permaculture

[lbsaltzman@aol.com]

Here is some information from the California Certified Organic Farmers on 
saving ATTRA. 
   

Act Now to Save ATTRA! Please Call Your Representatives & Senators 
IMMEDIATELY!!
Dear CCOF Members:
Last week, the Senate passed the "Continuing Resolution," which makes 
permanent funding decisions for the fiscal year already underway (Fiscal Year 
2007), which wasn't completed before the last Congress ended. Distressingly, 
this resolution would IMMEDIATELY eliminate funding for the ATTRA program, 
which is crucial to sustainable agriculture! The Appropriate Technology 
Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) program is a highly rated national 
information service that answers practical questions from farmers and others 
across the US who call its toll-free telephone number, print publications 
from its website, or attend its workshops.

Congressman Boozman (R-AR) is circulating a sign-on letter to USDA to fund 
ATTRA's modest $2.5 million. It's crucial that you call today and ask your 
House member to sign onto that letter. NOW is the time to ask them to sign 
on, as Congressman Boozman will take this message to USDA early the week of 
February 26. Senators are also sending individual letters to USDA with the 
same message.


Please call the congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be 
connected to the office of your representative and your two senators (this 
means 3 very quick calls, and your call has a big impact). Ask to speak to 
the staffer handling appropriations. If he or she is unavailable, leave a 
message with your name, phone number and the quick message below.

The message is simple: 

1. For your Representatives: Please ask Congressman/woman _________ to sign 
onto Congressman Boozman's letter asking USDA to restore full 2007 funding to 
the ATTRA sustainable agriculture information service. (Tell the staffer for 
your Representative that they can contact Maggie Lemmerman at 202-225-4301 in 
Mr. Boozman's office to sign onto the letter.) ATTRA is a national valuable 
source of information to farmers across the US about how to farm using 
sustainable practices, and it shouldn't be cut.

2. For your Senators: Please ask Senator ___________ to send a letter asking 
USDA to restore full funding to the ATTRA sustainable agriculture information 
service. (Tell the staffer for your Senator that John Lewis in Senator 
Baucus' office (202) 224-2651 can provide information on the wording of the 
letter that Senator Baucus sent if that's helpful.) ATTRA is a national 
valuable source of information to farmers across the US about how to farm 
using sustainable practices, and it shouldn't be cut.

Find your Representatives here...
Find your Senators here... 
Background:
• For twenty years, ATTRA has been one of the most reliable sources of 
information for farmers and others who want fact-based information on a wide 
variety of agronomic, livestock, marketing, and entrepreneurial questions 
with reliable information, evaluated and summarized from its extensive 
database. 

• ATTRA is an extraordinarily efficient program. Though its funding has 
remained far too small, at $2.5 million since FY02, it accomplishes great 
work for farmers and consumers around the nation! ATTRA's services are in 
great demand, exceeding 37,000 technical requests last year and drawing over 
2.6 million unique visitors to its website, from which there were more than 
673,000 publication downloads.

It is phone calls like yours that have protected ATTRA and other sustainable 
agriculture funding in the past.

THANK YOU again for contacting your House representative and senators 
immediately to keep ATTRA's 2007 funding from being cut!

For more about the ATTRA information service, click here... 


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