North Carolina and New Jersey State Granges held State Legislative Days on June 3 and June 5, respectively. Both were held in their state capitals, with the North Carolina Legislative Day being co-hosted by the North Carolina Agribusiness Council. In both states, Grangers had the opportunity to hear from legislators and other informative speakers.

In North Carolina, Grangers focused on issues ranging from farmland preservation to drought assistance, and an evening AgReception was held to give Grangers a chance to meet-and-greet with their legislators. Meanwhile, the New Jersey State Grange’s speeches and demonstrations followed a theme of environmental sustainability. Attendees of both legislative days have deemed them highly successful.

Illinois
By: David Donley, IL State Grange Master

The Illinois Wind Power Working Group, of which the Illinois State Grange is a member, held its 2008 Annual Conference in Bloomington, IL, June 25 and 26. The Conference was open to the public and interested Grange members were urged to attend. All aspects of obtaining electricity through the use of the wind, from the single farm or business wind tower to large-scale wind farms, were presented through workshops and presentations.

I have not been able to make it to Annapolis and Washington as I should, but I have still been communicating with our elected officials by letter, fax, and hopefully, soon email.

I believe that the 2008 General Assembly Special Session is the most glowing example ever of bad governance. Many of the most important issues of the 2008 Regular Session were fixing the mistakes that were made in the Special Session because it lacked the due diligence necessary for the proper deliberation of the issues addressed. By making only token attempts to rein in out of control spending, the leadership grasped at easy ways to raise more revenue.

The computer services industry has organized to become politically active. Now the computer services tax has been eliminated and replaced with a higher income tax rate for people earning more than $1 million and a tax on small businesses, and by “stealing” money from the Transportation Trust Fund. I guess they are called trust funds because we have to trust politicians to spend it where it was intended. Don’t hold your breath. Our leaders are telling us that they made tough cuts to the budget. Do not believe them. This budget is 4.5% larger than the last.

There were 109 bills introduced in the Special Session in February and 73 were passed. Of the 36 that did not pass, there were two that the natural resource coalition worked together to defeat. The first was H.B. 3627, legislation for the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Resource Center (OSARC), which never made it out of Ways & Means Committee. This legislation will be back in 2009, but maybe in the meantime, the proponents of the legislation will invite more of the agriculture community to the table.

The second was H.B. 3610 establishing Green House Gas Emission (GHGE) reporting from our electric utilities and government sectors. This legislation was not needed, as the

Global Warming Commission had not met yet and the bill duplicated the climate change legislation goals of 2007. Furthermore, the consumer owned utilities requirement to report GHGE is extraneous, as the information is available from Bonneville Power Administration. Fortunately, this legislation also died in the Ways & Means Committee.

The Governor references the historic models of innovation and partnership relating to challenges of the past, here in Oregon, and how his Headwaters 2 Oceans plan will fit in quite nicely. As we come to grips with his plan and more fully understand his intentions, it is probably a good idea to remember that our state constitutional provisions for waters of the state and the state law and administrative rule pertaining to waters of the state have protected the public interest and private water rights holders of this wonderful state quite well.

The Governor and the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) have balanced the concerns of dairy farmers, distributors, and consumers in crafting an emergency rule that addresses both sides of a product labeling dispute over dairy growth hormone, or recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST), itself part of the growing debate over food quality and commercial food production.

Executive Order 2008-038, which allows “rbST-free” milk labels, while at the same time questioning their relevance, follows a pivotal meeting of the state advisory committee in December that framed the debate around the real vs. unreal dangers of rbST, also known as rbGH, or the Monsanto trade name Posilac. ODA Director Robert Boggs and Gov. Ted Strickland responded with the sort of compromise typically described as “to everyone’s mutual dissatisfaction.”

Labels on Posilac-free products will read: “This milk is from cows not supplemented with rbST,” or contain a “substantially equivalent claim”. They must also include the following or substantially equivalent claim: “The FDA has determined that no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rbST-supplemented and non-supplemented cows.”

An Ohio State Grange resolution has spurred the passing of H.B. 50, which gives local governments the ability to remove junk cars from public and private property after a 14-day notice. While certain cities have had the authority to do so in the past, this bill secures the right for townships statewide. The bill became law late last year.

In the battle against E. coli outbreaks that threaten our nation’s food supply, the California agricultural community closed ranks May 30 for Safe Food / Leafy Greens Round Table, pledging to deliver safe foods to American tables. The Safe Food / Leafy Greens Round Table was sponsored by the California State Grange and was well attended by many respected leaders from within the agricultural community. Kalie Benson of the California State Grange moderated this event.

Much of the Safe Food / Leafy Greens Round Table discussion speculated the possible sources of E. coli contamination, but l acking a definitive cause, the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement (LGMA) has proposed a broad approach to prevention, which drew criticism from farmers and environmentalists who argue that the guidelines impose unnecessary hardships on farmers and wildlife. Overall, the roundtable generated a great deal of lively discussion.

