Chief among the farmers’ complaints was that there is too little, if any, information on the economic impact the regulation would have on the grain and poultry industries.
Questions and concerns were also raised about the science and research the regulation is based on, the time farmers will have to adjust to the rule change and the logistics of moving poultry litter away from farms where it would no longer be able to be used.
The regulation in question is the Maryland Department of Agriculture’s proposal to shift from the current Phosphorus Site Index to the Phosphorus Management Tool, in determining the risk level of phosphorus loss from the land.
Fields that have a fertility index value or 150 or greater would have higher restrictions on the amount of additional phosphorus that can be applied increasing the acreage that can have no additional phosphorus applied.
Since poultry litter includes phosphorus and is widely used on the Eastern Shore as a fertilizer source in grain production, grain growers fear having to spend more on commercial fertilizer and poultry growers fear a drop in the value of their litter and higher costs to get rid of what they can’t use.
After Buddy Hance, Maryland agriculture secretary and Royden Powell, assistant secretary of resource conservation at MDA, detailed the regulation, they faced about 90 minutes of comments and questions from farmers and Lower Shore lawmakers.
Del. Mike McDermott, R-Dist 38B, told the MDA officials that while they’ve given the crowd a lot of numbers on pollution reduction and planting cover crops, the numbers farmers need are how much the regulation is going to cost them.
“I don’t see those numbers projected,” McDermott said. “Until we start seeing those types of numbers, how can we implement this regulation?”
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1 comment:
So, they want to add $600 million to the cost of our food supply next year, and have piles of chicken manure everywhere. Great plan. Your lawsuit will cost you more than $600 million.
Farmers, your fine for using the manure on your land will not cost you $600 million. I'd go ahead and use our natural resources properly if I were you!
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