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News from Around the FarmWorld - May 20, 2009

Carbofuran banned for food
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a final rule banning the use of the pesticide carbofuran on food.

The insecticide is used to control pests on fruits, vegetables and other food crops, including corn and potatoes. The EPA said last week carbofuran poses unacceptable risks, especially to children, at any residue level and violates food safety standards.

Carbofuran has been under EPA review for years. Its granular form was banned in the mid-1990s because it was blamed for killing millions of migratory birds. The agency began its effort to remove the pesticide completely from the market in 2006. The EPA said it soon will issue rules banning other uses of carbofuran because of risks to farm workers and the environment.

Agriprocessors workers get visas
POSTVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Twenty former workers at the Agriprocessors, Inc. plant in Postville have received visas under a law that protects crime victims.

The first wave of women and children arrested last year at the plant have been granted U-visas by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, allowing them to legally live and work in the country for four years. They can apply for a green card in the third year.
Sonia Parras-Konrad, a Des Moines attorney who led the effort, says the visas are a big step toward vindicating the immigrants and giving them justice.

“A government entity has found, indeed, that these women and children have been subjected to extreme emotional or physical harm by Agriprocessors,” Parras-Konrad said. “These people have been exploited, have been assaulted, have been humiliated, have been verbally and emotionally abused by this employer.”

To be eligible for the visas the former workers must meet several requirements, including assisting authorities in any pertinent investigations.

Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Cedar Rapids, says the workers are not innocent bystanders and admitted to using false documents to work in the U.S. illegally. “The thing being overlooked repeatedly is that they broke the law, and they all admitted it,” he said.

Parras-Konrad said 32 visa applications are pending. None have been rejected, she said.

Tenn. spends stimulus on solar

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee will spend $62 million in federal stimulus money on solar power generation and research, Gov. Phil Bredesen said last week.

The Democrat governor said a five-megawatt solar plant in Haywood County would be among the largest in the eastern United States. A plant that size could generate power for about 600-700 homes, he said. Bredesen calls the plant a “solar farm” because he wants to grow solar generation capacity, using proceeds from the sale of electricity to the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“The reason I call this a farm is that once we plant this thing, it is going to continue to grow,” he said.

The governor first proposed the Tennessee Solar Institute in an address to lawmakers earlier this year, seeking to spur green energy jobs and affordable clean energy technology. The research center, a joint effort by the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is to be housed at UT’s new Cherokee Farm Innovation Campus.

The U.S. Department of Energy would have to approve Tennessee’s plans before the projects could get under way. The money would be about evenly divided between the two projects. Bredesen said the federal money is restricted to alternative energy programs and could not be spent on plugging other budget holes.

In a related development, the Energy Department and the National Assoc. of Regulatory Utility Commissioners selected Tennessee and six other states for a study on benefits and barriers to solar energy development. Tennessee has enjoyed a recent string of success in green energy development, including two massive plants that will make polysilicon, a material used to make solar cells.

Munich, Germany-based Wacker Chemie AG earlier this year announced plans to build a $1 billion polysilicon plant in rural southeastern Tennessee, while Michigan-based Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. has broken ground on a $1.2 billion plant in Clarksville.

State to clean up Ind. farm?
EATON, Ind. (AP) — The owners of a defunct eastern Indiana hog farm say they believe the state environmental agency should be responsible for a multi-million-gallon spill from its manure lagoon.
State officials are investigating the release last weekend of an estimated 4 million-5 million gallons of manure after the lagoon’s dike was deliberately opened up by earth-moving equipment. The manure entered ditches and flowed into the Mississinewa River.
John and Becky Moriarity of Grant County last year bought the property near the Delaware County town of Eaton after the previous owner pleaded guilty to environmental violations. The couple’s attorney, Don Dunnuck, said state regulators gave them five years to remove the manure but then this spring sought a court order for its immediate removal.

Tornado damaged Indiana farm

HAUBSTADT, Ind. (AP) — The National Weather Service says a weak tornado caused some damage to a southwestern Indiana farm as severe weather moved through the state.

Meteorologist Rick Shanklin told the Evansville Courier & Press that the tornado with winds reaching 120 mph traveled more than 10 miles about 3:30 a.m. May 14. The tornado caused damage at a farm in Haubstadt, about 15 miles north of Evansville. It moved a 50-foot-tall grain bin off its foundation and caused it to collapse.
No injuries were reported. The track of the tornado averaged about 125 yards wide and ran from Haubstadt to about two miles east of Buckskin.

5/20/2009