farms

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley's administration is proposing new regulations to reduce fertilizer and manure runoff pollution from farms. Although the farm lobby opposes the rules because of the cost, hog farmer Will Morrow (shown above) supports the regulations, because cheap food carries a high price tag downstream, to public health.

Audio for this segment will be available by the end of the day.

It’s time for Congress to reauthorize the five-year farm bill, and a version that just came out of the Senate Agriculture Committee would replace the direct payments that farmers receive from the government with an insurance plan for their crops. We’ll find out what the bill could mean for Maryland farmers, and for the environment.

Although Pennsylvania farms contribute a significant amount of pollution to the Chesapeake Bay, half of the 40,000 farms in the state's part of the Bay watershed do not have pollution control plans required by law to reduce runoff of manure and soil into streams. One　farmer who is doing an exemplary job of following the state's clean streams requirements is Leroy Walker, above, who recently built new manure management pits, a shed, and barn to reduce runoff pollution.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley started a political fight by proposing legislation that would reduce suburban sprawl by limiting large developments on septic systems in some rural areas.  Opponents of the bill claim it is part of O'Malley's "War on Rural Maryland," meant to strip power from local governments. But supporters say the real "War on Rural Maryland" is developers gobbling up farms for subdivisions.