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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Change We Can Believe In, or a Second Helping of the Same-Old?
  • Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:54:15 -0700


Change We Can Believe In, or a Second Helping of the Same-Old?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paula-crossfield/change-we-can-believe-in_b_15
8923.html
January 18, 2009 | 04:54 PM (EST)

As the stage is being set for 44 to take the reigns on Tuesday in the most
anticipated inauguration maybe ever, last minute appointments are still
being made. Unfortunately for those of us who strive for a better food
system, not all of of those being considered want to help our cause.

Tom Vilsack may have initially disappointed, but I feel that he is someone
that at least we in the sustainable community can work with (especially
considering Denise O'Brien's encouraging words about him). Needless to say,
though, there are undersecretaries who heavily influence policy decisions,
and by extension what is being eaten in the U.S -- and the news ain't good.

The word going around is that up for consideration for a USDA position is
Joy Philippi, the former president of the National Pork Producers Council
and a champion of the pork lobby (read: will protect CAFOs at all costs, as
the operator of a hog confinement operation herself). Remember when Hillary
Clinton got into a bungle when she named her the Co-Chair for Rural
Americans? Well I naively thought Obama was different.

Also in the running is Dennis Wolff, the former Pennsylvania Secretary of
Agriculture, who sided with Monsanto in fighting to keep information about
artificial growth hormones (rBGH) off milk labels. This is bad news indeed.

I hate to put a damper on your inaugural enthusiasm, but the time to act is
now if we hope to at least have someone with an interest in building a
better food system at the table. So what can you do about it? Well, you
might have already signed the Food Democracy Now! petition, along with over
74,000 others, which gives its "Sustainable Dozen," a group of
well-qualified change-agents who could do good by our soil and get us on
the track to a better food system. Now it is time to get everyone you know
to sign it. Everyone eats, and as such, everyone has a stake in the policy
being made at the top -- and perhaps all they need is a little nudge.

Besides signing the petition, you can write your House Reps (Here are the
Reps on the House Agriculture Committee) and Senators (Here is the website
for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry), or even
do as Bonnie Powell at Ethicurian suggests, and email Obama's Agriculture
transition team directly.

There is no time to lose, so get crackin' -- and if you are headed to the
inauguration, for goodness sake Eat Well, and use the tool Eat Well
Everywhere http://eatwellguide.org/travel_map to map your trip and find
delicious roadside eats instead of corn-laden deep-fried industrial ag
meats. I'll toast to that!





  • [Livingontheland] Change We Can Believe In, or a Second Helping of the Same-Old?, Tradingpost, 01/19/2009

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