From: Liz Brownlee
Crothersville
My husband, Nate, and I farm on my parents’ land outside Crothersville. We raise livestock and sell meat at farmers markets and to chefs. We also help take care of our family’s forests and wetlands. Being linked to the land and our community is fulfilling.
Like most farmers, we are eager for Congress to pass a responsible Farm Bill that addresses the needs of our food system and helps farmers prosper. Many young farmers, my husband and I included, have benefited from the conservation programs within the bill. Farm Bill programs have helped us launch our livestock operation, restore wetlands and rest annual crop fields. These are big wins for our family farm, and they help keep runoff out of our waterways and give wildlife a place to call home.
But unfortunately, the Farm Bill isn’t always written with family farms like ours in mind. Often, special interests try to get something for themselves. That is what has happened with the House version of the Farm Bill and its newly added “Poisoned Pollinator Provision.” Make no mistake: This was added for the pesticide industry, not farmers.
The Poisoned Pollinator Provision (Title IX) is troubling. We know that lots of farmers will still use pesticides, but this provision weakens efforts to keep pesticides off the market that might kill endangered wildlife and destroy their habitat. This can affect pollinators (like butterflies and bees) as well as other wildlife. Without pollinators, local melons (and the cucumbers in our garden) wouldn’t be as productive.
The provision replaces the existing safeguards with a weak review of pesticides after they go to market. Rather than consult with federal wildlife agencies about how pesticides might harm endangered species, this provision skips the experts altogether. Perhaps worst of all, it makes it legal to kill or harm endangered wildlife, so long as the pesticide you poisoned them with is allowed to be used on crop fields. This just doesn’t make sense.
Thanks to U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly and the other members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, the Senate version of the Farm Bill doesn’t contain a Poisoned Pollinator Provision.
Right now, the two versions of the Farm Bill are headed to final negotiations. Please join me in contacting Donnelly and U.S. Sen. Todd Young. Encourage them to keep the Poisoned Pollinator Provisions (Section IX) out of the final Farm Bill. Request that, if they are forced to vote on a Farm Bill that includes harmful language that puts endangered wildlife at risk, they vote against it.
My husband and I, and many other farmers, know that pollinators can bring financial benefit to our farms. We create habitat for pollinators by planting wildflowers, and they pollinate our crops, eat harmful insects and add beauty to our world. This helps nature and our bank accounts.
Getting pesticides to market faster without important safeguards lines the pockets of the pesticide industry while harming the efforts of community farmers.
