The purpose of HB 1060 (Concerning Regulating Dietitians) is only to license dietitians in Colorado. We are not trying to regulate any other group who gives out nutrition information or does nutrition counseling.

Several groups do not understand the intention of the bill and have started a campaign to oppose it. There are actually nine exemptions or exclusions in the bill which cover anyone who performs or engages or practices nutrition, nutrition counseling, nutrition assessment, or nutrition care. That means certified nutritionists, nutritionists, herbalist, naturopaths, chiropractors, retail employees of Vitamin Cottage, Vitamin Cottage Nutritional Health Coach, employees of Whole Foods, etc., can practice “nutrition” as they do now. We do not intend to infringe on anyone’s business or professional practice.

Please call the members of the House Ag Committee to ask them to vote for the bill. The bill will be heard in the Ag Committee on Monday, Feb 6, so make your call this week!!

Rocky Mountain Farmers Union is supporting this bill, and as Chairman of the Board and a Registered Dietitian, I am asking you to call the members of the House Ag Committee now!

Jan Kochis, Chair
Board of Directors
Rocky Mountain Farmers Union

Colorado is blessed with natural resources vital to renewable energy development. Whether it is bright sunlight, strong and consistent winds, or abundant supplies of biomass from agriculture and forestry, Colorado can reap the benefits of the new energy economy. Our abundant natural resources are supported by thriving research and development network, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, outside of Denver. Colorado has the resources, the know-how, and even the workforce we need to meet our ever-growing demand for energy. Rural America is where the need for new jobs is most acute, and rural Colorado is no exception. Renewable energy development can put rural Americans to work.

But that won’t happen unless the Farm Bill continues to promote renewable energy development. Renewable energy depends upon developing energy resources on our rural lands, and the Farm Bill plays a major role in those efforts. What we call “the Farm Bill” is the primary federal support for our nation’s agricultural productivity, but the bulk of the bill funds food support programs for the disadvantaged, and it also provides programs to ensure national energy security. Today the farm bill is under threat of significant cuts, and renewable energy programs, a small but vital part, are particularly targeted.

The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) could lose its funding. REAP provides grants and loan guarantees to farmers and rural communities for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Every state has rural areas rich in renewable resources, and REAP guarantees bring development projects within reach. REAP projects in every state are creating jobs in rural America, contributing to U.S. energy security, and promoting new markets for agriculture.

Two other vital programs are the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) and the Biorefinery Assistance Program. BCAP encourages farmers to grow dedicated energy crops, and the Biorefinery Assistance Program provides grants and loan guarantees for the construction of advanced biorefineries. Biomass energy has tremendous potential, especially in Colorado. Today, the main biomass feedstocks for power are paper mill residue, lumber mill scrap, and municipal waste. Agricultural residues such as corn stalks, leaves, and husks show great promise, as do crops like perennial grasses and algae. BCAP and the Biorefinery Assistance Program are vital to continued development of this technology.

With a robust energy title in the next farm bill, Congress can help farmers and others in rural America become more energy efficient and more profitable. Congress can ensure that we develop new markets for agricultural and forestry producers. With federal support, farmers and ranchers can continue to make a vital contribution to our food and energy needs, which are crucial to national security. These are all goals worth achieving even in tough economic times.

Farmers and ranchers understand the importance of a balanced budget. But it’s a false economy to cut programs that will lead to significant economic growth. Renewable energy is a rapidly growing industry. We should not handicap our country’s economic growth by cutting vital farm bill energy programs such as REAP, BCAP and Biorefinery Assistance.

As Congress searches for budget savings, please take a moment to tell your representatives that you support the energy title in the Farm Bill.

Rocky Mountain Farmers Union posted a comment with the Department of Labor urging that proposed new federal regulations on child labor avoid unintended hardships to family farms and ranches. “We are concerned that the regulations do not clearly exempt family operations that have incorporated,” said Kent Peppler, a Mead, Colorado, farmer and President of RMFU. “We support regulations to improve the safety of young farm workers, but the regulations shouldn’t place unnecessary burdens on farm and ranch families whose children participate in the family work.”

