Whither Obama's food/ag policy?
I don't think I'm a jaded enough observer of Washington's ways to figure it out. But here's what I know.
- The transition named its "team members" looking at energy and natural resources agencies, which includes USDA. The list includes Michael R. Taylor, a man who spent his career bouncing between the employ of GMO-seed giant Monsanto and Bill Clinton's FDA and USDA. Taylor is widely credited with ushering Monsanto's recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) through the FDA regulatory process and into the milk supply.
- Over on Ethicurean, Steph Larsen of Center For Rural Affairs has a good post on the dreary realpolitik around who gets to be the next USDA chief. Have you seen those lists (like this one) that contain names like Hightower and Pollan? Forget about it, Steph says. According to Steph: "The process of becoming Secretary of Agriculture begins long before a presidential election. Candidates typically have myriad political connections and make themselves useful in the campaign of the eventual winner. By election time, the list of possibilities is already well-established." That means the petition currently being circulated to demand Pollan be chosen is doomed. And anyway, who would leave an endowed Berkeley professorship and a regular gig at The New York Times Magazine to run a sprawling bureaucracy?
- So who are the serious candidates for USDA chief? Steph's post contains a list, and here's one from Reuters and another from an ag trade publication. These are hardly inspiring names. Even in this era of "change," it seems like you generally need to have proven your fealty to GMOs and corn-based ethanol to win serious consideration as USDA chief. Former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, who briefly vied for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2007, is emerging as a front-runner. Vilsack hews tightly to the biotech-industry party line; and he hotly promoted corn-based ethanol while governor. On the other hand, none other than Grist's own David Roberts declared his energy plan during last year's Democratic primaries the "ballsiest and most detailed any candidate from either party has offered." And Ferd Hoefner of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition told me that Big Ag commodity groups had mounted a backroom campaign against Vilsack's bid for USDA chief. Evidently, the former governor is more of a champion of conservation programs than they can tolerate.
- There are certainly more egregious names on the short list than Vilsack. Last week, Pennsylvania ag secretary Dennis Wolff emerged as a contender. Wolff is notorious for unilaterally trying to prevent his state's dairy farmers for labeling their milk rBGH-free. Former Texas congressman and Big Ag lobbyist Charles Stenholm is another profoundly depressing name.
- One name I'm intrigued by is John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association. Boyd helped lead the fight to hold USDA accountable for its long history of stiffing black farmers; his nomination is being championed by the Congressional Black Caucus. Virginia-based Boyd himself runs a relatively small-scale farm; seems like his position as a USDA outsider might lead him to champion the interests of small farmers in an agency that's long been beholden to large industrial operations.
- Michael Pollan, who recently laid out an ambitious blueprint for ag policy in the next administration that Obama says he has read, recently appeared on the Brian Lehrer show. Pollan expressed optimism that Obama would move in progressive directions on ag, declaring the president-elect the most synthesis-oriented chief executive we've had in a long time. Pollan laughed off speculation that he could be appointed USDA chief, noting that the marijuana chapter of Botany of Desire would cause vetting trouble; and pushed the idea, which he first floated on Grist, that Obama name a "food czar."
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Comments
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ssn139 Posted 1:57 am
19 Nov 2008
I wouldn't expect anything more than modest changes at lower levels, at least until Obama has had a chance to pass the rest of his domestic adgenda.
Learn. Discuss. Act.
http://www.thefiniteworld.com
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archigeek Posted 2:21 am
19 Nov 2008
The mellotron is your friend.
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VegHead Posted 5:12 am
19 Nov 2008
Buis has been the president of the National Farmers Union since 2006 and while in charge, he has improved the direction of NFU's policies on organics, biotechnology, country-of-origin labeling, irradiation and more. I think that he would be a very good choice and after all one must look at who he lobbies for - small family farms, not the big agribusinesses or industrial farms. Out of the list of serious contenders, he would be the best bet and we certainly need to put up a fight against the others!
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Clare D Posted 6:29 am
19 Nov 2008
Tom looks good on paper, no doubt. But every time the doors close and the deals are struck, he sells out on the changes that will make a difference for the environment and family farms. Buis is not a "sustainable agriculture" guy or an "organic" guy, he's just as much for conventional, industrial agriculture as Farm Bureau. He just hides it better.
As an example, National Farmers Union's top priority in the farm bill was country of origin labeling (COOL). While a good idea, it does little to promote fairness in agricultural markets that would actually help small farmers compete. NFU has policies on fair competition and ways to decrease the concentration in agriculture, but they won't work those issues to legislators when it matters because politically it's too controversial.
Another issue Buis supports is linking subsidy payments to the cost of production. Except that this gives free rein to Monsanto to jack up their prices as high as they want, at the government's expense. It won't actually help farmers, and Buis knows that. But it will help all the friends he's gotten close to in agribusiness.
One more thing...when asked, Tom Buis claims to be a farmer. Yet he hasn't lived or worked on a farm in over 20 years. That's just not honest.
Tom Buis is a wolf in sheep's clothing, and if he becomes Secretary of Agriculture we'll get to see first hand just how sharp those teeth are.
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VegHead Posted 7:54 am
19 Nov 2008
Vilsack was endorsed by BIO as well as founded the Governors' Biotechnology Partnership.
After being defeated for reelection, Stenholm became a prominent lobbyist for the horse meat industry and a major opponent of the Horse Slaughter Prohibition Bill that passed in the House.
Wolff pushed the ban on rbGH labeling in Pennsylvania before Governor Rendell overruled him.
Peterson has received support and endorsements from pro-biotech and big industry for his role as Chair of House Agriculture Committee.
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