Why Bother

[SilverMallard]

From the February 2003 issue of AMBER WAVES, a research publication of the USDA...

"USDA's Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service(NRCS), can help CAFOs(Consolidated Animal Feeding Operations) meet the manure application standards proposed by EPA. EQIP provides technical and financial assistance in developing nutrient management plans, cost-share payments for waste management structures, and incentive payments to assist crop and livestock producers with environmental and conservation improvements on the farm. The program even provides financial help to transport manure to off-farm locations."

Obviously, there already is gov't funding in place to offset any economic burden placed upon these farmers.

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Fishing the Ozarks

[bubba_orvis]

Lot's a communicating....some talking.

Bottom line,

Farmers have chicken waste, and need fertilizer for hay.

If they don't spread it, they got to treat it.

Ozark logic..I got it, I'll use it. It's free. Any changes cost money, and represent government meddling.

Please explain to me how "win-win" works in this.


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bubba_orvis

The question was, why bother!

It took me awhile to think this one through, and here is my thoughts, on why each one of us "should bother"!

Power of the government, comes from the people who elect, those who will serve representing them.

It is still a government
Of the People...
By the People...
For the People...

Our Pledge of Allegence does say...

"I pledge allengence to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands. One Nation, under God, Individisable with Liberty and Justice for all.

It does not say....
I pledge allengence to the flag of the Corporated State of America, and to the Mandated Political Power and Special Interest Groups for which it stands, one nation deep in Debt, with Liberty and Justice for Some, but not for Others.

That is why we should bother, and really care what is being done in Our Name!

Parnelli

Woody Guthrie said it best..."This Land is Your Land, this Land in My Land.....this Land was made for You and Me!



[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 27 January 2005).]

[BenC]

Somtimes we get so caught up in our seek of information and knowledge that we take it for granted that others are in possession of the same information that we have. Qestion is this: Should we take for granted that all of the farmers are aware of the government sposored programs that provide funding or do we take for granted that everyone already knows this program?

Win-win can best be measured through compromise of less ill-effect on the environment than one of a present cronic state.

I am not preaching education, what I am trying to say is; pass on the information that helps those who have financial impact concerns. You mat get different results, at least it is worth a try...

SilverMallard: that information that you obtained is great and it is even better that you did the research to discover it. If that information was passed onto the farmers and lets say that half of them used it; your coalition would be that much larger. Most farmers hate paper work and I know that an offering of services to help them apply for thes programs gets more of them on board.

The information that you researched can be a great tool in acomplishing part of your goals. Best of luck with your project!

[SilverMallard]

BenC,

I've been aware of the EQIP program for about 5 years now. I've used it on other farm-related projects in which I was responsible for conservation planning. The vast majority of farmers know all about these programs run by NRCS. Their county extension agents, NRCS personnel, several different publications they receive in the mail, and a host of other sources are constantly educating and reminding farmers of their existence and parameters.

Since NRCS is the implementing agency for this entire water quality program in Northern Arkansas, it only seems reasonable that they would include implementation of EQIP and other Farm Bill conservation incentives to the fullest extent possible by law and allocations. That's just the way they work.

Now, the other stuff I found regarding the use of poultry litter for power generation, the chemicals that can reduce phosph runoff, and the move to create a farm-to-farm market for the litter which moves it out of the watershed in question, I just did a little Googling to find some news stories. This is a MAJOR topic of current events in the Ozarks. MO and OK are putting a great deal of pressure on AR to get them to "catch up," and continuing with their own pressure to improve things on their own sides of the borders.

FYI, I added some posts to the thread in the Conservation Forum that explain this more fully.

The biggest problem NRCS faces with the whole mess is the attitudes of the "typical" Ozark region farmer. And AR doesn't have a lock on this stereotype either. We deal with them here in MO and they have them in OK, too. But the AR legislature historically caves in to the poultry lobby without a fight. We're talking about the home turf of Tyson Foods, Inc...the largest frozen food conglomerate in the world. In general, farmers from this region resent ANY gov't "interference" in their "way of life." The old Prohibition attitudes still reign supreme, and all gov't agents are viewed as either Carpet Baggers or Revenuers...or both. Country folk in this part of the country (and I am country folk from this part of the country) tend to still do things like poaching deer and bears, hulling streams and rivers to kill all the fish (Indian subsistence fishing method using Black Walnut hulls which works about as well as dynamite, though not as fast or as noisy), and clandestine dumping of septic tank pumper trucks into area streams to avoid paying the processing fee at the local sewage treatment plant. These types of things are COMMONPLACE.

Now, of course, there are plenty of folks in the Ozarks (especially nowadays with the influx of folks from other regions) who do NOT do such obviously destructive things, but in "polite society" we have ignored these practices and allowed them to continue; saying "Oh well, things are just different around here." But we have become too populous and we have become a huge beef, dairy, and poultry producing region to allow such attitudes to continue to exist.

It really is a battle of ideals. We really do have WILLFUL repeat violators. And we really do have some politicians (at least in AR) who fight to protect the "old ways."

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Fishing the Ozarks

[purebs]

I just had someone knock on my door. He was giving out info about sewage being released into local waters. He was asking that I write our congressmen and senator. Usually I would have said, Yea sure, and promptly forgot about it. Lf's article has had me thinking lately though, so I sat right down and wrote nine letters and put them in the mail. Thanks LF! sometimes we need a kick in the butt!
Bill

[SilverMallard]

FYI...there's a lot of updated info, articles, and contact info on this in the Conservation forum thread.

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Fishing the Ozarks