As a grassroots organization working to protect family farmers, ranchers and their rural communities, RMFU advocates for safe agricultural workplaces and supports programs that encourage young people to get experience and training that will lead them to a fulfilling life in agriculture. “We value the health and safety of all farm workers, whether family or hired help,” the comment asserted, “and we support the student-learner programs of rural schools, which offer hands-on training in a safe environment.”

Family-oriented agriculture is the most environmentally, economically and socially responsible model for agricultural production. Families have an inherent concern that  their natural resources are sustainable, that their livestock are handled with humane husbandry, and that workers, who include spouses, children, and the extended family, have a safe workplace. The agricultural family has a vested financial and emotional interest in keeping the workplace safe. The proposed rules lack clarity regarding their impact on farms owned by a closely-held family corporation or partnerships consisting of family members. “This could be another case of creating rules that do nothing to curb industrial abuses while creating hardship for conscientious families in agriculture.”

RMFU expressed support for prohibitions on young workers using electronic devices, including communications devices, while operating a tractor. “The risks of ‘distracted driving’ are a mounting problem in the digital age,” Peppler said. However, the comment urged further consideration of the proposed rule requiring a valid state driver’s license to operate a tractor on public roads. Most states have already established their regulations with reference to operating licensed vehicles on public roads.  RMFU supports requiring appropriate markings on slow moving equipment to improve operation safety. But  national regulations overriding local statutes will degrade the student-learner’s involvement in operation of the farm or ranch. “Operator training is the key to farm safety,” Peppler said.

The proposed rules eliminate many the student-learner and certification exemptions from Hazardous Occupations (HO) rules. This modification will have a direct impact on training the next generation of farmers and ranchers and recruiting young adults into agriculture-related businesses. RMFU urged the Department to provide justification for specific changes within a task area covered by the rule.

“The new  regulations would prohibit young family members from learning key skills for raising livestock,” Peppler said. “Young people should have appropriate training, safety conditions, and supervision on the job, but we cannot support prohibiting student-learners from participating in basic animal husbandry.”

RMFU’s comments supported new prohibitions that correct omissions in existing statutes, such as prohibiting hired farm workers under the age of 16 working in silos or grain storage bins, in manure pits, or handling pesticides. “Farm safety is important to RMFU, as important as the health and safety of our own children. The future of American agriculture requires an experienced and trained new generation. We commend the Department’s efforts to make workplaces safer for young workers. However, these regulations go too far in their zeal to protect our young people from their own families. Nobody wants their children working in unsafe conditions. But the Department of Labor must not allow new regulations to have unintended consequences like  adverse effects on family farmers and ranchers and on learning and certification programs.”

In a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union has urged the Obama administration to stand up to corporate agriculture and implement the USDA packers and stockyards (GIPSA) rules. “The Packers and Stockyards Act was passed 80 years ago,” RMFU President Kent Peppler said, “and the regulations mandated by the 2008 Food and Farm Bill, which would control the virtually monopolistic power of industrial livestock operations, have been ‘reviewed’ for nearly two years. Meantime, family livestock operations are trying to stay afloat in a market that is notoriously controlled by a handful of multinational companies. Time has run out for a lot of my neighbors. It’s running out for local and natural meat providers. If these rules are not implemented, time will run out for the credibility of the Obama administration among small agricultural producers.”

In September, RMFU commended Colorado Senator Michael Bennet for addressing this issue with the administration. In a letter to the President, Sen. Bennet urged finalizing the rule published in the Federal Register more than a year ago. RMFU agrees with Bennet that we want “a fair and transparent market in which all livestock and poultry producers compete on a level playing field” and RMFU membership joins in his call to prioritize implementing the rule.

“This is not a political issue,” RMFU’s Peppler observed. “It’s a question of selling out another part of America’s struggling middle class, the independent ranchers whose operations are effectively being reduced to sharecroppers for corporations that own 80% of the meat produced in the U.S. Corporations are not people; they are machines that make money off the hard work of people producing our food, fuel, and fiber. Americans have made it clear that they don’t want industrial meat products if they can choose meat produced through ranching and animal husbandry. If the small rancher is not protected from the predatory practices of the big players in the livestock market, consumers won’t have that choice.”

On behalf of family producer operations in Colorado, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union commends Senator Michael Bennet for his fair and thoughtful statement about the controversy surrounding the USDA’ packers and stockyards (GIPSA) rules. In a letter to the President, the senator gave his support for finalizing the rule published in the Federal Register more than a year ago.

“The multinational livestock corporations have tried every trick in the book to thwart the democratic process and protect their privileged status,” said Kent Peppler, RMFU President and fourth-generation Mead farmer/rancher. “The game was over almost a year ago, and it’s time for them to stop whining and move on. The GIPSA rules give small livestock operations a level playing field when they compete with corporate interests. If the corporations don’t think they can win a fair fight, too bad.”

Sen. Bennet’s letter takes into account the issues raised by livestock commodity organizations. As the senator observes, they have had extensions to the comment period for the rule, which the senator called “a valuable forum.” There may be room for improvement in the rule, but until it is implemented, there’s no way to know. RMFU agrees with Bennet that we want “a fair and transparent market in which all livestock and poultry producers compete on a level playing field” and RMFU membership joins in his call to prioritize implementing the rule.

“Family livestock operations and small, local packing plants have been bankrupted by big business tactics the GIPSA rule will curb,” Peppler said. “Americans are tired of hearing that big corporations are going to fail if we don’t give them special privileges. And we aren’t frightened by the threats that they’ll get even by raising prices. Local producers are the lifeblood of a secure food supply, and the GIPSA regulations will give them a fair chance to return to the success our country was built on.”

Rocky Mountain Farmers Union hosted a roundtable discussion Thursday, July 14, at RMFU’s offices in Denver with National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson. The program focused on consumer issues, including the environment, organic foods, health care, and nutrition programs. Roughly 70% of the budget for the “Farm Bill” is dedicated to nutrition programs like SNAP (formerly “food stamps”). The discussion was moderated by RMFU President Kent Peppler, a fourth-generation Mead, Colo., farmer.

“In addition to its impact on farmers, ranchers, and agriculture, the Farm Bill addresses many food and nutrition issues,” said Peppler. “As the time to shape national policy on food and farming approaches, RMFU and National Farmers Union will hold listening sessions to see that everyone with a stake in the bill gets a fair hearing. Our first meeting emphasized the common interests of consumers and producers. In the coming months, we intend to keep the needs of family farmers and ranchers, and the needs of rural America, in front of Congress during the debate on agricultural policy.”

Panelists included Dan Grossman of the Environmental Defense Fund, Rocky Mountain Organics Farmers Union President Claudia Ferrell, Moe Keller and Amanda Callahan from Mental Health America of Colorado, and Kathy Underhill and Katherine Moos of Hunger Free Colorado. After brief presentations by the panelists on each area of expertise, the morning was spent in lively discussion.
Roger Johnson and Kent Peppler provided overviews of the Farm Bill and the legislative process that historically shapes it. Johnson pointed out that direct agricultural interests actually make up a small percentage of the total bill, more accurately termed “the Farm and Food Bill.” Kathy Underhill pointed out that child nutrition is the key to maintaining our social fabric, rural or unban, and the panelists agreed that nutrition, conservation, and agriculture have common interests that outweigh any differences.

After the meeting, Johnson said, “Americans pay less for food than citizens in any other industrialized country, and they get the safest, most abundant food supply in the world. This is because America’s family farmers and ranchers have a safety net and can keep producing in tough times. We must make sure they continue to be protected in the next farm bill, so that they can keep producing food for all of us.”

The Board of Directors of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union has denounced the “Big Bad Three” initiatives (Amendment 60, Amendment 61, and Proposition 101) is potentially disastrous for the state of Colorado and its local communities.

