Posted January 14, 2014
The president of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), Bob Stallman, criticized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Congress in his remarks at the group’s annual convention in San Antonio, according to an article by the Des Moines Register available here.
Stallman criticized EPA regulations under the Clean Water Act that he indicated “would give it control of nearly every water body in the United States, including ditches that are dry most of the time.”
He criticized Congress, highlighting three areas where Congress is “falling down on the job” of addressing the needs of the nation’s agricultural producers including: the farm bill, reliable water transportation, and agricultural labor reform. Stallman said, “These are all crucial issues on which Congress has started the job, but still has to finish it,” according to an Agri-Pulse article available here. He also said that this was the “least productive” Congress in history.
Stallman was optimistic that Congress could pass a Water Resources Development bill, but said that farmers and ranchers also need effective, long-term immigration solutions to address agricultural labor shortages. On the immigration issue, he pointed to a “California Farm Bureau study that found 71 percent of tree fruit growers and nearly 80 percent of raisin and berry growers were unable to find enough employees to prune trees and vines of pick crops.”
Please visit the National Agricultural Law Center for more information on the Clean Water Act, farm bills, water law, and agricultural labor.
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