Funding bill excludes controversial pesticide provision hated by MAHA
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5673246-maha-pesticide-epa-section-453/
Excerpt:
A government funding bill released Monday excludes a controversial pesticides provision, marking a win for the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement for at least the time being.
The provision in question is a wonky one: It would seek to prevent pesticides from carrying warnings on their label of health effects beyond those recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Known as Section 453 for its position in a House bill released earlier this year, it has drawn significant ire from MAHA-aligned activists.
Opponents of the provision argue that it can be a liability shield for major chemical corporations, preventing them from facing failure-to-warn lawsuits by not disclosing health effects of their products.
MAHA figures celebrated the provision’s exclusion from the legislation.
“MAHA WE DID IT! Section 453 granting pesticide companies immunity from harm has been removed from the upcoming House spending bill!” MAHA Action, a political action committee affiliated with the movement, wrote on X.
Government Threatens Seizure of 85-yr-old’s Entire Farm for Irrigating Wrong Field
State officials are preparing to take the land and legacy of a farmer for the crime of water “violations.”
Excerpt:
The government is preparing to take the private land and legacy of an 85-year-old farmer for the crime of irrigation. Why? He watered his crops without regulatory approval.
“I didn’t use a drop past my legal rights, but because I put it on the wrong field, I’m a criminal and the state wants to take everything I have,” Bob Greiff says. “It’s all about control. And power.”
In response to Greiff’s water “violations,” the Washington State Department of Ecology levied a series of fines totaling $121,000 and slapped a lien on his property. The department issued press releases championing its actions, and portrayed Greiff as an environmental outlaw. Notably, Ecology officials are not penalizing Greiff for the amount of water pumped, but rather, the location applied. Put it where we say, or else.
.....On a bare-bones 160-acre (120 arable) farm outside Deer Park, in northeast Washington’s Spokane County, Bob Greiff rotates alfalfa, oats, hay, and barley. His fields are evenly split by a road—two 80-acre tracts to the south and north of the ribbon. Greiff rubs pennies to make dollars: His last tractor purchase was in 1992—for $70,000. “We traded a number of even older tractors just to get the price down to what we could afford,” he recalls.
.....Legally, Greiff holds three water rights totaling 136 acre-feet per year annual volume for irrigation on 37 acres north of the dividing road. “I’ve always pumped from our water rights and survived on this dirt since I was a boy,” Greiff exclaims. “Now they tell me they’ll kick me off my own land. For what? Because I irrigated the wrong acres without permission and owe them $121,000.”
“Sound crazy? It is. One day I’m pumping water just like I have for 70 years, and the next day I’m the target of people who know nothing about farming. Nothing.”
.....“I don’t believe the people in these departments know what irrigation, yield, crops, or rotation are,” Greiff insists. “It’s a big secret that no one is supposed to say: They don’t understand what farming is.”
Will Ecology shut down Greiff’s operation? “We can’t certainly speak for, you know, what lies ahead for him and how he continues to operate his farm or as a producer,” says Director Beeler. “I will say if he continues to illegally irrigate those acres, I think we have to, we have to look at what tools do we have left in our toolbox to again ensure compliance.”
“The state wants people to think I’m an outlaw,” Greiff concludes. “They don’t want people to know the true story. If they want to destroy a farmer because he put his water on unapproved acres, then I’m not gonna run and hide. Here I am. Here I will be.”