Thread: Can Government Get Any More Stupid?

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Just saw this on our local news website...

"OKLAHOMA CITY -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering a crackdown on farm dust, so 21 senators have signed a letter addressing their concerns on the possible regulations."

What next deserts that are too dry? Lakes that are too wet? Granted poor irrigation methods led to The Dust Bowl, but here we are talking about dirt and gravel roads out in the middle of nowhere... "pave paradise, put up a parking lot".

Geeeeeeeeeez....

http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=12899662

Originally Posted by Yubney

Just saw this on our local news website...

"OKLAHOMA CITY -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering a crackdown on farm dust, so 21 senators have signed a letter addressing their concerns on the possible regulations."

What next deserts that are too dry? Lakes that are too wet? Granted poor irrigation methods led to The Dust Bowl, but here we are talking about dirt and gravel roads out in the middle of nowhere... "pave paradise, put up a parking lot".

Geeeeeeeeeez....

http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=12899662

I won't even elaborate on this subject or our current Gov't on this forum only to say just one thing.
IT'S DISGRACEFUL and EMBARRASSING !!!!

Dust is arguably more of an issue nowadays than it has been in the past. For one, the threat of desertification looms over large areas of the US due to outdated agricultural practices. Secondly, larger and larger areas are being used for farm and grazeland, which divert water from other sources, again, contributing to dust issues.

Next, there's concerns over what is in the dust and the sheer amount of it. If it was just a tiny little bit of dust being kicked up by some guy with a horse and back in the 1800's, this wouldn't be a problem. Drier conditions and bigger machines, however, mean more dust is being kicked up. Combine that with decades of pesticide use and throw in some animal feces from chicken or pork farms, and you have some pretty noxious stuff. Farmer's lung is one real bad thing that can come of this. If you want to see more long-term issues with dust problems, look at the spread of the desert in Africa and how we're getting dust from it off the east coast and gulf, choking some wildlife and reefs. Given a decade or two, our very own desert-snowball could very well be starting rolling it's way out of control across the American midwest.

So, so far as I can tell, getting farmers to wear respirators and helping cut back on contributing causes to farm dust isn't a bad idea at all. It's a different world than what our grandparents or great grandparents grew up and farmed in, things will have to be done a little bit differently.

"Discobandit" Did you actually read the article and the letter to the EPA?
http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12899662

http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/griff.../EPALetter.PDF

Roberts, a fourth generation farmer and rancher in Arcadia, said regulating dust in rural areas will hurt farmers' harvest, cultivation and livelihood.

"Anytime you work ground, you're going to have dust. I don't know how they'll regulate it," Roberts said. "The regulations are going to put us down and keep us from doing things we need to be doing because of the EPA."

Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Mike Spradling said the rules could be detrimental to farmers across the Sooner State.

"We as an organization do not feel dust is a pollutant," Spradling said. "It would almost be impossible to comply with what's being addressed now from the EPA as in agriculture. We're doing everything we possibly can."

In my area they did a similar thing when they came up with the "Clean Air Authority" They just put more burdens and hurdles on the business person and oh I forgot a nice little fat tax to be a member and they don't do any good whats so ever! None! Nadda!
In fact in my area since the CAA was started 5 years ago we've lost several companies with several employees each who made a living from those business's.
Did this effect me, yes, It effects EVERYONE !!! More regulations = Less Business's in the community = Less money in the community in general.

OH YES, LETS GET MORE REGULATION AND RULES !!! WHY SURE IT WILL SOLVE ALL OUR PROBLEMS !!! WAKE UP !!!

Why yes, I did read the article in fact. A few other articles as well, just to be sure. Desertification and dust related illnesses are like a wound- you can put some anti-biotic on it now and it'll burn, or ignore it and let it build an infection that you can't stop.

I never denied this will hurt farmers. It certainly will, but in the long run? It'll be for the best.

Do you have any arguments against it other than "Regulation bad, farmers good"? Do you deny that large build-ups of dust from poor agriculture practices can cause major problems in humans, as well as to local environments (especially bodies of water)?

This sucks, but the EPA's reasoning behind it is sound. Huge dust problems can kill an environment and turn it into a desert, as well as getting humans incredibly sick. Why is it wrong for them to address that?

Do you have any arguments against it other than "Regulation bad, farmers good"? Do you deny that large build-ups of dust from poor agriculture practices can cause major problems in humans, as well as to local environments (especially bodies of water)?

This isn't about good or bad, it's about what works.

Adding bad regulations on top of already bad regulations, doesn't give you good regulations or solve the problem.

I never denied this will hurt farmers. It certainly will, but in the long run? It'll be for the best.

The problem is that most of the farms, orchards, etc.. are owned now by large corps. Over the last 30 years the small business's, farm owners, etc.. have been regulated to death literally under the pretenses of "It'll be for the best"

"This isn't about good and bad, it's about what works."

So, they're changing things now to change what hasn't worked in the past. Your post is full of rhetoric and hyperbole, are you actually going to address the problem? As well, the net worth of farms has been doing pretty well recently, and farmers are amazingly wealthy due to subsidies. This regulation isn't going to be the final nail in the coffin to any business or farmer who wasn't already doing poorly.

What specifically about this, by the way, is going to cost them so much money and be the dooms-day scenario for farms?

Maybe the EPA screwed up in the past. Maybe they killed a thousand kittens and laughed while taping it to put on youtube later, I won't act like I know the ins and outs of everything they've ever done. In this case, though? You aren't coming up with anything substantial against this and that's the exact same reason when it was challenged in court, they lost. There is nothing against this particular motion that is substantial. If you want to fight for your right to turn your local environment into a dustbowl to the detriment of everything around it and anyone who lives there, by all means move to dissolve the EPA. Until that point, they know a little more about environmental matters than yourself, and I'm going to put it out there that preventing the desertification of the midwest and recognizing something as an irritant is more important than "OH NO REGULATIONS!" and businesses failing. I'm not putting the environment before people, I'm putting the rest of North America before a handful of people who think the EPA is out to get them.

Hmmmm guess FEMA figured our flooding was just a good dusting...

http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12888494

Wonder if these folks are feeling dusty lately...

http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12769634
http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12662100

And we had another good down pour two nights ago.

Sounds nuts, but there is a grain of sense in that. Modern agriculture is slowly but surely stripping away the topsoil from the American Breadbasket. If we don't take some action, in another century, farming as we know it today will no longer be feasible.