Washington-A group of 35 Virginia farmers late last month hand-delivered 18,000 letters to two Senate members protesting a Chesapeake Bay clean-up bill that they fear would make the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “controlling partners” in what agriculture is doing in the bay watersheds. They received a friendly reception from Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb, neither of whom have signed onto SB1816, the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2010. Warner responded, “Your Virginia Farm Bureau leadership has been crystal clear on how you feel about the bill. Some of the concerns you’ve raised have been taken into consideration, and I think you’ll see a lot of changes in the next draft of the Cardin bill.” The bill is expected to be sent to the full Senate in the next few days. Meeting with Warner and Webb was only the latest part of an intensive Virginia Farm Bureau effort to sidetrack SB1816. The Farm Bureau also mounted a letter-writing campaign, with members in each of the 88 county organizations generating more than 27,400 contacts via letter, phone, and e-mail. According to Farm Bureau officials, SB1816 unfairly blames agriculture for more than 50 percent of all excess nutrients reaching the bay. In addition, the Farm Bureau says the bill ignores the negative economic and social byproducts of essentially putting EPA in charge of every land-use decision within the bay watershed and putting the federal government in the position to override every local zoning decision and to second-guess every state environmental regulation.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain