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<h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:3.75pt;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:3.75pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:10.5pt'><b><font size=2
color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'><a
href="http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/10/25/92116/482?source=daily">http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/10/25/92116/482?source=daily</a></span></font></b><font
size=2 color=navy face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:navy'> </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></h2>
<h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:3.75pt;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:3.75pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:10.5pt'><b><font size=2
color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:3.75pt;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:3.75pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:10.5pt'><b><font size=2
color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'>The most politically powerful welfare recipients in the world<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<h3 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:3.75pt;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:3.75pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:140%'><b><font size=1
color="#666666" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:7.5pt;line-height:140%;
font-family:Verdana;color:#666666'>Posted by <a
href="http://gristmill.grist.org/user/David%20Roberts"><font color="#336699"><span
style='color:#336699'>David Roberts</span></font></a> at 9:21 AM on 25 Oct 2005
<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><em><i><font
size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:
Verdana'>We're happy to present this guest essay from Lloyd G. Carter, an
attorney and former journalist who has written about <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place> water issues since 1969. Carter
is president of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>
Save Our Streams Council.</span></font></i></em><font size=2 color="#333333"
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana;
color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>-----<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'><img
border=0 width=250 height=188 id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01C5DA12.A7F4EC40" class=blog>Remember the family farmer?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>He
was immortalized in Grant Wood's 1930 painting "<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gothic"><font color="#336699"><span
style='color:#336699'>American Gothic</span></font></a>": a grim,
hardscrabble stoic in overalls, grasping a pitchfork. Guess what? It wasn't
really a farmer. It was Wood's dentist posing as a farmer.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on"><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>Fresno</span></font></st1:PlaceName><font
size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:
Verdana'> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></span></font></st1:place><font
size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:
Verdana'>'s own philosopher/farmer, Victor Davis Hanson, announced years ago
that the family farmer was a figment of the urban imagination. Hanson wrote
that </span></font><strong><b><font face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'>the
multi-generational family farm has all but disappeared</span></font></b></strong><font
size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:
Verdana'> and that soon the only thing left will be "broke serfs and
thriving corporations."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>But
now a coalition of western San Joaquin Valley agribusiness interests have
launched a multi-million dollar media blitz to convince Californians that the
modern "family farmer" still exists -- and needs to keep consuming
colossal amounts of California river water. The statewide ad campaign includes
television spots, full page newspaper ads, bus stop billboards in big cities,
and even sponsorship of the "California Report" on National Public
Radio. The word "family" is repeated <em><i><font face=Verdana><span
style='font-family:Verdana'>ad nauseum</span></font></i></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><a
name=readmore></a><font size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>There are also two high-tech websites </span></font><strong><b><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'>defending agriculture's need for
over 80 percent of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>'s
developed water</span></font></b></strong><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>, and claiming
that massive water diversions from the Delta are having little or no impact on
the collapsing Delta fishery or Delta drinking supplies for 22 million
Californians.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>The
<a href="http://www.cfwc.com/"><font color="#336699"><span style='color:#336699'>California
Farm Water Coalition</span></font></a> campaign is funded primarily by the
Westlands Water District -- the largest water district in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place> -- and some adjacent
federal irrigation districts. Also helping win the hearts and minds of
urbanites are <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Tulare</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> growers like cotton
billionaire J.G. Boswell, Calcot (a cotton marketing organization), banking
interests, the California Farm Bureau, and Central Valley Project (CVP)
irrigation districts.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>At
stake is the seven million acre-feet of Northern California river water doled
out annually by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in its operation of the CVP, a
vast network of canals and dams stretching the length of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>'s Great Central Valley. Jason
Peltier, a former lobbyist for the CVP water districts, is now a key Interior
Department official involved in making sure growers lock up that seven million
acre-feet for another half century through contract renewal negotiations.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>Seven
million acre-feet is enough water to meet the annual domestic needs of 35 to 50
million people [an acre-foot is the volume of water that would cover one acre
to a depth of one foot]. Some 2.4 million acres of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place> farmland are now planted to
cotton, rice, wheat, corn, and other grains eligible for federal crop
subsidies, most of it irrigated with heavily-subsidized federal water. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><strong><b><font
size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:
Verdana'>Subsidized water to grow subsidized crops, pumped uphill with
subsidized electricity</span></font></b></strong><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>: Big agribusiness
wants to keep it that way and has made the little guy in overalls the poster
boy for its pitch.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>If
valued at only $100 an acre-foot, the Bureau's annual supply, donated by <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place> taxpayers, is
worth $700 million a year or $35 billion over the 50-year life of the contracts
(25-year contracts plus a virtually automatic 25-year renewal clause). The
urban retail value of that water is $600 an acre-foot, or $210 billion over the
50-year life of the contracts. You can see why the CVP growers want to convince
us to use precious water to grow surplus crops.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>Westlands'
600 growers have the most to gain, seeking to renew a contract for 1.15 million
acre-feet of water even though they have downsized 100,000 acres in their
942-square mile district and are seeking nearly a billion dollars from Congress
to build a drainage system for their selenium-polluted waste water.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><strong><b><font
size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:
Verdana'>Both environmental groups and conservative think tanks like the
Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute have attacked crop and water
subsidies as a colossal waste of taxpayers' money. </span></font></b></strong><font
size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:
Verdana'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>Nowhere
does the ad campaign mention the destruction of birds at the Kesterson National
