Ag industry decries over-regulation
Leaders testify before Congressional panel in Salinas
Jim Johnson
Monterey Herald
04/20/2011
Excessive and unfair regulation is hampering the agricultural industry's economic viability and capacity for creating jobs, said a panel of agri-business leaders testifying before a Congressional committee in Salinas on Tuesday.
At a hearing conducted at the Salinas Rotunda, six agricultural industry representatives told Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, and Sam Farr, D-Carmel, the environmental protection regulatory process, often made more complex by environmentalist groups' lawsuits involving endangered species or clean water laws, make it difficult and expensive for farmers to follow the rules.
They warned that implementing the "e-verify" online system and requiring employers to determine if their workers are in the country legally, without a guest worker program, would destroy the industry.
Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, hosted the sixth in a series of hearings aimed at investigating the "regulatory impediments to job creation," with Tuesday's focus on the impact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's actions have had on agriculture.
Farr, the ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development and other agencies, joined Issa at the local hearing.
Those testifying included Tom Nassif, president and CEO of the Western Growers Association; Jim Bogart, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California; Richard Smith, owner of Paraiso Vineyards in the Salinas Valley; Norm Groot, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau; Mike Jarrard, president and CEO of Mann Packing Co.; and Mark Murai, president of the California Strawberry Commission.
Nassif blasted the practice of suing the EPA to force tougher regulations through legal settlements without input from the ag industry, which he called a "de facto rule-making process that is harmful to farming and of questionable benefit to the environment."
"With a regulatory environment that is stifling job creation and economic opportunity, the majority of us must rely on off-farm income to support our families," Nassif said, "an increasing number of us are moving our production offshore, and some of us are simply shutting down our operations."
Bogart called for requiring a cost-benefit analysis for all regulation, especially involving pesticides and waterways. Smith suggested the agricultural industry might have to resort to filing its own lawsuits to force regulatory changes. And Groot ripped excessive water and air quality rules, while calling for unified oversight of environmental protections.
Issa compared the regulation and enforcement of agriculture to being "ticketed for speeding when you're not even in the car yet," noting that farmers were being required to prove they weren't polluting rather than reacting to proved pollution.
Farr said the issue "really calls out for a bigger reform," agreeing that litigation had proliferated and proposed a unified regulatory master plan designed to address all the critical issues.
He warned that Congressional Republicans' plans to gut the EPA would leave the agricultural industry at the mercy of litigation, and suggested any reform of the agency should avoid the "meat axe approach."
Issa asked if the endangered species act should be reformed to allow states to take over jurisdiction of locally listed plants and animals. Nassif said he preferred local control.
