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Action Alert:
Help Stop Precision Ag Bill

Ag-chem industry wants to shift $40 million into high-tech approach, threatening sustainable ag research.

Issued 7/8/97

Call or write your Representatives and Senators and tell them not to support, co-sponsor or vote for H.R. 725/ S. 485, the "Precision Agriculture Research, Education, and Information Dissemination Act." If any of your members of Congress serve on the House or Senate Agriculture committees, urge them specifically to help keep this bill out of the reauthorization of the Research Title.

It's easy to call: Just dial the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-3121 and ask for your member. (See the Congressional Directory for more detailed contact information, including email addresses.)

The Precision Agriculture Bill is an initiative sponsored by the agricultural chemical industry to shift the Research Title away from a sustainable, integrated approach to farming -- and toward a high-tech, high-cost, chemically dependant approach.

This approach (which uses satellites, computers, GIS systems, and paid consultants) is not cost-effective for most family sized farms, and does not take into account important natural-resource parameters, such as groundwater quality and wildlife habitat.

The Precision Ag Bill would:
  • Eliminate the sustainable agriculture directive to the National Research Initiative (NRI), replacing it with a demand that no less than $40 million each year be invested in a single technology -- precision agriculture.

  • Require USDA to spend precious Fund For Rural America money on Precision Agriculture.

  • Remove chemical-use reduction as a valid focus of USDA research and education.

  • Compromise scientific integrity by requiring recipients of federal grants to report on the benefits, but not the costs, of adopting this technology.
Tell your Congressional delegates that USDA (and the Department of Energy) are already investing significant funds in Precision Agriculture technology, and that H.R. 725/S. 485 attempts to focus research funding on a single technology to the detriment of other worthy goals.

Also, remind them that it is in the farmers' best interest to have USDA research and education that helps improve their bottom lines through reducing their use and costs for farm chemicals and other purchased inputs while protecting natural resources and long-term productivity.

H.R.725 is sponsored by Reps. Lewis (KY) and Crapo (ID). S.485, the identical bill in the Senate, is sponsored by Senators McConnell (KY) and Craig (ID).

Source: News release from the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, P.O. Box 396, Pine Bush, NY 12566. Phone: (914) 744-8448. Fax: (914) 744-8477. email: Campaign@magiccarpet.com

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