Is Dust a Myth?

Is Dust a Myth? I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

On any given day farmers around the country will stir up some dust. It’s a part of the process. Dig in the dirt to plant food for people to eat and inevitably you will get some dust. Sometimes a lot of dust. The Environmental Protection Agency stepped up to the plate and waggled their finger at farmers and said you can’t do that. Then EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson sent letters to key Senators that the Obama Administration does not intend to pursue tighter regulations on coarse particulate matter. Was it only a myth. There has been a lot of good research done in this area. Enough to say that any regulations are unfounded. NCBA Deputy Environmental Counsel Ashley Lyon sets the record straight on controversy surrounding the regulation of farm dust.

LYONS: We are thrilled to have a dust hearing this week in the House of Representatives on Representatives Noem’s dust bill; HR 1633. At that hearing we had our past president. Steve Foglesong actually testify along with some other stakeholders that made it clear that EPA’s recent announcement that they intend to retain the current dust standard is no comfort to rural America. We know that in 5 years EPA will likely be at this review again of the particulate matter standards and it could likely lower that standard again to what we consider to be twice as stringent as the current standard. So we were extremely pleased that the leadership in the House of Representatives intends to move this bill through and on to the floor vote. We are excited that Representative Noem continues to push her bill because she does know how important this is to rural America across the country.

The only way to stop the nonsense, according to Lyon, is for Congress to pass the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011 introduced originally by Congresswoman Kristi Noem from South Dakota and subsequently by Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska. Noem said that EPA’s announcement does nothing to change the fact that they are still able to regulate farm dust. The announcement a few weeks ago to keep the current standard in place is welcome news but it does not give farmers and ranchers the certainty they need moving forward.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.