Here are a couple of interesting notes from another listserve.
Jane Clark

RESOURCES
* The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has posted the first ever publicly
available, searchable Internet database of government farm subsidy payment
records at:  http://www.ewg.org


WATCH DOG: FARM BUREAU ATTACKS FACTORY FARM LAW

The Farm Bureau has initiated a trial in U.S. District Court to overturn
a 1998 state constitutional amendment designed to keep large out-of-state
companies from farming or owning farmland in South Dakota. During the
trial last week, a witness for the Farm Bureau testified that the amendment
will turn the state into an agricultural backwater. "My conclusion is that
South Dakota appears to be losing competitive advantage in livestock
production," said Ohio State University economist Luther Tweetan. Lawyers
defending the amendment said corporate factory farms can hurt family farms
and rural towns and threaten the environment. The amendment came about after
two years of wrangling in the state Legislature about how to provide
adequate
environmental safeguards for large-scale hog farms or other animal-feeding
operations. Although hogs are not mentioned in the amendment, one issue in
the debate over the amendment was whether large, out-of-state companies such
as Murphy Family Farms of North Carolina should be allowed to own hogs in
South Dakota and contract with South Dakota farmers to raise them. The trial
is expected to end soon and U.S. District Judge Charles Kornmann will decide
whether the amendment approved by 59% of South Dakotans is indeed
constitutional.

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