City folks win, farmers loose. And I'm a farmer who lives in the city. Do you know where your food, toilet paper and nice lawn come from folks?

Do you know where your asthma comes from?

You guys cried wolf when they cut burning back 20 years ago -- the world was going to end. Well, it didn't.

Funny thing: Poisoning people to make money isn't cool any more.

Yup, we've outlawed cutting trees. We are getting rid of damns for power. We don't allow fishing anymore; and now we finish off the grass industry. What the heck is Oregon going to produce? Oh yeah, art stuff, you go Oregon. Please quit wondering why we are number 2 in unemployment.

I visited eastern Oregon this past week. I can see why the rest of the state is fed up with Portlanders making the rules in Salem, and snuffing out their way of life in the process. This stupid law is one more example. So enjoy your organic beef while you can, because I'm certain one day that raising cattle will be outlawed as well.

Don, Too Bad, and Bilbo-

There are a lot of people in the valley, farmers even, who loathe the field burning practice. Don't hijack this into an evil-Portland rant.

What other farming practice kills people on the freeway?

Isaac,

When was the last time field burning killed someone on the highway?

I hate the fact field burning is going away but understand it's going to happen. So farmers, get ready to use even more chemicals that will run off into the waterways. That is until that practice is stopped by the legislature too.

So why do we have all these laws to save farmland from development when we are running farmers out of business?

A victory against field burning is a victory for Monsanto and Dow.

The smoke in the air [b]will[/b] be replaced with increased herbicide and pesticide use - chemicals that stay in the river sediment for years.

Yeah, the enviros are sure doing everyone a favor here.

"When was the last time field burning killed someone on the highway?"

There were those seven people killed in 1988 in that horrible inferno on I-5 just north of Eugene, caused by field burning smoke reducing visibility to near zero. That may or may not have been the last time, but it was certainly memorable. Of course that was over 20 years ago now; it probably doesn't count anymore.