Saving Irreplaceable Resources.

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CLF IN NEW ENGLAND IS ...

Working to Save Our Dairy Farms

CLF's New England Farm Defense Initiative is advocating reauthorization of the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact. It pays our dairy farmers the difference between federally set milk prices, and those decreed by the region's higher farming costs. Since 1997, the compact has protected profitability, guaranteeing a stable local milk supply and ensuring equitable prices. Authorization for the compact will end on September 1. CLF feels that its continuation is essential to preserving New England dairy farms, and to protecting our landscape from the environmentally damaging sprawl that results when farms fail, and farmers are forced to sell. We've been lobbying members of congress to support reauthorization. CLF General Counsel Stephen Burrington terms it "the single most important piece of New England land-use legislation to be taken up by Congress in the foreseeable future. Dairy farms account for 1.3 million acres of land in New England, and the Dairy Compact allows them to stay in business. If we lose it, we lose one-third of our farmland, our local milk supplies, and the very soul of New England."

Professor Ron Cotterill, of the University of Connecticut, has released an independent report showing that more than $110 million of the $130 million increase in milk bills paid by New England consumers since the compact's authorization is due to non-related factors, including more than $50 million in increased profits by supermarket chains and dairy processors.

Promoting Sustainable Fishing Practices

In March, CLF Launched a campaign to promote fishing methods that don't deplete healthy fish populations, and that don't damage habitats on which such populations depend. We call these methods "sustainable"; our plan for getting the catch to New England tables is "Sustainable Seafood Marketing."

Commercial landings of traditional New England fish species have fallen sharply since 1980. Those of haddock fell 90%; of cod and yellowtail flounder, 80%. Tighter regulations are reversing that trend, but CLF believes that regulations alone will not return fish populations to healthy levels. We're creating market incentives to promote methods such as hook-and-line fishing, methods that minimize bycatch (the...