As usual, the Democrats are wedded to the corporate world, whose enormous PR machine drowns out the views of scientists and citizens.

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

The only shred of hope I have is that it turns out that Ken Salazar is a big supporter of agrichar - to the point of sponsoring a standalone piece of legislation on the subject. Plus the USDA is already funding a fair amount of agrichar research (including test farms).  It represents a real opportunity to push the biofuel debate in the right direction and away from ethanol of all kinds.  Corn stover, after all, is prime agrichar fuel.

More analysis here

Beyond Green http://weaversway.coop/blog/

This just in from the Draft Pollan for Sec'y of Ag folks:

"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) //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_3jwvfZLPjE').innerHTML = output; //]]> with your suggestion of a question or two to have asked during the hearings.

   Research and indentify one person from your state you'd like to have in an Undersecretary post and why.  We're working on updating the website and intend on being the most complete repository for information on Undersecretary Candidates friendly to the Pollan agenda.  Be as complete as possible and provide links for further research.

   Think of a new name for a Food/Eater's Coalition that Pollan for Secretary of Ag will transform into and let us know.  We're not done with our work here.  On the contrary, we're just beginning.

Blane Friest

Pollan for Secretary of Agriculture

http://www.pollanforsecretaryofagriculture.org"

The Orion Grassroots Network: supporting grassroots groups working for conservation, justice, & more