Finally a Break for Dairy Farmers

A local news station ran a story from Albany the other day, entitled "Spilled milk no longer an oil issue." In the article is stated that the federal Environmental Protection Agency is going to exempt milk from the provisions of the Clean Water Act. The revisions that took place to the act in 2002 changed the original 1970 law to require enterprises, dairy farms included, to have plans to deal with  spills of product and chemical, similar to the manner required of oil companies. Milk was included into this because it contains animal fat, an oil. But thanks to U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, federal EPA is making milk exempt.

I believe this is a great thing for the dairy industry. We already have so many hoops we have to jump through with every regulation under the sun. It's about time we got a break. Yes we are businesses and should be treated like businesses, but when the BP Oil Spill happened, it took forever for the spilled to be contained and cleaned up. Dairy Farmers spill milk and immediately do their best to contain and clean. It seems that every new regulation that comes along, dairy farmers are put into it with some special clause, afterall.... everything is ultimately our faults.

Some might argue that by changing the regulations, dairy farmers will become careless and won't worry. But most dairy farmers are very conscientious, they try to preserve the land because they know it will be providing food for their animals in the future. Not only do dairy farmers take care of their animals, they take care of their land.

With the changing of the 2002 revision, dairy farmers won't have to worry about the extensive red tape for spilling milk... How does the saying go.... "There's no use crying over spilled milk!"

News, W. (2011, April 13). Spilled milk no long an oil issue. Retrieved April 16, 2011, from WKTV.com: http://www.wktv.com/news/local/Spilled-milk-no-longer-an-oil-issue-119780949.html