Though initially skeptical, the farm lobby has accepted the foundation's help. Two years ago, Buddy Hance, then president of the Maryland Farm Bureau, said farmers and the foundation were "dating." Hance, now assistant state agriculture secretary, said the relationship has only strengthened since then.
"Some of the environmental organizations have not taken the time, like CBF has, to go out and talk to farmers and understand the obstacles they deal with every day," Hance said.
Farm pollution has decreased during the past decade, both because of new programs and because many farms have gone out of business, according to government officials. But agriculture remains the largest source of bay pollution. Last year, farm runoff carried nearly 290 million pounds of nitrogen into the bay, far more than the 184 million pound goal.
Former state Sen. Gerald W. Winegrad said the foundation's failure to take on the farm lobby has left a leadership void on the largest source of bay pollution.
"The bay overall is a disaster, and the leading cause of that disaster is agriculture," he said. "You couple this with the position of the 500-pound gorilla in the environmental field of the bay, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, taking a hands-off approach to agriculture ... and you have a disaster in environmental leadership, too."
Winegrad said the softer approach stems from the public's perception of farmers as salt-of-the-earth good guys. But Howard Ernst, a political science professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and longtime foundation critic, said he thinks the group chose the carrot approach because getting money to help farmers control pollution is easier than trying to pass and enforce regulations.
Though perhaps well-intentioned, Ernst said, the strategy is wrong-headed.
"CBF starts with the assumption that farmers have a right to pollute our waterways. Once you start with that assumption, it makes sense to give incentives to help the polluters," Ernst said. "In their bid to become moderate and accommodating, they've become ineffective."
rona.kobell@baltsun.com
