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- <text id=91TT1133>
- <title>
- May 27, 1991: American Notes:Agriculture
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- May 27, 1991 Orlando
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 27
- American Notes
- AGRICULTURE
- The Red Tape Made Me Do It
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Honesty may still be the best policy--but it is not always
- the one they are following out on the back forty. In a poll of
- readers by Farm Futures, a Minne sota-based agriculture magazine
- (circ. 205,000), more than half the respondents thought farmers'
- ethical standards had slipped during the past 10 years, and 30%
- admitted that they occasionally stretched the rules. The lapses
- often involved cheating on income taxes and government programs.
- Red tape seems to be a leading cause of the ethical backsliding:
- 60% of those polled agreed that "it would be impossible to make
- a living if farmers followed all the rules and regulations made
- in Washington." Environmental concerns also took a back seat to
- economic self-interest, says Claudia Waterloo, Farm Futures'
- editor in chief. "Only 70% of the farmers we surveyed said
- they'd notify authorities if pesticides spilled into a creek."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-