Note: It is our goal at One Martin to provide reliable, fact-based information so citizens can be better informed about our government and our community.
Feel-good politics hurts, more than helps
Just days from the election, two local politicians – one a Republican and the other his Democratic opponent – are making political hay out of the Lake Okeechobee discharges that began again this week.
Yes, we all want the discharges to the St. Lucie River to end. Our political candidates know that, but the plans they're promoting to get more votes will NOT stop the discharges, and could have devastating consequences, if enacted. Last month, a guest columnist for One Martin, Scott Watson of Palm City, rather thoroughly dissected Republican Rep. Brian Mast's federal legislation, already filed, seeking to close the gate between Lake Okeechobee and the C-44 canal whenever toxic algae is above the recreational level.
That's his solution, although his over-simplified plan threatens the ecology of the lake itself, increases damage to the Caloosahatchee estuary, increases the likelihood of massive blooms of red tide that flow along the Gulf Stream to our east coast beaches, and puts lives, homes and businesses around the lake at serious risk – all without addressing the root of the problem, which is this FACT: too much water flows from the north into Lake Okeechobee in the first place. During this pre-election period, Rep. Mast's opponent, Democrat Pam Keith, says the solution is to “take” land south of Lake Okeechobee through eminent domain to add land area for water to flow south. “Just take it,” she says.
She should know that “taking” agricultural lands will not end discharges to the St. Lucie for the same reason that Rep. Mast's plan will not work – too much water flows too fast into Lake Okeechobee from the north.
As a matter of FACT, that flow into the lake is up to six times faster than the lake can be lowered with ALL gates open and ALL pumps running at top speed. Having additional land area will not end discharges, particularly if the ground south of the lake is already saturated, as it is now.
Besides, the eminent domain process, which allows a government to take private property for a public purpose with “reasonable compensation” to the property owner, sounds simple, but it's not. The legal manual that explains Florida's eminent domain statutes, illustrating more than a dozen contested cases, is a hefty read at 21 chapters.
But that's for attorneys to deal with, and without a willing seller, you can be assured that lawyers will spend months in the courts, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars in misspent attorney fees.
What citizens will be left to deal with are broken promises and knowing that the money should have been spent on environmental projects in the right place at the right time. They also would be left with the potential loss of even more land from the Everglades Agricultural Area – one of the nation's most fertile and productive soils.
Note that we said “additional,” because nearly 200,000 acres already have been converted from farmland to water restoration projects.
The myth is that the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) grows nothing but sugar cane, although the rest of the world calls the area the winter vegetable capital of the U.S., underscoring that agriculture is the state's second-largest economic driver, second only to tourism.
The truth is that we do not need to sacrifice our fertile soil for a clean river. We not only don't need to, we shouldn't.
The need to protect our food supply is the lesson we learned from living through a pandemic that took hold in March. Our emptied store shelves revealed that we have begun to rely heavily on food imports from foreign sources to stock our stores and too often those foreign contracts take precedence over local farms and ranches.
Imagine our vulnerability should we continue down this path of foreign reliance on food and the consequences of some unforeseen event – or overt action by an unfriendly actor – that suddenly cuts off our food supply altogether. The COVID-19 crisis provided us with a practice run – and we failed.
Farmers not only are competing with other countries for markets to sell their farm products, other countries are buying U.S. farms and food processing plants, like the Smithfield plant. The Center for Investigative Reporting estimates that one in every four pigs raised in America is now owned by the Chinese.
China also purchased a 146,000-acre Illinois farm in 2013, but they are not alone. The Germans and the French also have purchased farmland in Illinois and Indiana, also some of the richest soil in America, so much so that next-door Iowa recently banned all foreign purchases of their agricultural land.
Why do we lag so far behind others in valuing our farmland? That's a fact that must change. We must protect our agricultural land, as well as our river. The correct solution is to proceed with the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project north of the lake, as we continue to build the EAA reservoir south of the lake. Just like food and water, one should not be ranked above the other. We need them both.
