While many in Whatcom have been busy fighting against crude oil by rail transport, proposed coal terminals, and SSA Marine’s recent $100,000 funded election scheme attempt to change the way we vote, public relations pro Gerald Baron has been getting paid by local farmers to beat down needed environmental regulations.
Whatcom Family Dairy Farmers/ Whatcom Family Farmers (formerly Whatcom Farm Friends) continues to put lots of pressure on Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE). They’ve enlisted the help of the Washington State Farm Bureau, Washington State Dairy Federation, our local WA State legislators; Buys, Van Werven, and Senator Ericksen, in terms of the DOE’s new proposed manure lagoon regulations.
It’s important that the DOE and our legislators hear from people in our area who support those more protective regulations, so that they are not only hearing from one side of the issue.
Whatcom Family Dairy Farmers/ Whatcom Family Farmers puts out propaganda to the public, and the PR pro paid for doing that, is Gerald Baron. You can check out the Whatcom Family Farmers and the Whatcom Family Dairy Farmers’ Facebook pages. They are full of videos produced by Baron, selling the idea of the small family farms, and that there is no pollution, and if they face more regulations they may have to stop farming. Many of these “small family farms” are CAFOs.
I’m sure there are some farmers who really do follow the laws, but there are also farmers who do not, and then deny they pollute.
I am tired of some farmers who say they won’t be able to farm with stricter, more protective regulations. Sorry, but that is the cost of doing business. The public should not be saddled with contaminated water just so some farmers who don’t, or won’t, follow necessary regulations can make more profit.
Also, I think it is especially wrong when some farmers who receive govt. subsidies don’t follow the rules and put our water quality at risk. It’s as if the public is subsidizing the degradation and potential ruination of its own water sources.
noisy waters northwest 