I thank L. Claire Grissett, NJSG Legislative Chairperson, for sending out letters to several newspapers concerning the Governor’s proposal to do away with the NJ Department of Agriculture. I know of two major newspapers in which her letters were published. It shows that the Grange can get letters in newspapers; we just need to send them in.

Now that the effort from the agricultural community to save the New Jersey Department of Agriculture from being eliminated appears to have been successful, one wonders if we should relax our guard. State Treasure David Rousseau does not appear happy to have not won the fight to eliminate the NJDA. Until the budget for fiscal year 2009 had been adopted, the end of the proposed elimination of the NJDA should not be taken for granted.

Even though it has been strongly opposed by citizens of this state as well as some legislators, there is genuine concern that the Governor’s toll road proposal will be implemented in some form. Governor Corzine’s proposal to use the toll roads as a means to pay off state debt and to fund transportation improvements by increasing tolls by 800% has not been removed from consideration by the Governor’s office. Some legislators are in favor of tolling Interstate 78 and 80 as an alternative to the Governor’s toll road proposal. Tolling roads in New Jersey would greatly impact working commuters who have no alternatives and the transportation industry that is forced to use toll roads to reach their destinations.

While the state budget discussions are now the top issue at the state level, true property tax relief appears to have been forgotten. The highest property taxes in the nation continue to be a burden on property owners in the State of New Jersey. To date, there has been no proposal to reduce the burden on property owners that is driven by the funding of local schools through property taxes. Property tax rebates, which were given to homeowners and renters, would in some cases be reduced according to the recommendations proposed by Governor Corzine.

The New Jersey State Grange adopted a resolution in 1998 that addressed public school funding. NJSG Resolution 98-45 requested that “the Governor and the New Jersey legislature [find] a source of funding for public schools that would greatly relieve the reliance on real estate taxes.” One would hope that after the state budget for fiscal year 2008-2009 is adopted, the Governor and the legislature would concern themselves with true property tax relief.

The North Carolina State Grange was present at the General Assembly’s Joint Select Committee on Agriculture Drought Response, as well as meetings at The Rural Center to address emergency relief for farmers. Additionally, the State Grange was a member of the Oversight Committee, which worked together to find “quick money” to respond to the plight of North Carolinian farmers.

Projects identified for response to immediate, critical needs include pasture renovation, drilling and re-drilling wells, pond construction and renovation, converting closed lagoons to fresh water ponds, and upgrading existing irrigation systems to more efficient models. Technical assistance will be available to assist farmers with grass selection and other pastureland management for long-term productivity.

This program is open to farmers with a total adjusted gross income of less than $250,000 for those who derive 75% of their income from farming operations. Farmers affected by the drought may apply for help with these projects from one of the state’s 96 Soil and Water Conservation district offices.

The North Carolina State Grange continues to remain active in analyzing current annexation laws in their state, which allow for private property to be taken over by municipalities on the sprawl. During the last public hearing of the state’s Annexation Committee, State Grange Legislative Director Allison Fowler testified on behalf of Grange members and private property owners statewide. The Committee considered all the issues addressed by the Grange and presented their own recommendation, moving to put a moratorium on annexations in order to rectify the broken law before citizens were further impacted. This recommendation will be voted upon by the General Assembly at a later, unspecified date.

Ten Grangers helped Governor Ritter recognize and celebrate Colorado Agriculture Day, March 19, on the west steps of the State Capitol. Other dignitaries were Ag Commissioner John Stulp, Senators Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, and Colorado State Senators and Representatives including Jim Isgar, Kathleen Curry, Marsha Looper, Greg Brophy, and members of the Colorado Agriculture Council.

The Ag Council members contributed over $8,000 in cash and food to the Food Bank of the Rockies – the food items are from Colorado. A team of horses and wagon were used to deliver the donated food items.

The debate rages on in many circles, pitting activist group opinions against scientific group facts. What I want to share with you here is a review I recently read about a best-selling book titled Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1,500 Years. The authors of this book share recently found evidence of a long, natural climate cycle. Over 700 scientists showed support for the book at a recent International Conference on Climate Change in New York City.

The book presents historical and physical evidence of the climate cycle that includes six previous global warmings since the last Ice Age. Most of our modern warming occurred prior to 1940 before there was much human-emitted CO 2. The net warming since 1940 is a miniscule 0.2 degrees Celsius with no warming at all in the last nine years. The Greenhouse Theory can’t explain these realities, but the 1,500-year cycle does.

The 1,500-year climate cycle was initially discovered in the first long ice cores scientists brought up in Greenland and Antarctica in the 1980s. The discoverers won the Tyler Prize (the environmental Nobel) in 1996, but now nobody mentions them. Scientific evidence has also been found in sources such as seabed sediment, cave stalagmites, and fossil pollen.

Researchers have also found links between the 1,500-year cycle and solar variations in the sunspot index. Scientists have known for over 400 years about a strong correlation between sunspots and the Earth’s climatic temperatures. There is no proof of any correlation between our temperatures and CO 2 emissions.

Over 300 scientists have published evidence of the long climate cycle in prestigious journals, such as Science, Nature, and Climate Dynamics.

(Some information in this column was taken from the May 2008 Environment & Climate News.)