For the first time ever, I would wager, an incoming president’s USDA pick has emerged from the back news pages and into the national conversation.
On the radio, three shows I know of devoted significant time to the topic. NPR’s Morning Edition interviewed Michael Pollan this morning; The Takeaway featured New York State farmer Ben Shute and the Environmental Working Group’s Sandra Schubert on the topic; and Democracy Now! interviewed Brian Moore of the National Audubon Society and Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association.
Meanwhile, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff opined in today’s column, declaring the choice of Vilsack "unfortunate," deploring his "longstanding ties to agribusiness interests," and calling him Obama’s "weakest selection so far."
I find this extremely encouraging. Typically, USDA chiefs make and interpret policy in complete obscurity. Vilsack finds himself in the limelight.
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Colin Wright Posted 5:35 am
18 Dec 2008
Kudos to Ronnie Cummins for his grassroots campaign (http://stopvsack.org) to educate the public. The only way we are going to save the planet is with the blood, sweat and tears of all of us.
Look at the Democracy Now interview and contrast his views with those of Brian Moore of the National Audubon Society:
RONNIE CUMMINS: Well, the organic community and sustainable ag community are very disappointed in the appointment of Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. You know, Obama promised us change. What he's given us here at best is small change. We've got a big problem; we need big change.
This notion that genetically engineered crops can feed the world or that, you know, corn-based ethanol and soybean-based biofuels can solve the energy crisis are, of course, completely discredited. If they're serious about solving the climate crisis, they need to take note of the fact that American industrial agriculture uses about 19 percent of all of our fossil fuels and cranks out about 37 percent of our climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases. So if we're going to solve the climate crisis with a 80 or 90 percent reduction in greenhouse pollution, not 70 percent, we're going to have to transform America's energy-intensive, chemical-intensive genetically engineered agricultural system into an organic [inaudible] in transition to organic system, which can sequester 40 percent of all of our greenhouse gases in the soil, which uses 30 to 50 percent less energy and which can produce healthy food, as opposed to the, you know, current food system, which is subsidized factory farms and junk food
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tlaskawy Posted 6:57 am
18 Dec 2008
More analysis here
Beyond Green
http://weaversway.coop/blog/
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Erik Hoffner Posted 4:44 am
19 Dec 2008
"By now I'm sure that most, if not all of you have learned Obama has selected Tom Vilsack as his nominee for Sec'y of Agriculture. We are extremely disappointed that Obama didn't select a true outsider and reformer in Michael Pollan but a centrist in Vilsack.
Please listen to Pollan's response to Vilsack's acceptance speech on NPR's Morning edition , it's 4 ½ minutes which really lays out the challenges in front of us. Obama's Press Conference comments on 'biotech' (at 3:55) are especially troubling. Skip forward to view Vilsack's acceptance (begins at 9:00).
Pollan for Secretary of Agriculture will continue our work until the petition is presented to the appropriate party. We're close. Stay tuned.
It would be a sin not to harness the enthusiasm we've felt from you all for the cause and we're keeping the momentum going. For that reason, PSA is in the process of transforming into a powerful new Food/Eater's coalition.
Expect to see a new Action Alert Monday, which will contain discussion points, direct and challenging questions that we demand get asked during the confirmation hearings.
We'd love your input on the following:
By Sunday noon, respond to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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