It's time to swamp the change.gov site with comments.  It's time to roll up our sleeves and work that much harder.  Power to the people!

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world." -- Mahatma Ghandi

I hope that is not a bolt from the blue for most of us. We did not make our lives easier by getting him into office. We merely traded one set of difficulties for another set of difficulties. It is a set of difficulties I am happy to be burdened by, compared to eating bitterness under Bush. They are difficulties all the same.

But! On January 21, 2009 we will start it all over again. No vacations. No easy street. Our work will continue.

Yeah. I know. Life sucks.

Randy Cunningham
Cleveland, OH

Randy Cunningham

Bailouts (economic stimulus) to include the corn ethanol industry. (This has been predicted by me and several others in previous postings, long before our current economic crisis.)

Push to increase the "blend wall" of ethanol/gasoline from 10% to higher levels to maintain progress toward meeting the federal renewable fuels standard.  

Recently, delegates at the Illinois Farm Bureau state meeting "recommended the State of Illinois set a goal of incorporating a minimum of 20 percent overall ethanol into gasoline used statewide by 2012." FarmWeek, Dec. 15, 2008

The advocates of this push to increase blend percentages see this as an essential to moving past 15 billion gallons toward the national 36 billion gallon goal.  They want to do this ahead of the actual commercial production of cellulosic ethanol, "facilitating" the environment for "greener" ethanol.    

I think we are probably safe in characterizing the new Ag department headed by Vilsack as continuing to play the tune of big ag as represented by Monsanto, Dupont, ADM, Conagra, John Deere, etc.

The technocratic elites are alive and well in the Obama administration.  Any other presidency would have provided the same "choice".      

So long, it's been good to know ya'...This song goes through my head each and every time I hear about some venal pol getting a slot in the "new" Obama administration. Another nail in the coffin of progressive ideas and solutions, each new blow to the head a signal that it is anything but change which is coming to DC. Might as well prepare for the long slog of national penury and environmental degredation to come as industrial ag destroys our soil for fun and profit. A few thousand wind turbines would do more good for farmer's than Monsanto's flim-flam science. I tells ya', these farmer's are being sold a bill of goods. And now, Obama just sh*t on them.

The mellotron is your friend.

"these farmer's are being sold a bill of goods" archigeek

From my view here in corn/bean land, most farmers I see are quite willing technician accomplices in making the Big Ag system feasible.  I would say that most of them are quite enthralled with the "progress" of modern agriculture.  They bought it a long time ago.  Just don't ask them if any of it is sustainable.  Theirs is not to question why.  Theirs it to make the machine go. And they are masters at it.  

This is heartbreaking news! We definitely need to put pressure on the transition team about this one. And remember - these guys have to get by Congress, so tell your Senators and Representatives that this is unacceptable!

I noticed in one of the posts a list of USDA's Food & Nutrition Service positions that are political appointees where some pressure now might be called for.  For the record, the regional administrators are not political appointees.  They are career feds, though as members of the Senior Executive Service, they can be moved around at will.

Perhaps Obama could have done worse, but we know he could have done much better. I would place Vilsack in about the same category as Ann Veneman or John Block, not much there for sustainable or organic farmers.

Seems about all Obama is changing is his mind, and that worries me.

The Senate is not going to block confirmation of a former Democratic governor from Iowa for Secretary of Agriculture, and Obama is not going to withdraw him.  I understand the disappointment of the sustainable ag community.  The cold fact is that Vilsack was obviously popular in one of the nation's leading farm states.

My heart bleeds too, but it's apparent with all the populations growth, we're going to need technology and GMO's to feed all the hungry humans, and the grains needed to satisfy protein rich diets.  I lament with others, this is not what I had hoped from the Obama Change Gang.

Those concerned with quality will grow as much as they can themselves, join a CSA, buy from local, organic sources.  Eat the View is an interesting group trying to sort out the facts.  In essence, there will be a larger division between the clean green and the big machine.  Each of us must be the ones to decide which team we're on, and who we support. What you buy is what you vote.

As for me and mine, we'll see you from up on our roof garden, or see you out there on our bikes, of course, riding to the Farmer's Market.

JD & Kelley Howell of Eugene, OR. visit us: Cut20.blogspot.com

I can't believe we have another biotech czar in charge of Ag again!!! It could have only been worse if Michael Taylor himself were appointed. I knew working with the Clintons would be a mistake. They were big biotech supporters, too. I guess Monsanto will continue to be laughing at our folly all the way to the bank. Too, bad.

"For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide, to dispel the misery of the world." - Shantideva

The subsidy for corn will never be cut now. Sugar cane or a sourghum hybred is much higher in BTU and the waste can be used as a fuel for ethanol production. Corn as a food stock that has a heavy subsidy to stay afloat needs to go.

It will never happen now with an ex Iowa governor who is married to corn.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

The Organic Consumers Association is calling all supporters of organic agriculture to take action to oppose Vilsack's confirmation by signing the petition at StopVilsack.org