I received this reply to my previous inquiry to the USDA/FSA about their
status of compliance with The Omnibus Act of 1988 and EO 12770:
[quote]
The Farm Service Agency has not received any direction or timelines to
convert to meters. Our customers deal in acres, our systems are set up
in acres, our legislative direction comes in acres. In addition, the
vast majority of our customers think/work in acres, so it would be a
"hardship" to our producers to move to this.
[end quote]
This is my response to that reply, posted moments ago:
[quote]
I greatly appreciate your reply on this matter, though I am distressed
to read what you said in that reply.
The soil science and agricultural research papers I have read are almost
always written in terms of square kilometers or hectares; they write in
terms of meters and kilograms. USDA/FSA has an important advisory and
educational role, as well a regulatory role, in our agriculture and food
industries. You are obviously capable of educating people about ways to
improve yields, ways to better maintain the quality of their arable
soils, ways to better protect our waterways, and ways to better protect
the safety of our food supplies. Having proven yourselves capable of
dealing with such technical topics, you certainly can be considered
capable of educating your customers about using metric units. So
educated by you, your customers would be more capable of understanding
current research.
Your customers' practices reflect your guidance and usage; they work in
acres because you do. It is illogical to turn around and to use that
reflection as justification for not changing your practices. If Congress
is writing legislation in terms of acres you need to tell them that you
need for it to be written in metric units. I know that Executive Branch
agencies work closely with appropriate congregational committees to
devise legislation and that is the venue in which you should ensure the
legislation is properly written.
The Metric Act of 1866 made the metric system legal for all business and
all dealings before courts of law. The Mendenhall Order of 1893 changed
the definitions of our prevalent units so that they are now defined in
terms of metric units. The Metrication Conversion Act of 1975 embarked
our country on metrication. The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of
1988 strengthened that 1975 act and made the metric system the preferred
system of measurement in our country. It also directed the federal
government to metricate, which was implemented in EO 12770. The USDA is
supposed to be making annual reports to NIST on their progress in
metricating. It is disappointing that USDA/FSA has made less progress
than many other agencies have.
Since January 2000, 48 of the 50 states allowing metric-only labeling of
retail goods regulated at the state level with the federal government
about to amend the Fair Practices and Labeling Act to do the same at the
federal level. Feed, seed, and fertilizer may all soon be labeled solely
in kilograms.
As a citizen and as one of your customers, I am asking you to do what
Congress and the President have told you to do. I am asking you to step
up to the plate and to metricate, while educating your customers and
bringing them along with you. If we farmers can understand BMPs and new
issues like the NAIS, we can certainly be trained to understand what a
hectare is.
[end quote]
Explanatory notes:
BMP = Best Management Practices, commonly used by USDA to describe
preferred methods of management of fields, streams, and woodlots.
NAIS = National Animal Identification System, a new program to uniquely
identify individual large animals or groups of small animals; one of
USDA's responses to the threats of Mad Cow Disease and Avian Bird Flu.
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
