Hey all, I'm back again with another installment of Edwards Evening News Roundup. Today I'm going to focus on how Edwards plans to help small farmers across America. Here we go......
Edwards isn't afraid of a little local Iowa controversy. The Des Moines Register has a story out today about Edwards bold stance on hog confinement farms. Edwards is the only candidate proposing a national moratorium on hog confinement farms. You may think this isn't a big deal, but it is. These confinement farms have put many small family farms out of business, not too mention made it difficult for many Iowans to live with the strong stench. Iowa has always had their share of hogs but the confinement farms didn't start popping up until the 90's. Check out this article if you'd like to learn more about the issue:
http://www.wral.com/...
Here's a snippet from the Des Moines Register about what Edwards told audiences in Iowa about the confinement farms:
The former North Carolina senator told audiences that he would push for a national moratorium on building or expanding livestock confinement facilities. He also said he would push for tougher federal environmental regulations and for rigorous enforcement of current manure disposal laws.
"There are parts of North Carolina where if you drove through them, the smell was overwhelming," he said. "And we've had huge problems with the water and water supply because of it."
North Carolina passed a moratorium on confinement construction about 10 years ago, and its main rules remain in effect. The nation should do the same, Edwards said.
His proposal would affect confinement operations with more than about 2,500 hogs. Officials said Iowa has more than 1,000 such facilities.
If you'd like to read the article go here:
http://desmoinesregister.com/...
Country of Origin Laws and Limiting Farm Subsidies
From his website:
Edwards recognizes that the rules are stacked against family farmers. He supports the strict enforcement of laws against anticompetitive mergers, unfair pricing, and country-of-origin laws. He will enact a strong national ban on packer ownership to stop the spread of large corporate hog interests and create a national moratorium on the construction and expansion of hog farm lagoons. To help family farmers he will also limit farm subsidies to $250,000 per person, close loopholes in payment limits, and expand conservation programs.
Edwards has been a longtime proponent of country of origin laws. He proposed a bill in the Senate to mandate country of origin labeling as a way to help local farmers. I also like his stance on hog confinement farms. To me, it not only hurts small farmers and decreases property value, it's also inhumane to have so many hogs in such confined spaces. The confinement hog farm owners raise their hogs this way to cut costs, but it's at the expense of others and that's just not right.
Funding Rural Agriculture
From his website:
Guaranteeing Rural America the Funding It Needs and Is Entitled to: More than half of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $70 billion in rural development funds has actually gone to metropolitan regions, suburbs of midsize cities, and resort towns like Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Edwards will rewrite these funding rules and get resources to the intended isolated and disadvantaged areas. Because many small towns lack the grant-writing capabilities of larger towns, Edwards will direct federal agencies to offer a simplified, one-page grant application for small grants to rural towns and counties, based on the successful COPS program.
I'm so glad Edwards recognizes the disparity between funding well to do agriculture areas and areas that actually are in desperate need of the funding. There are so many small towns across America that are not getting the agriculture funding they need, and Edwards is right on about how they don't have the power to get the funds they need. I'm glad Edwards is proposing to give small towns equal opportunity to agriculture funding.
Addressing Pollution by Corporate Farms
From his website:
He will also establish tough clean air and water requirements for concentrated animal feeding operations.
In Iowa Edwards also said he would push for stricter federal environmental regulations and for tough enforcement of current manure disposal laws. Every year in America CAFO's produce 300 million tons of manure that contain all kinds of contaminants. Those contaminants end up in waterways and in groundwater. It's dangerous and we definitely need stricter regulations in regards to disposing the manure.
Lastly, here's a comment by Edwards about the corporate takeover of farming in rural America:
"The family farms are part of the community," he said. "A lot of these corporate farming operations just come in and suck out the resources and send them somewhere else."
If you'd like to read more about what Edwards plans to do for rural farmers and rural America go here:
http://johnedwards.com/...
Give Edwards Money!
I set up a fund raising page for Edwards via Act Blue. I am trying to raise $4,600 for Edwards before the Iowa Caucus. Will you help me meet my goal? Go here to donate to the campaign:
http://actblue.com/...