Sincerely,
Rick Hartman
Note: It is our goal at One Martin to provide reliable, fact-based information so citizens can be better informed about our government and our community.
Feel-good politics hurts, more than helps
Just days from the election, two local politicians – one a Republican and the other his Democratic opponent – are making political hay out of the Lake Okeechobee discharges that began again this week.
Yes, we all want the discharges to the St. Lucie River to end. Our political candidates know that, but the plans they're promoting to get more votes will NOT stop the discharges, and could have devastating consequences, if enacted. Last month, a guest columnist for One Martin, Scott Watson of Palm City, rather thoroughly dissected Republican Rep. Brian Mast's federal legislation, already filed, seeking to close the gate between Lake Okeechobee and the C-44 canal whenever toxic algae is above the recreational level.
That's his solution, although his over-simplified plan threatens the ecology of the lake itself, increases damage to the Caloosahatchee estuary, increases the likelihood of massive blooms of red tide that flow along the Gulf Stream to our east coast beaches, and puts lives, homes and businesses around the lake at serious risk – all without addressing the root of the problem, which is this FACT: too much water flows from the north into Lake Okeechobee in the first place. During this pre-election period, Rep. Mast's opponent, Democrat Pam Keith, says the solution is to “take” land south of Lake Okeechobee through eminent domain to add land area for water to flow south. “Just take it,” she says.
She should know that “taking” agricultural lands will not end discharges to the St. Lucie for the same reason that Rep. Mast's plan will not work – too much water flows too fast into Lake Okeechobee from the north.
As a matter of FACT, that flow into the lake is up to six times faster than the lake can be lowered with ALL gates open and ALL pumps running at top speed. Having additional land area will not end discharges, particularly if the ground south of the lake is already saturated, as it is now.
Besides, the eminent domain process, which allows a government to take private property for a public purpose with “reasonable compensation” to the property owner, sounds simple, but it's not. The legal manual that explains Florida's eminent domain statutes, illustrating more than a dozen contested cases, is a hefty read at 21 chapters.
But that's for attorneys to deal with, and without a willing seller, you can be assured that lawyers will spend months in the courts, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars in misspent attorney fees.
What citizens will be left to deal with are broken promises and knowing that the money should have been spent on environmental projects in the right place at the right time. They also would be left with the potential loss of even more land from the Everglades Agricultural Area – one of the nation's most fertile and productive soils.
Note that we said “additional,” because nearly 200,000 acres already have been converted from farmland to water restoration projects.
The myth is that the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) grows nothing but sugar cane, although the rest of the world calls the area the winter vegetable capital of the U.S., underscoring that agriculture is the state's second-largest economic driver, second only to tourism.
The truth is that we do not need to sacrifice our fertile soil for a clean river. We not only don't need to, we shouldn't.
The need to protect our food supply is the lesson we learned from living through a pandemic that took hold in March. Our emptied store shelves revealed that we have begun to rely heavily on food imports from foreign sources to stock our stores and too often those foreign contracts take precedence over local farms and ranches.
Imagine our vulnerability should we continue down this path of foreign reliance on food and the consequences of some unforeseen event – or overt action by an unfriendly actor – that suddenly cuts off our food supply altogether. The COVID-19 crisis provided us with a practice run – and we failed.
Farmers not only are competing with other countries for markets to sell their farm products, other countries are buying U.S. farms and food processing plants, like the Smithfield plant. The Center for Investigative Reporting estimates that one in every four pigs raised in America is now owned by the Chinese.
China also purchased a 146,000-acre Illinois farm in 2013, but they are not alone. The Germans and the French also have purchased farmland in Illinois and Indiana, also some of the richest soil in America, so much so that next-door Iowa recently banned all foreign purchases of their agricultural land.
Why do we lag so far behind others in valuing our farmland? That's a fact that must change. We must protect our agricultural land, as well as our river. The correct solution is to proceed with the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project north of the lake, as we continue to build the EAA reservoir south of the lake. Just like food and water, one should not be ranked above the other. We need them both.