Speaking of Amendment 60, RMFU Board Chair Jan Kochis said, “It could kill the schools, community recreation programs, and any new capital improvement projects in your community. It could cut more than $1 billion from local schools.” The amendment changes property taxes, increasing the burden on the state government to find money for schools in a shrinking revenue stream.

“These three initiatives are a deadly combination,” according to RMFU President Kent Peppler. “Amendment 60 strips the state of revenue, Amendment 61 forbids it from incurring debt, and Proposition 101 returns our auto license fees to 1919 levels. We need to send the corporate, out-of-state funders attempting to destroy our state a message: ‘This is OUR state! and we aren’t going back to 1919!’”

RMFU Vice President Dale McCall, who is a lifetime farmer and educator and currently executive director of the Colorado BOCES Association, said, “If these initiatives pass, our Colorado public schools will be strangled. All school districts in Colorado will lose an additional 23 percent of their revenue. This 23 percent loss of revenue will be in addition to the 6.38 percent they lost in the current year. This loss of revenue would devastate all schools, especially rural schools that are also declining in enrollment. These three initiatives must be defeated to allow Colorado to provide a quality, competitive education for our kids.”

Organizations across the state have scrambled to educate voters about the initiatives, which appeared on the ballot while questions about who was organizing their campaigns, where their money was coming from, and whether they obtained the necessary signatures legally swirl in the state’s courts. “Ironically, proponents of measures accuse those of us fighting them of using out-of-state money, but they refuse to disclose their own sources and their numbers don’t add up,” Peppler stated.

County and city commissioners, police and fire chiefs, superintendents of schools from Haxtun to Delta, Fort Collins to Alamosa have urged voters to defeat these measures. As quoted in the Fort Morgan Times, Progressive 15’s executive director, Cathy Shull, summed up the impact on Morgan County: “Under Proposition 101, local school districts would lose almost $1.3 million. The Morgan County government would lose close to $1 million,” Shull said. “Cities and towns in the county would lose close to $200,000, hospital districts $60,000, fire districts $47,000, library districts $47,000 and water districts $45,000.” This is the impact on a single Colorado county.

“These measures are exploiting taxpayer discontent to wreck the state’s government and economy,” Peppler said. “The motives of the people behind this are pretty clear. Colorado’s local communities have spent almost 20 years ‘de-Brucing’ our tax laws to keep local government afloat. One clause of Amendment 60 actually repeals any voter-elected attempts to lessen the local effect of TABOR.”

“We are pleased to see USDA Secretary Vilsack standing up to the nation’s meat packing lobby on the GIPSA rules,” said RMFU President Kent Peppler, a Mead, Colo. farmer. In a letter to Congressman Frank R. Lucas, Vilsack recently declined the request for a comprehensive economic analysis of the rules on livestock market competition published in June by the USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration.

The livestock commodity organizations, representing the four or five companies that control 80 per cent of meat processing in the United States, are crying disaster,” Peppler said, “but what they mean is that they are too big to be held accountable. Meat packing giants have been gouging the livestock grower and the consumer for decades. In the process, by controlling markets, they’ve effectively destroyed independent, family-based chicken and hog farming, and they were well on their way to turning cattle growers into sharecroppers when Secretary Vilsack and the Department of Justice stepped in.”

R-CALF USA, which represents independent ranchers in Colorado, Wyoming, and the Rocky Mountain West, dismissed the call for a new economic analysis as an obvious effort to delay and derail GIPSA regulation of livestock markets. R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard called the claim that the GIPSA rule will harm to the economy “absolutely baseless and irresponsible.”

“Like any big, unregulated corporate power, the packers consider their own profits a matter of national security,” Peppler said. “We’ve seen what ‘too big to fail’ means, and I think Americans are tired of hearing multinational corporations claim they are entitled to more than their fair share of the consumer’s meat dollar. The new GIPSA rules will put an end to practices that let the packing industry hold the livelihoods of small ranchers hostage. An unregulated livestock market only serves the interests of companies big enough to bully their suppliers and their customers. If we don’t control their greed now, we may not get another chance for a long time.”

