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Comment 11 for Agriculture Comments for the GHG Scoping Plan (sp-agriculture-ws) - 1st Workshop.
First Name: Karen
Last Name: Del Compare
Email Address: kdcyew@excite.com
Affiliation:
Subject: Agriculture and AB 32
Comment:
While I support the goals of AB 32, I strongly disagree with the methods to decrease Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions from Agriculture. 1. Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are a danger to the environment and should not receive any subsidies and assistance. According to the Draft Scoping Plan Appendices, “Economic incentives such as marketable emission reduction credits, favorable utility contracts, or renewable energy incentives will be key to early implementation.” CAFOs must be required to clean up their pollution with their own funding, including the capturing of their methane releases. In deciding whether to provide financial assistance to CAFOs, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) needs to consider all the negative effects of such operations which include water and air pollution, lower property values for rural communities, the cost of antibiotics and the associated antibiotic resistance that comes with excessive use of these medications. Antibiotic resistance is especially important as it makes human diseases much more difficult to treat. In addition, manure pits are a hazard to farm workers and have caused numerous fatalities. 2. Your scoping document does not mention the benefits of eating locally. This would decrease transportation emissions as well as support our local economy in California. Please consider supporting Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and local farmers’ markets and promote education to discourage the consumption of imported produce. 3. Your educational efforts should include health benefits as well as the decreased GHG emissions associated with eating a plant based diet. 4. Pesticides are primarily petroleum based. Organic farming methods to decrease their use must be encouraged. Education should be provided to farmers on how to change from conventional farming to organic. Subsidies should be provided to organic farmers as needed to provide incentives for this change. 5. Industrial fertilizers are typically produced using natural gas. Organic farming methods can also decrease emissions related to fertilization. 6. Please study and include in your analysis the benefits of pasture produced meat and dairy products vs. those from CAFOs. This analysis should include health benefits as well as GHG emissions. According to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, “Healthy pastures are also less susceptible to erosion, can capture more heat-trapping carbon dioxide than feed crops, and absorb more of the nutrients applied to them, thereby contributing less to water pollution. Furthermore, the manure deposits by animals onto pasture produces about six to nine times less volatilized ammonia – an important air pollutant – than surface applied manure from CAFO’s.” 7. Biofuels will most likely NOT be the answer to our energy crisis. The amount of nitrogen based fertilizers and petroleum based pesticides used for most crops negates the energy that biofuels ultimately deliver. Burning pesticide laden crops can also add to hazardous air pollutants released into the air. Soil degradation and water pollution from nitrogen and pesticide runoff must also be considered. Increases in the price of food from converting farmland to fuel production must also be considered. 8. CARB should evaluate water consumption for different crops and in different regions. It makes no sense to farm water intensive crops in desert-like regions of California when other more arid crops can be planted. 9. Small farms and integrated crop livestock operations can form energy exchange systems which are successful with very little fossil fuel input. Please look at the link to the Rodale Institure for more information on how organic farming can decrease global warming. This should be the focus of CARB’s research and subsidies to farmers. References: “CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations” from the Union of Concerned Scientists, April 2008. http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/sustainable_food/cafos-uncovered.html “Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America” A Report of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=38442 "Climate Change Solution" by Rodale Institute http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20080425/gw6 http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/sustainable_food/greener-pastures.html “Leaping Before They Looked: Lessons from Europe’s Experience with the 2003 Biofuels Directive” from the Clean Air Task Force, October 2007 http://www.catf.us/publications/reports/Leaping_Before_They_Looked.pdf Diet, Energy and Global Warming http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~gidon/papers/nutri/nutriEI.pdf "Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms" from NRDC http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/ffarms.asp "Preventing Deaths of Farm Workers in Manure Pits" from Center for Disease Control and Prevention, May 1990. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/90-103.html http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/14/local/me-sbriefs14.1 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20040922/ai_n14585680 http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/09/farm/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/03/AR2007070302136.html http://www.health.state.ny.us/environmental/investigations/face/docs/04ny010.pdf http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11720746/ http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/face/Reports/PDF-Reports/Manure%20Pit%20Agitation.pdf http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20080119/ai_n21210257
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Date and Time Comment Was Submitted: 2008-07-31 10:18:46
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