Oregon Lawmaker Wants to Ban Burning (grass seed field stubble)

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2007/feb/08/020808170.html

SILVERTON, Ore. (AP) - Around the world, golfers, soccer players and proud homeowners tread on grass grown from Oregon seed.

With its mild, rainy winters and warm, dry summers, Oregon is ideal for growing grass seed, and has been the world's No. 1 producer of grass seed for the past 50 years.

But dominance comes at a price: Every summer, after the grass is cut and the seeds are harvested, the farmers in the populous Willamette Valley, Oregon's main grass-growing region, burn away the stubble, creating towering pillars of smoke that make asthma victims suffer and alarm environmentalists.

A state lawmaker wants to end the burning, and is running into stiff opposition from the grass seed industry.

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