An editorial in today’s Baltimore Sun is critical of the EPA’s decision last week to exclude farmers from reporting animal waste emissions. The editorial, which refers to the ongoing EPA study on air pollution from CAFOs, calls on poultry companies, rather than small farmers, to pay the costs involved in controlling emissions. The Maryland Department of the Environment estimates 27 million pounds of yearly emissions by poultry operations and processing plants.
Sure, the so-called “midnight regulations” are nothing new for an outgoing administration to take advantage of. In fact, in their waning hours every administration has attempted in some way, shape, or form to use this ability to correct the scorecard on their way out the door. These regulations, like nearly all issued by federal agencies, do not require congressional approval. Why is this alarming?
In the case of a rule change issued last Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency, factory farms will be exempt from reporting releases of hazardous substances like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, called the action by the EPA “nothing more than a giveaway to Big Agribusiness at the expense of the public health and of local communities located near large factory farms.” Read More >
In yesterday’s New York Times, columnist Nicholas Kristoff addressed President-elect Obama’s soon-to-be-made choice for Secretary of Agriculture, asking whether or not a “U.S. Department of Food” would better reflect the change our country needs to see realized in our food policy.
Kristoff notes that “a Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat.” As such, what we need now “is actually a bold reformer in a position renamed ‘secretary of food.’”
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Given today’s announcement of Obama’s likely appointment of Lisa Jackson as Administrator of the Environmental Protections Agency (EPA), how will the Obama platform impact the policy issues of importance to CLF?
Environmental Policy and the Clean Air Act
Major changes in air pollution and climate change policy are expected under the Obama Administration. Obama’s environmental platform calls for an 80 pecent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Many anticipate President-elect Obama to direct the EPA to use the Clean Air Act of 1990 as a guideline for setting carbon dioxide emission limits on power plants and other facilities. It is also expected that Obama will sign the California auto-emission waiver, rejected by President Bush, which would require that greenhouse gas emission from vehicles are cut by 30 percent by 2016. With the help of incoming House Energy and Commerce Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA), a strong supporter of environmental issues, these initiatives may be possible.
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The Obama Administration’s team to lead the Environmental Protections Agency and Department of Energy appears to be in place. Officials close to the Obama transition team announced that Lisa Jackson, the former head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and current Chief of Staff for NJ Governor Jon Corzine, is expected to be named to the EPA’s top position in the coming weeks. Jackson, who spent 13 years at EPA, would be the first African American to serve as EPA Administrator.
Nobel Laureate Steven Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who won a Nobel Prize for physics in 1997, is in line to be nominated as Obama’s Energy Secretary. As noted by the New York Times, Dr. Chu will play a central role in directing the research and development of alternative energy sources needed to replace fossil fuels in a era of constrained carbon emissions. A proponent for controlling greenhouse gas emission, Chu’s research has included work on biofuels and solar energy.
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The U.S. FDA has changed course on the agency’s previously announced plans to ban off-label use of celphalosporin drugs, a powerful class of antibiotics, in food-producing animals. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the FDA announced the planned crackdown on July 3, citing “the importance of cephalosporin drugs for treating disease in humans.” The ban was set to take effect November 30.
Despite concerns from public health groups and medical associations about the increasing risk of antibiotic resistance, officials from the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine said they needed more time to fully consider public comments received on the issue and noted that the agency might still move to impose the ban.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort. In the two and half decades since the landmark Bay action agenda was agreed to, Maryland’s watershed clean up initiative has received mixed reviews on its success. As the Washington Post noted, “Despite a quarter-century of work, the bay’s biggest problem — pollution-driven “dead zones,” where fish and crabs can’t breathe — has not significantly improved.” Yet there are important environmental improvement initiatives on the way.
The Post’s editorial page yesterday hailed Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley’s efforts to protect the Chesapeake by limiting further development along the Maryland shoreline and enacting new measures limiting agriculture runoff from chicken farms, the leading source of harmful nitrogen and phosphorous found in the Bay.
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This week, 88 prominent figures in sustainable food and agriculture signed a letter to the Obama transition team entitled “the sustainable choice for the next U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.” This letter offered up the top 6 picks for the new (and sustainable!) Secretary of Agriculture including Gus Schumacher (MA), Chuck Hasselbrook (NE), Sarah Vogel (ND, Fred Kirschenmann (IA/NY and 2008 CLF guest speaker!), Mark Ritchie (MN), and Neil Hamilton (IA).
The letter emphasizes the need for innovation as the new Ag Secretary must “…work to advance a new era of sustainability in agriculture, humane husbandry, food and renewable energy production that revitalizes our nation’s soil, air and water while stimulating opportunities for new farmers to return to the land.” The letter also emphasizes linking local farmers with school lunch programs to promote healthier options. Check out the NYT report and CLF’s school food initiatives.
