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| News from Around the Farm World |
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| Arkansas crop-dusting company loses Iowa license
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge has ordered an Arkansas crop dusting company to stop flying in Iowa after it sprayed farm workers with fungicide last month in Marshall County.
Margaret LaMarche, an administrative law judge, revoked the pesticide applicator license for Kin Co. Ag Aviation of Beech Grove, Ark., upholding an earlier decision made by state agriculture officials.
According to LaMarche, the company’s pilot sprayed a fungicide on a cornfield July 22, affecting 36 detasselers working in a nearby cornfield.
They had to be decontaminated by a hazardous materials crew and treated at a hospital, LaMarche said.
Kin Co. has 30 days to appeal the revocation to Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey. If Northey upholds the revocation, the company can appeal in district court.
9th Circuit stands by decision allowing Canadian cattle
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Aug. 28 that federal regulators properly lifted a temporary ban on Canada cattle imports two years ago after a Mad Cow disease outbreak was discovered north of the border.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled similarly in 2005 when it allowed federal agricultural officials to reopen the border to Canadian cattle. Those cattle imports were banned in May 2003 after a cow in Alberta was found to have Mad Cow disease.
Even after that ruling, a group of cattle ranchers, known as Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America, still contended in a lawsuit against USDA that allowing the imports threatened the U.S. beef supply with Mad Cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Last week, the court said USDA acted properly and again declined to close the U.S.-Canada border to cattle imports.
Russell Frye, an attorney for the Helena, Mont.-based ranchers, said his clients haven’t decided what to do next. Frye said the ranchers could appeal the decision or attempt to persuade USDA to change its stance, but he said the cattlemen will continue their battle to ban Canadian cattle.
“We ought not be importing anything from Canada until we have a clearer picture as to what the risk is,” Frye said.
Fire damages buildings at Living History Farms in Iowa
URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — A fire that damaged two buildings at Living History Farms in central Iowa is suspicious, investigators said.
No one was injured in the blaze, which was discovered by staff members the morning of Aug. 24. Officials said the fire damaged the general store, drugstore and two tractor carts in the fictional 1875 town of Walnut Hill. They said the buildings will be restored.
Living History Farms is a 550-acre museum that covers five historical periods of farming that spans 300 years.
Authorities said the investigation was continuing.
Study finds cases of human trafficking in Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A new study says it has documented as many as 69 cases of human trafficking in Kentucky and calls for better coordination of efforts to crack down on it.
The University of Kentucky study, the first of its kind to give an idea of the extent of “modern-day slavery” in the state, praises recent Kentucky legislation making human trafficking a felony. It says police and workers at shelters and other crisis centers should be educated about the signs of human trafficking.
The study said the cases it found include exploitation of sex workers, mail-order brides, domestic help and restaurant and agricultural laborers.
The report, by UK professor T.K. Logan, says trafficking cases involve immigrants, legal and illegal, as well as U.S. citizens. It says women and girls are especially vulnerable.
It was based on surveys of officials at rape crisis centers and shelters for the homeless and victims of domestic violence, as well as of law-enforcement officials, victim advocates, legal advisers and others involved in such cases. The results yielded as many as 69 cases of human trafficking, defined as “labor or services obtained through force, fraud or coercion,” Logan said.
She said she was told of Asian and Mexican immigrant women forced into sex work at massage parlors and other settings; of domestic workers forced to work long hours with little outside contact; and of workers at farms and restaurants earning no money – or a small amount – to pay off huge debts to those who brought them to the United States.
Logan said that while she made every effort to screen out cases where more than one person reported the same crime, it’s possible that some of the cases are duplicates. And because of the limited number of people surveyed, she said there’s no way to say how widespread the problem is statewide.
“We have heard anecdotally for a while that there have been trafficking cases in the state, ... but it’s really interesting to have hard numbers about that,” said Liz Epperson, co-chairwoman of the Lexington Human Trafficking Task Force, one of two such groups in the state.
Rhonda Henry, executive director of the Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center in Lexington, said the report rings true. She said several women have been put in contact with her agency because of “some type of sexual violence” and that evidence then pointed to cases of trafficking.
“It’s modern-day slavery,” added Epperson, who works as a counselor at the Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center. “Whenever you have a population that’s vulnerable as a result of different economic factors or sometimes language barriers,” she said, they can be “very vulnerable to exploitation.” She said immigrants, who often are victims, are themselves “becoming more and more aware of this crime.”
This farm news was published in the Sept. 5, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
| 9/5/2007 |
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