John Block Reports from Washington

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary—

Our farmers, ranchers, and small businesses are about to be drowned in a flood of government regulations. This Administration has put on hold the final rules until after the election. Talk about uncertainty. We don’t know if they can be stopped or not.

High on the list of concerns is the EPA push to remove the word “navigable” from the Clean Water Act. If they get that done, they will have the authority to regulate every ditch, every little farm pond, everything that has anything to do with water. Don’t even think about straightening out that crooked creek. You will have to get permission to tile that wet field.

Another regulation that is ready to ambush us is to outlaw junk food at school bake sales. Also, they want to tell us that our children can’t work with animals on our farms. What about that 4-H calf project? Forget it! Cattle are dangerous.

A lot of regulations can really hurt small businesses. They can be very costly. The end result will be less farms – bigger farms.

We are being challenged by animal rights forces including the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). They have teamed up with the United Egg Producers to dictate the housing specifications for livestock. Larger cages for laying hens might not be so bad, but we don’t want the government dictating what is good for our chickens, or pigs, or any of our animals. That’s just the camel’s nose under the tent. What will be next? The fact is, we are more concerned about the care and comfort of our animals than anyone else.

Europe is already well down the road of government control costing their farmers billions. The consumers pay too. Europeans pay 70% more for eggs than we do. Some European consumers are paying $6 per dozen for eggs.

You might wonder why HSUS would want to push such legislation. Well, they don’t really care about the egg industry. More revealing is what their Vice President said in 2006 – “Get rid of the entire industry. We don’t want any of these animals to be raised and killed.”

We had better stand up and defend our farmers and the ag industry because we are under assault.

In closing, I would encourage you to access my website which archives my radio commentaries dating back 10 years and will go back 20 years when complete. Check on what I said back then. Go to www.johnblockreports.com.

Until next week, I am John Block in Washington.