SWEAT ‘N’ TEARS

The National Corn Growers Association and the Environmental Defense Fund have launched what they call the Success in Stewardship Network. Now, isn’t that just ”ducky”? A major farm group, hand in hand with the Environmental Defense Fund?


Callie Eideberg is the director of agricultural policy and special projects with the EDF, says the idea of the alliance is to break down the notion that conservation is only for an elite group of farmers”. The National Corn Growers Association swings a big loop – – at least, I’ve always thought so, and by its nature a corn grower incorporates conservation methods in the normal course of corn production.


I don’t know where the Corn Growers and EDF assembled to put that launch together, but in Michigan, Farm Bureau State President Carl Bednarski lays out a relevant dichotomy, comparing the great good fortune realized by the federal government’s abandoning super-restrictive regulation of the waters of the United States, only to run head on into a Michigan-grown administrative mess. We have grave concerns, he writes, with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. I think that comes out to “Michigan Department of EGLE”. The list of concerns is longer than time here will permit, but it begins with reference to NPDES – that’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. Years ago, there was justifiable concern for the metropolitan- and for the industrial – sewage treatment, and it’s convenient drainage into a nearby river or other waterway. And, at least here in Michigan, NPDES has long applied to livestock operations, requiring they control manure, that livestock not be permitted to wade into streams or ponds, etc. Now, Bednarski says, it looks like additional restrictive regulations, affecting all of Michigan Agriculture, livestock and cropland alike will apply. President Bednarski, with a postal address in Unionville, farms in Tuscola County.


Before I say what I think, I like to hear, if I can, from those who know something about the topic. Bednarski, for example. And, for this one, I turned to my Chief Researcher, my wife, Patricia. Years ago, she was member, and then Chairman of, the Michigan Water Resources Commission, and thereby became intimately familiar with the “pollutant discharge” element of NPDES. Of this particular move by EGLE, she guesses there’ll be stumbles along the way. EGLE, for example will be required to treat big farms and small farms alike; therefore, it’s unlikely the State can come up with the money for the additional staff – testing, investigation, enforcement, and so on.


Some of you probably realized that the E G L E acronym for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy is occasionally – and disparagingly, pronounced “Eagle”.


It does occur to me, this particular “Eagle” just won’t fly!