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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Like Nixon to China, Vilsack reshaping USDA landscape
  • Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:11:22 -0700


Subject: Like Nixon to China, Vilsack reshaping USDA landscape

Welcome to the Rodale Institute web update newsletter.
Having trouble viewing this message? Go to
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/Newsletter for our latest edition.

Few of his contemporaries expected President Richard M. Nixon to break with
Cold War politics and open full diplomatic relations the People’s
Republic of China in 1972. Because he was playing against type (a moderate
Republican reaching out to a staunchly Communist regime), he had
credibility that a more liberal leader could not have mustered. The
breathtaking move stunned conservatives, as it largely jettisoned ideology
for more pragmatic considerations in U.S.-China relations.

We’re on the cusp of a similarly noteworthy shift in the posture of the
USDA under its new secretary, Tom Vilsack of Iowa. Initially dismissed by
many progressive food and farming activists as a tool of corporate
agribusiness, the new leader is making waves several times a day in what is
starting to feel like a tsunami of positive change. Consider these items:

On February 5, Vilsack says he wants to expand farmers' choices to include
opportunities in energy—such as wind, solar and geothermal power—and in
the growing market for organic and whole foods.

On February 21, Vilsack makes his first visit to a farm group outside
Washington, addressing 300 farmers and agriculture professionals at the
Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund’s Georgia
Farmer’s Conference. He said he wanted to send a message that the USDA is
serious about civil rights issues. He admitted that “some folks refer to
USDA as’ the last plantation,’ and it has a pretty poor history of
taking care of people of color.”
On February 24, Vilsack announces that Kathleen Merrigan will be his deputy
secretary, putting the person who drafted Organic Foods Production Act of
1990 into the Department’s number 2 position.

On February 25, Vilsack is “called out” for skipping the 2009 Commodity
Classic in Grapevine, Texas—the annual pow-wow of conventional corn,
soybean, sorghum and wheat growers and agri-business powers. The official
blog of Hoosier Ag Today radio quoted an American Soybean Association
officer as saying of Vilsack: “Even though he is from the state of Iowa,
he has a tendency not to lean towards truly production and modern
agriculture, and we have to work on that.”

On February 26, Vilsack says cuts to U.S. farm commodity payments will be
directed at farmers and ranchers with large incomes and big sales, and
could affect 3 percent of U.S. farmers.

Do you feel the earth moving yet? Commodity lobbyists are already swarming
Capitol Hill to hogtie their Congressional friends, but the horse of food
policy change seems to be out of the barn. However, it will be a long, hard
run. If you don’t have a trusted group advocating for organic and
sustainable agricultural decisions on your behalf, now is the time to
engage one.

In this update, written amidst the background of national changes, we look
at:
Why Jeff Moyer, farm director at the Rodale Institute, is willing to work
at hammering out a sustainability standard for agriculture with industrial
ag leaders, when most organic and community food-security groups are not.
Read more >>

How a mixture of organic farms in the Northeastern United States looked to
a visiting Danish agricultural journalist. Hint: He was impressed with
dairy breeding and weed management, but felt that nutrient accounting was
quite lax compared to the rules back home. Read more >>

Greg Bowman from the Rodale Institute

P.S. These are incredibly difficult times for all dairy farmers as milk
prices have fallen below the cost of production, and keep falling. Buy what
you can from the producers and companies you most hope will survive,
because many may not.





  • [Livingontheland] Like Nixon to China, Vilsack reshaping USDA landscape, Tradingpost, 02/26/2009

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