan, Washington, Wilson, and Woodson State Lakes.
This Executive Order shall remain in effect for those counties so identified until rescinded by Executive Order or superseded by a subsequent Executive Order revising the drought stage status of the affected counties. Effective immediately:
· Declare a Drought Emergency, Warning or Drought Watch for the counties identified below;
· Authorize and direct all agencies under the jurisdiction of the Governor to implement the appropriate watch or warning level-drought response actions assigned in the Operations Plan of the Governor’s Drought Response Team.
The Governor’s Drought Response Team will continue to watch the situation closely and work to minimize the effects the drought has on Kansans. For more detailed information about current conditions, see the Kansas Climate Summary and Drought Report on the Kansas Water Office website at: www.kwo.org
The executive board of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives has approved a set of priorities for farmer co-ops in the next farm bill. NCFC President and CEO Chuck Conner recognizes that – when it comes to writing the next farm bill, many things are still very much up in the air from the impact that the Super Committee will have on the process, to the budgetary resources that will be available to the agriculture committees, to the timing of the bill itself.
NCFC identified four key themes to guide the organization’s policy throughout the process. They are: defend the agriculture budget baseline; promote the value of farmer cooperatives; ensure an adequate farm safety net; and promote market access and U.S. agricultural exports.
When it comes to ensuring an adequate farm safety net, NCFC says farmers, ranchers and growers must continue to have access to as many tools as possible to help them mitigate the risk inherent in production agriculture. Specific to dairy, NCFC strongly supports H.R. 3062, the Dairy Security Act of 2011 that draws on the Foundation for the Future proposal developed by the National Milk Producers Federation and their members.
(Columbia, MO) -Inventory of old crop corn in all positions in Missouri on September 1, 2011 totaled 17.2 million bushels, down 67 percent from the level of a year earlier. On-farm stocks accounted for 5.7 million bushels, down 75 percent from a year ago, while off-farm positions totaled 11.5 million bushels, down 60 percent.
Missouri old crop soybean stocks in all positions on September 1, 2011 totaled 7.3 million bushels, up 15 percent from last year’s third quarter inventory. On-farm stocks in the state totaled 2.9 million bushels, up 123 percent from a year ago, while 4.4 million bushels were in off-farm positions, 13 percent below last year at this time.
September 1, 2011 wheat stocks in Missouri totaled 29.9 million bushels, up 12 percent from the third quarter of last year. There were 4.5 million bushels on farms, more than triple the 1.4 million bushels a year earlier. Off-farm stocks totaled 25.4 million bushels, same as last year.
Old crop sorghum stocks in Missouri on September 1, 2011 totaled 344,000 bushels, Sorghum on farms accounted for 110,000 bushels, while 234,000 bushels were off-farm, all three are 45 percent below their respective category one year ago.
Iowa has widened its lead over North Carolina as the nation’s top hog producer.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture lists Iowa’s herd total at 19.6 million, an increase from last year’s 18.9 million.
The hog inventory in No. 2 North Carolina dropped by 7 percent to 8.5 million. Producers blamed the decline in North Carolina on the high cost of corn, which is shipped to the state to feed the hogs.
The USDA says the nation’s total hog inventory was 66.6 million. Producers have been seeing strong prices.
Shane Ellis of Iowa State University Extension says per-head profits were $21.33 in August. He expects those profits to drop into the single digits in September.
Missouri’s hog herd was listed at 2.8 million, according to the report released Thursday. That’s 200,000 head lower than last years totals.
The total hog population in the United States is estimated at 64.7 million.
Particulate matter in the air we breathe can cause Americans to get sick, and can even cause premature death. For more than two decades, EPA has been working to reduce this pollution to improve our health while growing our economy.