The rules process has already been delayed once, when the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association successfully lobbied for a 90-day extension of the comment period. Consumers, ranchers, and packers have had five months to submit their responses, and the next step is for GIPSA to respond to those comments. “The GIPSA rules are a Bill of Rights for small ranchers,” Peppler said.

In cooperation with R-CALF USA and Colorado Independent Cattle Growers, RMFU is sponsoring workshops in Colorado and Wyoming to help farmers and ranchers prepare for the USDA/DoJ hearing in Fort Collins on August 27, which will focus on livestock markets.

On August 27,for the first time since the creation of the Department of Agriculture by President Lincoln, the USDA and the Department of Justice will hold a joint meeting. Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are scheduled to attend.

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard will make a whirlwind tour of northern Colorado and southern Wyoming during the fi rst week of August. His presentation, Under Siege, documents the concentration of cattle markets and the impact on both consumer prices and producer revenues. The workshop (see schedule, right) will prepare attendees with details on how corporate control of the market has driven consumer costs up while crushing the “wholesale” value of the independent ranchers’ livestock to little more than the cost of production.

We need to preserve the future of rural America and the independent livestock producer who cares about land, cattle and consumers. Bullard’s presentation will explain the threat to rural economies and to the American family farmer and rancher, leaders in agriculture for the world.

Livestock Meetings Schedule

Monday, Aug 2 – Delta, Colo.
Bill Heddles Recreation Center
530 Gunnison River Drive, Delta, Colorado
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Tuesday, Aug 3 – Steamboat Springs, Colo.
Steamboat Springs Community Center
1605 Lincoln Avenue, Steamboat Springs, Colorado
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Wednesday, Aug 4 – Lander, Wyo.
Oxbow Restaurant
170 Main St, Lander, Wyoming
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Thursday, Aug 5 – Laramie, Wyo.
Ramada Center Hotel
I-80 & Hwy 287, Laramie, Wyoming
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Friday, Aug 6 – Julesburg, Colo.
Sedgwick County Fairgrounds Exhibition Hall
Julesburg, Colorado
7:00 PM – 9 PM

Thursday, Aug 12 – Burlington, Colo.
Burlington Livestock Exchange
Burlington, Colo.
11:00 AM – 1 PM
Thursday, Aug 12 – La Junta, Colo.
La Junta Senior Center
La Junta, Colo.
7:00 PM – 9 PM

In a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, RMFU President Kent Peppler urged the department to proceed with caution on oil shale development. “The oil companies have been long on promises and short on delivery with oil shale,” Peppler said. “What we do know is that oil shale development will use up scarce water supplies. That’s robbing Peter to pay Paul, and agriculture can’t afford it.”

The letter to the Interior Department points out that 30 years ago, oil companies were claiming that commercial production of oil shale would allow the U.S. to “completely eliminate” imports of oil and gas in the next century, with Exxon estimating a “production level of 15 million barrels per day achieved” by 2010.

Today, that promise has not been fulfilled, and oil shale development is still far from reality. “Given the questions that remain about the impact of oil shale development on local communities and water supplies,” Peppler said, “that is probably a good thing.”

Farmers and ranchers remain concerned that commercial oil shale development could hurt rural communities and agriculture. It’s not clear how much water could be pulled away from agriculture. It’s not clear how much farm and rangeland would be overrun by development. It’s likely that rural communities would be transformed into industrial ghettos by commercial-scale oil shale development operations.

Shell Oil recently stated that its oil shale experiments consume three barrels of water for every barrel of oil produced. If that proportion holds, then producing millions of barrels of oil from shale each day, as they have forecast, could wipe out many farms and ranches across the West and damage or destroy already stressed watersheds like the Colorado River.

Water is the lifeblood of the West. Generations of Coloradoans have said it, in English and in Spanish: “No water, no life.” The letter concludes, “We should not risk our water, our food security, and our regional economic stability for a promise that has not been fulfilled for over 100 years. It is time to move on to more viable forms of energy development, such as wind and solar.” The letter urges the department to look carefully at potential impacts to local water supplies and communities as it studies the impact of oil shale development.