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Sanibel poet Joe Pacheco took part in the April 10th pro-immigration rally in Fort Myers along with thousands more people than similar protests in larger cities, such as Indianapolis, Houston and Atlanta. Their goal is to seek amnesty or reform to allow roughly 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants to earn legal residency. Pacheco also marched on Washington DC four decades ago. In this essay, he compares the experiences.

Organizers of the Fort Myers rally plan a weeklong work stoppage and economic boycott beginning May 1 in Orlando.

Representatives from just about every environmental group in Southwest Florida gathered on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River Wednesday in downtown Fort Myers. They showed up for a rather dubious designation. A national organization deemed the river one of the ten most endangered in the United States. WGCU’s Valerie Alker reports.

Consumers will soon pay less for a gallon of milk -- but the price drop may put struggling Florida dairy farmers out of business. Dairy farmers have survived two bad hurricane seasons, which damaged property and killed cows. They also face environmental pressure and the lure to sell farmland to real estate developers. And now experts say the price of milk has not kept up with inflation, which may put many out of business. But Tom Pittman with Southeast Milk – a farmer owned coop – says Florida’s dairy farmers are a resilient group.

”They’re finding ways to cut costs I guess to really hang in there and go through the low period. A lot of them realize that the prices do cycle up and down and a lot of times the number of months with low milk prices tend to outnumber the months with high milk prices.”

Farmers saw a one-quarter cut in their prices between last fall and March. It will go down another 8 percent by June under controls set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Today Florida has 165 dairy farms. Four decades ago it had 500.

Consumers might have noticed milk is less expensive this month. But that lower cost is hurting Florida’s 165 dairy farms. Many have found themselves struggling to keep up with competition from other more productive states, to recover from hurricanes and to keep from selling out to developers.

A 25 percent drop in the price of milk paid to farmers since last fall plus another 8 percent drop expected next month may put many Florida dairymen out of business, says Tom Pittman of the farmer owned coop – Southeast Milk.

“The dairy farmers here are a resilient group and I do believe that most of them will be able to survive this downturn in milk prices but there’s going to be a few that are not going to survive and hopefully over the long term we have enough stay in business here to keep the Florida market supplied with milk.”

Pittman says commercial dairy farming is very competitive. The recent price drop will make it even harder for family farms to remain, furthering a trend in corporate farming nationwide.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has a new president.
Andrew McElwaine has led the organization for four months and already has numerous missions to tackle including Babcock Ranch, Southern Golden Gate Estates and Lake Okeechobee freshwater releases.

He was most recently the president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. McElwaine was also director of environmental programs at the Heinz Endowments and was legislative assistant for U.S. Senator John Heinz, Republican of Pennsylvania, in the mid to late 80’s.

The group ‘American Rivers’ will announce today it has put the Caloosahatchee on its annual list of most endangered rivers for 2006. Massive releases of highly-polluted water from Lake Okeechobee by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District threaten the health of the River. So the advocacy organization ranked it number 7 on this year’s list. President of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Andrew McElwaine, he says his organization lobbied to get the listing.
“It is I think a significant development for bringing national attention, we’ve had plenty of regional attention, but we need the national attention because ultimately the Army Corps of Engineers, a national agency, is responsible for its management, or mismanagement in this case.”
Each year, ‘American Rivers’ solicits nominations for the Most Endangered Rivers report, which highlights the waterways facing the most uncertain futures rather than those suffering from the worst chronic problems. The report highlights ten rivers that face a major turning point in the coming year, where the group says citizen action can make a difference.

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The city of Key West may soon start clearing its scenic streets of free-ranging chickens. Evidence linking transmission of avian flu to humans via contact with chickens is the reason. City Commissioner Bill Verge says its time for the sometimes ‘foul’ fowls to go.

“I mean one case of avian flu in key west would pretty well do in our tourist population – which is our whole economy - we don’t allow our dogs to run free down duval street and defecate in people’s yards and its animal control.”

More than two million people visit Key West every year. Verge says homeowners who want to keep chickens can – in a coop. The rest he says can rounded up and shipped out of town. Similar efforts at chicken control are underway in Miami and St. Augustine. So far, there have been no reported cases of Avian flu in the United States.

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