Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Turns Out, Farmers Don't Really Want to Save the Bay

The "Bay News" today is full of different references to the same story.  The American Farm Bureau Federation and Pennsylvania Farm Bureau have sued the EPA to prevent enforcement of the new TMDL (total maximum daily load) standards for phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment.

I hate to say I told you so, but... 

As a conservative, I'm reasonably sympathetic to the needs of farmers to use fertilizer to produce crops, and our need to have crops to eat. However, the fertilizers put on the soils in the bay drainage trickle off into the streams and rivers, and do have a significant deleterious effect on the Bay.   The government does have a role to play in striking the balance between the needs of the farmers and the needs of the people who live around and make their living on the Bay.

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