Recent Articles USA Today

California Farmers say Feds make Drought Worse by William M Welch, USA Today
7/28/2009

The long and winding road that leads through bureaucracy, has become an incredible hardship on California's central valley farmers. This valley produces much of Americas vegetables, fruit and produce. William Welch's article in USA Today, entitled "California farmers say feds make drought worse", is an indictment of the federal Bureau of Reclamation's control over water distribution from the Sierras. In fact, presently, the flow to farmers has been severely curtailed, allowing some 250,000 acres to remain unproductive. Unemployment in these areas has soared to 40%, for example in Western Fresno County. When the courts join in protecting small fish, hear lawsuits based on misguided citizens and the Endangered Species Acts, I must reaffirm what farmer Todd Allen was quoted as saying in the article, "I wish they'd just put humans first and turn those pumps on."

Frankly, if we don't put humans first we will become the endangered species. I am committed to farmers across this nation, this bureaucratic miasma of regulation must be eliminated. We need to place active farmers and small business people on government committees and boards overseeing environmental and agricultural issues, or like the "foreign oil" mentioned in the piece, to feed our families we will be relying only on "foreign food"! These restrictive policies must be reevaluated and changed by courageous and strong leaders.

Dr Phillips
Bloomington, IL
July 28, 2009