THE NOBLE COUNTY INDIANA FARM BUREAU has become informed! The following is a communiqué it issued on December 8, 1997.

THE NEW CLEAN WATER INITIATIVE FROM VICE PRESIDENT GORE

Indiana Farm Bureau members worked hard to stop federal designation of Indiana lands and waters as American Heritage Rivers this year.  Our vigilance must continue. Federal designations are part of a much larger agenda.

A "New Clean Water Initiative" was announced October 18 by Vice President Gore and published in the federal register November 6, 1997. The comment period ended today.  Environmental groups are coordinating a simultaneous campaign to use the "New Clean Water Initiative" to implement the unratified Biodiversity Convention. The new initiative expands existing clean water regulations into control of entire watersheds under federal ownership or management. The EPA will determine "approved levels" of pollutants and the requirements to implement non-point source pollution regulation of the watersheds. Rivers and streams included in the federal designations such as Biospheres, Scenic Rivers, or American Heritage Rivers are at risk from the new initiative. The federal register notice includes the following goals.

1. Establishment of two million miles of federal buffer strips along rivers and streams in the next three years.  Farmers in the entire watershed will be liable for abatement of agricultural runoff which crosses the new federal buffer strips.  Federal buffer strips are a major step in creating a federally controlled corridor along rivers and streams in accordance with the unratified "Biodiversity Convention." USDA will incorporate new clean water regulations into the "National Conservation Buffer Initiative."


2. New regulations to control agricultural runoff will be imposed with an emphasis on nitrogen, phosphorus, and livestock feeding operations.  Existing regulations are considered ineffective.


3. USDA will place federal wetland designation on an additional one hundred thousand acres per year, by 2005.  New habitats for threatened and endangered species are required.


4. Many roads and rivers on federal land, or on land under federal control are to be closed.. Expect the diversion of federal road and bridge funds away from areas targeted for depopulation, and deindustrialization, per the Wildlands / Biodiversity agenda.


5. The initial "Action Plan" due by January 98, calls for USDA to target one thousand rural watersheds for designation as critical watersheds. EPA and USDA will coordinate methods to control runoff, including agricultural, in these critical watersheds.

The details of the larger agenda behind the "New Clean Water Initiative"  are found in the report "Sustainable America" from the "Presidents Council on Sustainable Development." "Sustainable America" is outlined for federal implementation of the 1992 Rio Declarations, also known as Agenda 21, by Executive Order and federal regulations.

The federal implementation of "Sustainable America" was accelerated by President Clinton April 25, 1997.  The acceleration included a "New Endangered Species Initiative," protecting hundreds of new species with the use of "mitigation" to blackmail property owners; "New Air Quality Standards," including regulating particulates from field work, and implementing the global warming agenda.  Hundreds of millions of acres of public and private lands are at risk from new federal designations. This dramatic increase in regulations has occurred with no substantive response from Congress.

The President and Vice President have reduced the United States to a virtual political dictatorship by abusing Executive Orders and regulatory authority.  They have literally created a shadow government within a government.  Examples of this government within a government are EPA and FEMA which were created by Executive Order and never approved by Congress.  A two-thirds majority of Congress is required to override the sure veto of any attempt to stop Clinton's Executive Orders and new regulations.

Powerful business and political interests who will profit from the regulations and monopolies created by implementing "Sustainable America" are behind the President's radical agenda. New monopolies will include seeds, herbicides, and pesticides. Powerful business interests will realize profits from regulation of competitors and farmers they could never obtain by competition.

The future of American agriculture is addressed in "Sustainable America." Policy recommendation 9, on page 16, of "Sustainable Agriculture" lists as an indicator of progress toward achieving sustainable agriculture: "The United States ratifies the Convention on Biological Diversity and leads efforts for its implementation worldwide." Implementation of "Sustainable Agriculture" and the unratified "Biodiversity Convention," carried to the extreme, will end modern agriculture in the United States by eliminating the use of safe and economically viable agricultural chemicals, non-native seed hybrids, non-native livestock species, and by removing vast areas of land from agricultural production by federal regulations

The minimum result from implementing "Sustainable Agriculture" and the unratified "Biodiversity Convention" will be a dramatic loss of agricultural production and increased cost of farming as federal regulations remove land from production, and force farmers to use only "approved" chemicals, seeds, and farming practices on land remaining in production.