shop online at www.missourivalleyshopper.com April 25, 2017 • Page 9 Celebrating Earth Day by Doing Our Part By Mike Jaspers South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture Spring is upon us here in South Dakota! The pastures are greening; lambing and calving are under way; and planting is just around the corner. The weather is getting nicer allowing all of us to spend some more time outside, enjoying the beauty South Dakota has to offer. Whether fishing on the Missouri, checking calves from horseback or simply listening to the birds while enjoying a morning cup of coffee, we have much to appreciate and enjoy. We also all have a responsibility to do our part to protect our natural resources so that our kids, grandkids and their grandkids can enjoy the beauty of our great state. That is a responsibility producers and your department of agriculture take very seriously. Although for those of us in agriculture who depend on the land for our livelihood, every day is Earth Day, this year we officially celebrate Earth Day April 22. From a young age, we have all learned about the importance of recycling. This is especially important for agricultural producers as they ensure the proper disposal of pesticides and pesticide containers. The department of agriculture offers a pesticide container collection service at almost 40 locations around the state. Producers can drop off their rinsed con- Weekly Column: Protecting Life By Rep. Kristi Noem I still remember the first time Bryon and I heard our oldest daughter Kassidy’s heartbeat. There was no baby bump – yet. No baby clothes in the closet. No name picked out. I’m not even sure how many people in our family knew we were expecting at that point, but with the rapid, muffled thuds of our baby’s heartbeat in the background, we knew our lives were already changed. I believe every life, including an unborn baby’s life, has dignity and value. But more than 40 years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in direct contradiction to those principles. In the decades since, I – along with many in South Dakota – have been fighting to undo the damage. While there’s still a long way to go, we’ve recently taken some meaningful steps forward. President Trump came into office with a promise to nominate a Supreme Court Justice who would protect the constitutional rights of the unborn. I’m hopeful the confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch fulfilled that promise and I was glad to see him take the Oath of Office this April. Days later, the president signed H.J.Res.43, which empowered states to defund abortion facilities, like Planned Parenthood. Now, states can instead choose to use this money to support non-abortion-providing clinics that offer greater accessibility and a broader range of preventive health care services to women. In South Dakota, there are more than 100 federally qualified health centers or rural health clinics that could benefit from these funds, but only one Planned Parenthood center. To say that we must fund Planned Parenthood or deny thousands of women care is a false choice. We can support women’s health – and • Farm Filters • Hydraulic Hoses • Bearings & Seals Cox Auto 1007 Broadway Ave. • Yankton • 665-4494 Hartington Tree LLC TREE TRIMMING, REMOVALS & TRANSPLANTING TREES FOR SALE EVERGREEN • SHADE • ORNAMENTAL Yankton 605-260-1490 Hartington 402-254-6710 Serving Southeast SD & Northeast NE for 20 Years Kent & Kyle Hochstein • Licensed Arborists www.hartingtontree.com By Sen. John Thune The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement between the United States and a number of Asia-Pacific countries was designed to open new markets for American goods overseas by reducing or eliminating burdensome tariffs faced by U.S. producers. In the wake of the decision to bow out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), we need to look for alternate ways to help U.S. producers so that America can compete and win in the global economy. One of the first things we should do to help American producers is negotiate a bilateral trade deal with Japan, the largest and most important market for U.S. goods among the TPP countries. In 2014, Japan purchased more than $64 billion in goods from American producers, including more than $6 billion in agricultural products, more than $9 billion in transportation equipment, and more than $8 billion in computers and electronic products. Despite this strong relationship, however, many U.S. businesses face hefty tariffs on the products they sell in Japan. U.S. trade negotiators made major progress on these trade barriers as part of TPP, and it’s critical that we take advantage of the work they did by reaching a bilateral agreement with Japan without delay. One of the U.S. industries that would benefit significantly from a bilateral agreement with Japan is the beef industry. Japan is already the largest export market for U.S. beef, but American beef producers are at a great disadvantage compared to their Japanese counterparts. Right now, American beef faces a hefty 38.5 percent tariff in Japan. Combine that with the fact that beef prices in the U.S. are historically low, and it is clear that American beef and other