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For Immediate Release
Bond Amendment Fails
Statement of Mark Shaffer, Senior Vice President for Programs, Defenders of Wildlife
WASHINGTON -- Mark Shaffer, senior vice president for programs at Defenders of Wildlife offered the following comment on the U.S. Senate’s rejection of an amendment by Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.) to allow waivers of a broad array of environmental protections during consideration of the farm bill:
"We are pleased that most senators saw through Senator Bond’s transparent attempt to set up the Secretary of Agriculture as judge and jury over all of our nation’s environmental protections. Instead of balance and public participation, the Bond amendment said that agricultural production should trump anything else the public values – it would let the Secretary of Agriculture steamroll over rules that provide safe drinking water or clean air, save wildlife and endangered species, prevent excessive or dangerous use of pesticides, protect commercial and sport fisheries, and anything else he or she says stands in the way of fencerow-to-fencerow farming.
"Defenders of Wildlife has always been willing to sit down with anyone who would work in good faith to improve our environmental laws, but this amendment goes way beyond the pale. Family farmers are hurting right now, but the real problem is the growing market control in agriculture by a tiny handful of corporations. Instead of swinging wildly at a strawman, Senator Bond and his colleagues would do better to address the severe inequities that force independent, family farmers into unfair markets."
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Defenders of Wildlife is a leading nonprofit conservation organization recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and its habitat. With more than 480,000 members and supporters, Defenders of Wildlife is an effective leader on environmental issues. For timely information on environmental issues, visit www.defenders.org and subscribe to DENLines, a free e-mail alert newsletter.