Wildlife Refuge caused by ag wastewater from Westlands 20 years ago. Instead,
grower billboards show a healthy black-necked stilt bird and claim "farm
water" is "habitat" for wildlife.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>So
what is a family farm? Well, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently
working on developing a definition based on relative size. At stake is $20
billion a year in crop subsidies. You can bet the big guys will have their say.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>It
is true that farms owned by corporations or partnerships make up just two
percent of all farms in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place>
-- <i><span style='font-style:italic'>but</span></i>, they account for 15
percent of farm output.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>Very
large "family farms" (those with sales of $500,000 or more),
according to the USDA,</span></font><strong><b><font face=Verdana><span
style='font-family:Verdana'> make up about three percent of all farms but
produce about 35 percent of total American farm output on just 10 percent of
the land</span></font></b></strong><i><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana;font-style:italic'>.</span></font></i><font
size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:
Verdana'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>So
while it's true that there are still small family farmers, it is the big guys,
getting bigger all the time, who run the show. And they don't wear overalls. In
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>,
the subsidy checks get harvested every year, rain or shine. An affluent
neighborhood in North Fresno -- 50 miles from the Westlands "farms"
-- is home to wealthy growers who draw more subsidy money than any other zip
code in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>Hey,
the Waltons run a family store, right? It's called Wal-Mart. Bill Gates has a
family business. Doesn't everyone have a family? Is that the criteria for a
free ride from the government? Rep. George Miller, a long-time Westlands
critic, argues that "</span></font><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on"><strong><b><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'>California</span></font></b></strong></st1:State></st1:place><strong><b><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'>'s megafarms are the most
politically powerful welfare recipients in the world</span></font></b></strong><font
size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:
Verdana'>." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:3.75pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:3.75pt;line-height:140%'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>In
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>'s
modern version of American Gothic, peasants with pitchforks may live in
mansions, thanks to the taxpayers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2
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10.0pt;font-family:Verdana'> <a
href="http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/10/24/165843/87">Must read</a> (0
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font-family:Verdana;color:#666666'><!-- Comments section --><!-- Comment layout table -->For
story: <a href="http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/10/25/92116/482"><font
color="#336699"><span style='color:#336699'>The most politically powerful
welfare recipients in the world</span></font></a><br>
2 Comments | <a
href="http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/10/25/92116/482?source=daily#comment_form#comment_form"><font
color="#336699"><span style='color:#336699'>Post a Comment</span></font></a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:140%'><a name=1></a><strong><b><font
size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:140%;
font-family:Verdana'><!-- start comment -->Hidden subsidies/a question</span></font></b></strong><font
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<br>
Good stuff. The USDA's $15-25 billion per year in direct commodity subsidies
are well-known; this piece sheds light on the hidden, literally underground
government support on which industrial ag also depends. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:140%'><font size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>It's also good to see the babble about
"saving the family farm" eviscerated. Real family-scale farms exist
in spite of government support for megafarms; there's scant real government
support for small producers. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:140%'><font size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>One question for Carter. You write that
"Some 2.4 million acres of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>
farmland are now planted to cotton, rice, wheat, corn, and other grains
eligible for federal crop subsidies, most of it irrigated with
heavily-subsidized federal water." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:140%'><font size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>Yet when I think of the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, I think of monocrop
fruit-and-veg production, not grain and cotton. Does the cheap water you're
talking about in San Joaquin also amount to a hidden subsidy for our habit of
eating "fresh" tomatoes in January in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:City></st1:place>? <font color="#333333"><span
style='color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></font></span></font></p>
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<h3 style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:140%'><b><font size=1
color="#666666" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:7.5pt;line-height:140%;
font-family:Verdana;color:#666666'>by <a
href="http://gristmill.grist.org/user/uid:2988"><font color="#336699"><span
style='color:#336699'>Tom Philpott</span></font></a> at <a
href="http://gristmill.grist.org/comments/2005/10/25/92116/482/1#1"><font
color="#336699"><span style='color:#336699'>11:34 AM on 25 Oct 2005 </span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
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margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:3.75pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:140%'><a name=2></a><strong><b><font
size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:140%;
font-family:Verdana'>EWG databases on water subsidies</span></font></b></strong><font
size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:140%;
font-family:Verdana'><br>
<br>
Editor: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:140%'><font size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>Curious readers of Lloyd Carter's essay
on how big <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
agribusinesses hide behind the image of the family farmer, even as they get
millions of dollars worth of federal water subsidies, can learn more in
Environmental Working Group's series of investigations of the Central Valley
Project. The series includes databases showing just who gets the water and
how much it's worth -- information previously shielded from the public by
state law. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:140%'><font size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>Go to <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:140%'><font size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'><a
href="http://www.ewg.org/issues/siteindex/issues.php?issueid=5017"><font
color="#336699"><span style='color:#336699'>http://www.ewg.org/issues/siteindex/issues.php?issueid=5017</span></font></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:140%'><font size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:140%;font-family:Verdana'>Bill Walker<br>
EWG, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Oakland</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">CA</st1:State></st1:place><font color="#333333"><span
style='color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></font></span></font></p>
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<h3 style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:140%'><b><font size=1
color="#666666" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:7.5pt;line-height:140%;
font-family:Verdana;color:#666666'>by <a
href="http://gristmill.grist.org/user/uid:3153"><font color="#336699"><span
style='color:#336699'>deadline</span></font></a> at <a
href="http://gristmill.grist.org/comments/2005/10/25/92116/482/2#2"><font
color="#336699"><span style='color:#336699'>12:19 PM on 25 Oct 2005 </span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
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