agriculture producers must be included in a future agreement with Japan. American Ron’s Auto Glass Home Auto Business Glass Repair & Replacement 605-665-9841 fied chemicals and would like assistance disposing of them, please call (605.773.4432) or email (agmail@state. sd.us). There is a form that needs to be completed to assist with coordination of picking them up. Since 1993, the department has collected and properly disposed of over one million pounds of unidentified chemicals. The first Earth Day was celebrated just one month after I was born. Agriculture has changed dramatically over my lifetime, but the care that producers have for the land has not. Proper disposal of pesticides and recycling of containers is just one thing we do to be the best possible caretakers of the earth that we can be. Bilateral Trade Agreement with Japan Needed specifically, health care for low-income women – without supporting abortion providers. I was proud to cosponsor this legislation, which notably doesn’t take a penny from women’s health initiatives, and was thrilled to see it earn the president’s signature. But more must be done. Time and again, Congress has opposed taxpayerfunded abortions with bipartisan support. Annual provisions, including the Hyde Amendment, have been passed repeatedly, saving an estimated 2 million innocent lives. Even with this provision in place, however, Obamacare has allowed your tax dollars to flow to over 1,000 abortion-covering health plans. That’s unacceptable. We need to make the Hyde Amendment permanent and government-wide. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which I cosponsored and the House passed, would accomplish that. Additionally, I’m working to protect doctors, nurses and others who don’t want to participate in abortions. In some cases, these individuals have faced discrimination and retribution for sticking to their principles. That shouldn’t happen. I’ve cosponsored legislation to protect these individuals and I’m fighting to see it pass the House and hopefully be signed into law soon. Bryon and I knew our lives had changed when we heard Kassidy’s heartbeat for the first time and I hope she knows just how proud we are of the generous, compassionate person she’s become. She’s grown up quickly and I love to think back on those days when I was still taller than her. We read a lot together back then. One of our favorites was Dr. Seuss’s “Horton Hears a Who,” which reads, in part: “A person is a person no matter how small.” Each time we read that line, I’d think back to those first muffled thuds. “A person is a person, no matter how small.” Let Our Family Business keep yours in the go with: tainers at these locations, at no charge. After containers are collected, they are ground into small pieces and sent to facilities to be made into products like drain tiles, speed bumps or fence posts. Over the past two decades, more than two million containers have been recycled in the state. Sometimes pesticides, both for agriculture and household use, are found that can’t be identified or are unusable. In situations when it is not safe to use these products, they should be properly disposed of. The department’s waste pesticide program is also available at no cost to make sure chemicals are disposed of in a way that protects the environment. If you have any unidenti- 1915 Broadway Street, Yankton www.ronsautoglass.com beef producers are also at a significant disadvantage in Japan when compared to overseas competitors. In 2014, Australia concluded a trade agreement with Japan that currently gives its beef an 11 percent tariff advantage over U.S. producers’ as of January 1, 2017. Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, the tariff Japan imposes on U.S. beef would have been immediately reduced from 38.5 percent to 27.5 percent, and it would have continued to go down, eventually reaching 9 percent. That would have substantially increased U.S. beef’s competitiveness in the Japanese market and expanded a valuable market for U.S. beef producers. In the wake of TPP, my home state of South Dakota would dramatically benefit from a bilateral trade agreement with Japan that provides additional market access for our ranchers. South Dakota is home to 3.9 million head of cattle and more than 15,000 beef producers. Improving U.S. beef’s competitiveness in the Japanese and other Asia-Pacific markets could lead to substantial export growth, a priority for South Dakota producers. Our country has spent the past eight years stuck in the economic doldrums. Average economic growth for 2016 was a dismal 1.6 percent, and has averaged just under 1.5 percent during the entire Obama administration. Improving the health of our economy needs to be a priority, and one important way to do that is to open new markets for American-made goods. A bilateral trade agreement with Japan would dramatically boost the competitiveness of American producers in a major export market. I’m happy to hear that the administration is open to such an agreement, and I stand ready to support Senate approval of any trade agreement that will expand U.S. exports, create good-paying jobs, and help our economy thrive. 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