Tag: water

Congress Avoids Shutdown, Tees Up Water Infrastructure Funding Before Leaving Town

On By Kyle ClineIn AFBF, Ag Policy, CongressLeave a comment

This past week was a busy one for congress, as members scrambled to complete several key items prior to their scheduled break that will last until after elections. Below is a brief rundown of these provisions and the latest developments of interest to the world of agriculture.

Stop-Gap Funding Bill Passes Congress, Government Shutdown Averted For Now

In recent years, a brief government shutdown or the threat of one has become quite commonplace and expected on an annual basis. However, the fact that it is a key election year means that neither party has much appetite at all to play “hard ball” and be responsible for shutting the government down. In the end, The House passed legislation, 342-85, to avoid a government shutdown which would have occurred on September 30 if no deal was struck. The bill, which was easily passed by the Senate 72-26 earlier on Wednesday and has White House backing, would fund the federal government through Dec. 9, provide $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus and send $500 million to Louisiana and other states facing natural disasters. One of the reasons that this legislation came down to the end of the wire was that Democrats demanded funding in the spending package for the water infrastructure problems faced by Flint, Michigan as well as other communities. After weeks of stalemate on that issue, a deal was reached by party leadership to address funding for Flint during the lame-duck session when congress returns to Washington, D.C. post-election. That funding will be considered as an amendment in a separate water infrastructure bill that I discuss below.

Waterway Infrastructure Bills Clear House, Senate

Earlier this week, the U.S. House passed a water infrastructure bill by a strong vote of 399-25. The Water Resources Development Act of 2016 companion legislation passed the Senate easily by a margin of 95-3 earlier in the month. The legislation would clear the backlog of port and waterway project authorizations and set in motion 25 projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, seven of which are navigation focused, among other things. Final passage in the House would have occurred earlier but negotiations were ongoing regarding how to handle funding for Flint, Michigan which stalled the process.

While both chambers firmly recognized the need for improved investment in our waterways infrastructure in the U.S., some differences remain between both bills. The House version limits funding and projects to Corps of Engineers projects exclusively, while the Senate bill included provisions dealing with the Clean Water Act, wastewater programs and water safety measures. Overall, however, these latest efforts demonstrate that awareness of our nation’s waterways infrastructure challenges is growing in congress and members are receptive to fixing them. Both chambers are expected to conference their respective bills during the lame-duck session with the hopes of delivering the legislation to the president for signature by the end of the year.

This issue is especially important to Hoosier farmers since so much of our competitiveness on a national and global stage is directly tied to efficiencies in sound infrastructure. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, Over 60 percent of America’s grain exports and many other important commodities such as fuel, coal and agricultural inputs also move through our inland waterway system. Due to this importance, Farm Bureau policy explicitly supports the maintenance and improvement of our transportation infrastructure including the lock and dam system and other vital waterway infrastructure.

Court Strikes Down OSHA Memo Impacting Anhydrous Ammonia Retailers

Late last week the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had violated the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act and the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) when it issued an enforcement memorandum on July 22, 2015, redefining the longstanding retail facility exemption to the Process Safety Management Standard (PSM) for facilities that sell anhydrous ammonia. The decision vacates the memorandum and requires OSHA to go through formal notice and comment rulemaking procedures to make any changes to the PSM regulations as it relates to agricultural retailers. According to the Ag Retailers Association, the timely court decision will save U.S. retailers an estimated $100 million in compliance costs. Process Safety Management applies to any facility storing 10,000 pounds or more of anhydrous ammonia. However, retail agriculture facilities selling more than 50 percent of the fertilizer to farmers have been exempt from PSM. OSHA’s 2015 memo eliminated the exemption.

Packers, Stockyards to See Some Modernization

This week the Senate passed by unanimous consent H.R. 5883, the Clarification of Treatment of Electronic Sales of Livestock Act of 2016. The bill is identical to S. 3350 introduced by Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and John Tester (D-Mont.) which was quickly approved by the upper chamber after House passage.

The White House is expected to sign the bill, which will expand packers and stockyards definitions to include the use of Internet and video auctions and update payment methods to include the use of electronic fund transfers.

