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Thu Oct 02, 2008 at 08:00:00 AM PDT
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Robert Boggs, the Ohio Department of Ag Director was raised "on a small dairy farm" according to his bio on the OH Dept of Ag website. He served as a state representative and in the state senate before his appointment to head the dept of ag in 2007. Recently, he visited a county fair and made some provocative comments on rBGH.
Boggs said the state produced 5 billion pounds of milk with only 275,000 cows in the past year, compared to the 555,000 cows it took to reach that amount in the 1960s. Fewer cows producing more milk is a big success, he explained, but one that is also challenged.
He referenced the past year's battles with the hormone rBST as an example, stating that 20 years of tests on the hormone have never revealed any problems, yet some groups are opposed to it.
"If there's anything at all that's unsafe about it, we will take action. But to try to limit farmers from using proven technology in order to produce the food that we need is just simply asking for trouble," he said.
More choice quotes below the flip. |
| Jill Richardson :: Ohio Dept of Ag Head Makes Pro-rBGH Statements |
Boggs said one of the misconceptions some consumers have is about agriculturally related pollution. He compared the discharge of a human waste plant in Bowling Green to a legally permitted livestock farm in Ohio. The waste plant discharges 2.2 billion gallons of water into the tributaries of Lake Erie, he said, while the farm is not permitted to discharge any.
"On a permitted farm in Ohio, we're not allowed to legally discharge one ounce of water into the tributaries," Boggs said.
"We do have an agricultural pollution problem in this state, but it's caused by a relatively few number of people who know better; but they just cut corners," he said.
What's this guy on? I'm not an expert on Ohio - and I've never been there - but I do have a few memories that make me believe the statements by Boggs are totally bogus. For example, I remember seeing articles like one I found by Googling just now (Dutch 'factory farms' stir resentment in U.S.) about Dutch dairy farmers heading to Ohio because lax laws here allow them to do what they can't back at home - create giant, stinky, factory dairy farms.
Another memory comes from back in late 2006. I helped fundraise a bit for the Environmental Integrity Project, a group that was fighting for enforcement of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. They were working in two states - Iowa and Ohio - that had major problems with factory farm pollution. |
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