Farmers Protest At The Capitol On Agriculture Day
By CAROLYN MOREAU
The Hartford Courant
10:42 AM EDT, March 18, 2009
The oysters and apples displayed inside the state Capitol were signs of business as usual this morning. But the cow on the lawn outside was not.
Farmers used state Agriculture Day — a trade show for local produce that's been held at the Capitol for as long as anyone can remember — to stage an unusual protest against proposed legislation and state tax code changes that they say will decimate local farms.
Using Facebook, and capitalizing on a national craze for locally grown food that brought the term "locavore" into usage, Connecticut's farmers reached out to consumers, restaurant owners, gardeners, environmentalists and health advocates, urging them to bring signs and placards to the Capitol today.
And come they did. Farmers left their spring chores, and vocational agricultural schools sent busloads of youngsters, to form a crowd of more than 100 (plus one cow) on the Capitol steps.
Read More
It seems like not to many years ago you could safely assume that our elected officials would know how to vote on agriculture issues, after all many of them were involved in agriculture. Today it’s a different story. If there is an issue that is going to affect agriculture, we need to get active and make sure our point of view is being considered. This takes some effort and time away from your real work, but the reality is that this needs to become a regular part of your business.
Showing posts with label taxes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label taxes. Show all posts
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Cow Tax
Cow tax proposal would threaten agriculture viability
“With the economy in bad shape and the possibility of a deep recession looming, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to levy new taxes—on cows and pigs,” American Farm Bureau Federation Director of Regulatory Relations Rick Krause told Wyoming Farm Bureau members at their annual meeting. Krause spoke in Sheridan on Nov. 7.
“This is no laughing matter,” Krause said. “The cow tax and the pig tax are parts of a larger scheme by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.”
“Under the proposal, if a state charged the “presumptive minimum rate” from the EPA, the cow tax would be $175 per dairy cow, $87.50 per head for beef cattle and a little more than $20 per pig,” Krause explained. Read More
Just recently, Mike Miller from Cattle-Fax told the attendees of the Beef Quality Summit that the projections from earlier in the year that showed the cow/calf producer should profit about $25/head had disappeared. Add an $87 tax per head on top of expenses, and you don’t have to be much of a math wizard to figure out what will happen. There is still time to comment on this proposal.
“With the economy in bad shape and the possibility of a deep recession looming, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to levy new taxes—on cows and pigs,” American Farm Bureau Federation Director of Regulatory Relations Rick Krause told Wyoming Farm Bureau members at their annual meeting. Krause spoke in Sheridan on Nov. 7.
“This is no laughing matter,” Krause said. “The cow tax and the pig tax are parts of a larger scheme by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.”
“Under the proposal, if a state charged the “presumptive minimum rate” from the EPA, the cow tax would be $175 per dairy cow, $87.50 per head for beef cattle and a little more than $20 per pig,” Krause explained. Read More
Just recently, Mike Miller from Cattle-Fax told the attendees of the Beef Quality Summit that the projections from earlier in the year that showed the cow/calf producer should profit about $25/head had disappeared. Add an $87 tax per head on top of expenses, and you don’t have to be much of a math wizard to figure out what will happen. There is still time to comment on this proposal.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)