Southern Hospitality

On By Kyle ClineIn AFBF, ConferencesLeave a comment

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Memphis, Tennessee to participate in the annual American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Environmental Issues Conference. I joined fellow AFBF and state Farm Bureau staff from all over the country for a few days focused on all things environmental policy and regulation, which has increasingly become the hot topic the agriculture community

On day 1, we discussed various topics including the challenges and opportunities facing the agriculture community in regards to nutrient management strategies, loss reduction and conservation.  One of the most beneficial and interesting portions of the meeting for me was when each state provided a brief update on conservation projects and activities occurring back at home.  It was encouraging to hear all of the voluntary initiatives that state Farm Bureaus and other leaders are spearheading to help farmersimprove watershed and wildlife habitat health while improving yields and production and enhancing the economics of farming.  For more information or examples of voluntary state programs where farmers are taking responsibility for improving water quality, I’d encourage you to check out some information related to Indiana including Impact Indiana, ISDA, and Purdue University.  Other good examples outside of the Hoosier state are Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Florida.

The following day of the conference, our group set out on a tour bus to observe many of the issues and topics we had discussed the day before.  The Mississippi Farm Bureau pulled out all the stops for us, including some great farm visits, delicious southern food and some history and culture along the way.  They even special ordered the bus just for me!
ClinebusWe spent the day along the Mississippi Delta visiting with farmers and extension researchers who are passionate about nutrient loss reduction and conservation, including Buddy Allen of M&B Farms.  Buddy gave our group a presentation on his innovative closed system tail water recovery system where he is collecting water runoff into a pond, capturing the nutrients and reapplying them to his rice fields, improving water quality downstream while reducing his input costs on the farm.

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Buddy also gave us a briefing on the various soil types found in the Mississippi Delta region, which can vary significantly depending on location and proximity to the river.  (On a side note, it was really cool for this Hoosier farm boy to see rice and cotton growing in the field, a first for me.)

The next stop was Dundee, MS, where our group visited with Darrin Dodds and Trent Irby of MSU Extension.  The purpose of this research plot is to investigate Palmer Amaranth (aka pigweed) and Duo/Enlist management as well as drift control techniques for dealing with this nasty weed on the farm.  Even though pigweed got its start in the south, it has emerged in the last few years in the Hoosier state and is an issue that some of our farmers are forced to manage now.

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After our visit to the MSU Extension research plot, the Mississippi Farm Bureau treated us to some outstanding southern barbecue courtesy of the Hopson Commissary, a restaurant now housed at a former cotton plantation.  Hopson Commissary is located in Clarksdale, MS, home of Muddy Waters, iconic blues musician and father of the Chicago blues.  Clarksdale is a key stop along the “Blues Highway” and has been showcased by National Geographic and many other travel magazines.

hopson

The owner of Hopson provided a briefing to our group about the history of the plantation and its impressive place in agricultural history.  According to the website, “In 1935 the Hopson Plantation began a monumental changeover to become one of the first completely mechanized cotton operations in the world.  In the fall of 1944, International Harvester introduced the first cotton picker on the Hopson farm making it the first in the world to grow and harvest a commercial acreage of cotton produced completely by mechanical methods.”

In addition to outstanding food and live music, Hopson also offers overnight accommodations which National Geographic has also recommended to tourists.  The Shack Up Inn “is a collection of restored sharecropper shacks and boutique hotel rooms built inside renovated cotton bins”.

After lunch, we visited the Stovall Plantation, birthplace of Muddy Waters. While the cabin in which Muddy Waters lived is not there, visitors can see the beautifully restored structure in the Delta Blues Museum in nearby Clarksdale.   In addition to learning more about blues history, the stop also included a farm tour by Pete Hunter, who farms the land today.  Pete told us about his conservation practices including two-stage ditches and water recovery systems.

muddywatters

Our final stop before dinner included a visit to Mid-South Ag Case IH where we learned about the latest and greatest technology from Case IH.  Of particular interest to me was the new lineup of Patriot Sprayers that Case IH offers which tied into themes covered earlier in the day at the MSU research plot about drift control and precision spray applications.

After a long day of touring the Mississippi Delta, our group finished with a traditional southern dinner of fried catfish, okra, cole slaw and the kind of sweet ice tea that would make your dentist cringe.  It was nice eating dinner on the banks of the Mississippi River at the Tunica Riverpark Museum.

Before I left Memphis to come back to Indiana, I wanted to make time to eat some barbecue at the iconic Rendezvous.  I also had a chance to meet up with my friends Nick and Maria for dinner one evening at Gus’s for some out-of-this world fried chicken.

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Nick participated in the Robert Bosch Fellowship the same year that I did (2012-2013), which sent both of us to Germany for a year of work, professional development, travel and seminars; an experience my family will never forget.

After a productive week, I headed to the airport to fly back to the Hoosier state to enjoy a nice, long Memorial Day weekend full of great weather and ironically enough…barbecue!