Political Quotes

“fertilizers provide essential nutrients to the food we eat. Without fertilizer, roughly one-third of the world's people would go hungry. Ammonium nitrate fertilizer is an effective source of nitrogen that all crops need to grow. Thousands of American farmers value its use in certain applications including cool weather fertilization and other low-till cropping systems. Thus, the continued availability of ammonium nitrate fertilizer to U.S. farmers has economic, agronomic and environmental benefits to farmers and society as a whole. At the same time, the April 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City showed America that this highly valuable fertilizer can be subject to adulteration and misuse by criminals intent on engaging in acts of terror. After the Oklahoma City tragedy, Congress enacted legislation calling for a study on the feasibility and practicability of imposing controls on certain precursor chemicals, including ammonium nitrate. Congress recognized that it is simply not possible for the agriculture community to guarantee against the criminal misuse of ammonium nitrate or for any community to guarantee that the thousands of everyday products that can be converted to criminal use will not be misused by those with the intent and capability to do so. Over the past 10 years, the security landscape has continued to change.…”