Farmers concerned over Senate bill
By FRANCES HUBBARD
Staff Writer

Susan Carlton and her family have owned the only operating dairy farm in King and Queen County for over 60 years and plan to continue to pass the tradition on to future Carlton generations.

But, like farmers across the area, a new bill in Senate has her concerned about the future of farming in Virginia.

Farmers and members of several county Farm Bureau offices have begun voicing concerns over Congress’s Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2010 (S. 1816).

The bill, they say, could be disastrous for farms and rural communities in the Chesapeake Bay’s watershed because it places all regulatory power in the hands of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is believed to unfairly blame agriculture for the majority of the environmental impact on the bay.

“It gives the EPA way too much power over a landowner,” Carlton said. “We don’t want the bill to pass the way it is, not just so we don’t have another undo burden on the farmers but you don’t want the EPA to have that much power because that will affect every landowner down the road.”

Bill Latane, King and Queen Farm Bureau Assistant Director of Field Services, said the bill is flawed because it erroneously states that agriculture is responsible for more than 50 percent of all excess nutrients reaching the bay by relying on a mathematical model that does not take into account the voluntary clean up and management by individual farms.

“I don’t think anyone has real confidence in knowing what’s flowing off farms or other lands but because agriculture is such a large use in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, we get blamed for a lot of things,” Latane said.

Both Carlton and Latane agree that the state agencies working together should be looking at various sources around the bay and not just farms.

“We need to continue to look at other things that go on,” Carlton said. “The end result should be having everyone work together and not put all the fault in one place.”

Latane said for years farmers have worked extremely hard to take care of their land, striving for less run-off and working to achieve the perfect match of fertilizer to crops. Unlike many homeowners, he explained, who rarely take the time to test their soil or are aware of the effects of what they place on their yards or gardens.

Farmers are also concerned that abandoning a state’s independent authority and giving sole power to the EPA could result in repetitive policy and requirement changes, which could hit farmers hard economically, especially after such a hard year with drought.

“Farms function best when they know the future instead of guessing what is to come next,” he said.

In opposition of S. 1816, farmers have begun to voice support for H.R. 5509 - the Chesapeake Bay Program Reauthorization and Improvement Act. Latane said the house resolution is a more workable bill and is much more realistic.

The resolution, he explained, specifies to a much greater extent what will be done, requiring conservation plans for farmers and giving them timetables to achieve it, not allowing EPA to change its mind over and over again.

Local farm bureau offices are currently collecting contact information from farmers that they would like to present to Congress later this month.

“We’ve been getting a lot of feedback,” he said. “It’s clear a lot of people are concerned.”

Sample letters to be sent to local representatives are available for those interested at the Mattaponi and Aylett Farm Bureau offices.

Latane said farmers will continue to be good stewards of their land and mindful of the bay and the environment but there’s a misunderstanding that regulations can “last in a vacuum.” He worries the cost of theses regulations could force farmers out of business, creating more residential land use, which in turn could be even more detrimental to the bay.

“The unintended result could accelerate even more negative results,” he said.

For more information contact the King and Queen County Farm Bureau Office in Mattaponi at 804-785-9431 or the Virginia Farm Bureau Office in King William at 804-769-7565 or visit virginiafarmbureau.com.