Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

December 18, 2008
Tom Vilsack's Kind of Agriculture
Another Shill for Monsanto
http://www.counterpunch.org/cummins12182008.html
By RONNIE CUMMINS

Yesterday's announcement that former Iowa Governor, Tom Vilsack, has been
selected as the new Secretary of Agriculture sent a chill through the
sustainable food and farming community who have been lobbying for a
champion in the new administration.

"Vilsack's nomination sends the message that dangerous, untested, unlabeled
genetically engineered crops will be the norm in the Obama Administration,"
said Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of Organic Consumers Association.
"Our nation's future depends on crafting a forward-thinking strategy to
promote organic and sustainable food and farming, and address the related
crises of climate change, diminishing energy supplies, deteriorating public
health, and economic depression.”

The Department of Agriculture during the Bush Administration failed to
promote a sustainable vision for food and farming and did not protect
consumers from the chemical-intensive toxic practices inherent to
industrial agriculture. While factory farms and junk food have been
subsidized with billions of tax dollars, the US industrial farm system has
released massive amounts of climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere and increased our dependence on foreign oil.

The Secretary of Agriculture is responsible for directing the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and its $97 billion annual budget, including the
National Organic Program, food stamp and nutrition programs, agriculture
subsidies, and the Forest Service.

 While Vilsack has worked to restrain livestock monopolies, his overall
record is one of aiding and abetting Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
(CAFOs, also known as factory farms). Vilsack’s support for unsustainable
industrial ethanol production has already caused global corn and grain
prices to skyrocket, literally taking food off the table for a billion
people in the developing world.

Over the past month, Organic Consumers Association members have sent over
20,000 emails to President-Elect Obama’s Transition Team, calling for the
appointment of a Secretary of Agriculture who would develop and implement a
plan that promotes family-scale farming, a safe and nutritious food system,
and a sustainable and organic vision for the future.

"Obama's choice for Secretary of Agriculture points to the continuation of
agribusiness as usual, the failed policies of chemical- and
energy-intensive, genetically engineered industrial agriculture," said
Cummins. "Americans were promised ‘change,’ not just another shill for
Monsanto and corporate agribusiness. Considering the challenges we
collectively face as a nation, from climate change and rising energy costs
to food insecurity, we need an administration that moves beyond ‘business
as usual’ to fundamental change—before it’s too late,” concluded
Cummins.

Vilsack’s business as usual positions have included the following:

    ·     Vilsack has been a strong supporter of genetically engineered
pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn.

     ·     The biggest biotechnology industry group, the Biotechnology
Industry Organization, named Vilsack Governor of the Year. He is also the
founder and former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership.

     ·     When Vilsack created the Iowa Values Fund, his first poster
child for economic development was Trans Ova and their pursuit of cloning
dairy cows.

     ·     The undemocratic 2005 seed pre-emption bill was the
Vilsack’s brainchild. The law strips local government’s right to
regulate genetically engineered seed.

     ·     Vilsack is an ardent supporter of corn and soy based biofuels,
which use as much or more energy to produce as they generate and drive up
world food prices, literally starving the poor.

The OCA has launched an online petition campaign at www.stopvilsack.orgto
mobilize hundreds of thousands of people to oppose Vilsack's Senate
confirmation.

Additionally, OCA's nationwide network of 850,000 organic consumers are
urging members of Congress to move beyond business as usual and implement a
comprehensive strategy for organic food and farming in 2009 and beyond.

Ronnie Cummins is director of the Organic Consumers Alliance. He can be
reached at: ronnie@organicconsumers.org.