I’d like to offer up my congratulations on a couple of things that have happened this week.

The first one is that General Mills has refused to ban ingredients made from GMOs. Although at first the company said they would not use anything with GMOs they have reversed their decision. On Tuesday their shareholders rejected a resolution that would have forced removal of genetically-modified organisms from the company’s products.

The proposal, submitted by a descendant of one of General Mills’ founders, called for the company to remove genetically engineered ingredients from products sold or manufactured by the company, according to a news release from the National Center for Public Policy Research. The non-GMO crowd is under the assumption that genetic engineering involves significant risks to the environment, food security and public health.

General Mills CEO Ken Powell said the company stands by research that shows GMOs are safe. He affirmed that the company would keep GMO ingredients in its remaining Cheerios cereals. Kudos to General Mills on making a decision based on science and not on an emotion.

The other congrats I’d like to offer is to West Virginia poultry farmer Lois Alt for standing up to the EPA and winning. Here’s a little background: EPA’s dispute with Alt began when the agency issued an order threatening her with $37,500 in fines per day unless she applied for a Clean Water Act permit for stormwater runoff from her farmyard.

EPA cited no deficiencies in Alt’s farming practices, but contended that stormwater containing even miniscule amounts of manure triggered Clean Water Act liability and permitting obligations.

Because Alt felt there were no flaws in her environmental stewardship record, she took after EPA with a lawsuit challenging the order, citing the long-standing Clean Water Act exemption of “agricultural stormwater discharges.” The West Virginia Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau Federation stood behind Alt because of the broader implications of the lawsuit for all farmers.

The EPA went running with their tail between their legs asking the court to dismiss the suit, but the court refused – finding that the EPA had not changed its legal position and that Farm Bureau groups had an ongoing interest in resolving the validity of that position for the benefit of other farmers.

What’s the EPA to do? They stayed in the fight and lost. They filed more than 500 pages arguing the Clean Water Act regulation of ordinary stormwater, and the court put the hammer down and rejected every argument.

Had Alt not stood her ground against the EPA’s creeping regulatory tentacles on dripping rain water from a barn roof, the EPA would have enjoyed the freedom to knock on the next farmhouse door and try to bind them with the shackles of governmental overreach.

Thank you, Lois Alt, for being an inspiration to us all and being our modern day David facing Goliath.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.