We've already got Tom Vilsack as the head of the USDA, but the Vilsack USDA will also be incredibly influenced by the Deputy Secretary. And I have bad news about that that requires immediate action by all progressives.
As you know, I've been advocating the "Sustainable Dozen" chosen by Food Democracy Now (go there and sign their petition!) as candidates for USDA Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary positions. Several of these Sustainable Dozen, including Chuck Hassebrook were being seriously considered. And then... a few DC-type people spoke up against him. What??? This election was a victory for CHANGE. So why is anyone being heeded when they advocate an anti-change agenda??
What's worse are the names that ARE still up for consideration (below the flip)...
The names now up for Deputy USDA Secretary are nasty pro-industrial ag, anti-sustainable ag people like the Big Bad Dennis Wolff of Pennsylvania. Wolff is known for unilaterally deciding that Pennsylvanians do not have a right to know whether their milk has artificial growth hormones in it or not (a policy that was thankfully overturned by the PA governor after much consumer outcry).
Furthermore, Joy Philippi, former past president of the National Pork Producers Council, co-chair the Rural Americans for Hillary is being considered for an under secretary position. The National Pork Producers Council is the lobby group for hog factory farms. That means we'd be installing the fox in the henhouse every bit as completely as Bush did during his eight years. Again, this is going against what Obama promised us, as he has promised to have an administration free of lobbyists.
Putting Dennis Wolff or others like him in as the #2 at the USDA would be an end to any hope for change in American agriculture during Obama's time as President. And if this election was a victory for Hope and Change, then choosing Wolff as Deputy Secretary (or another person with similar ideas as him) would directly violate what the people of this great country voted for on November 4.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
- Post about this on your blog.
- Sign the petition at Food Democracy Now.
- Write your Senator and Representative today. The best thing you can do right now is to send an email or a fax (as opposed to calling or sending snail mail). You can find your Representative here and your Senator here. Ask them to speak to the Obama transition team about this. Ask them to support reform candidates like Chuck Hassebrook or others in the Sustainable Dozen for USDA Deputy Secretary and to oppose anti-sustainable ag candidates like Dennis Wolff.
- Email a link to this blog post to your friends and ask them to take action as well.
The Vilsack Confirmation Hearing
The big food news this week is the Vilsack hearing... except in my opinion, it was totally boring. Why? Well... no surprises. Just, no news. He walked in, they told him they were going to confirm him, they all praised him, everyone said nice things about food and farmers and the environment, and that's about it. Oh, with one exception. Sen. Roberts said something TOTALLY CRAZY!!!
"That small family farmer is about 5'2"...and he's a retired airline pilot and sits on his porch on a glider reading Gentleman's Quarterly - he used to read the Wall Street Journal but that got pretty drab - and his wife works as stock broker downtown. And he has 40 acres, and he has a pond and he has an orchard and he grows organic apples. Sometimes there is a little more protein in those apples than people bargain for, and he's very happy to have that."
For more coverage of the Vilsack hearing check here, here, and here.
Salmonella in Peanut Butter
The latest food safety scare... salmonella in peanut butter. Last I saw, about 440+ people in 43 states were sick and there were some deaths (five?). The FDA posted a press release with a list of tainted products but none of those products were anything consumers would buy at retail locations. However, Kellogg announced a recall of some of its Keebler & Austin brand products as a precaution. Food safety guru Bill Marler also has a post on what can be learned.
Buying Local - Does It Save Oil?
Desmoinesdem posted a question about the energy impacts of buying local. The diary included the text of one study by the Leopold Center in Iowa and from what I could gather, that is probably the best study out there. But several more links and studies were contributed in the comments so they are certainly worth investigating if this is a topic you care about.
New Ag Committee Members
Howie Klein sent me a list of new ag committee members and it included one of my favorites - Eric Massa!! He beat Randy Kuhl, who was on the ag committee, but I didn't know until now that Massa would replace Kuhl on the committee. Howie thinks that Massa, Schauer, and Kissell will be great new additions to the committee. (The Cliff notes version of what you should know about the ag committee is that most committee members suck so having 3 new good ones is a BIG deal. That makes - if I am counting correctly - 4 non-sucky people on the 49 person committee.)
Burger King's Marketing Makes Me Sick
Burger King has gone on from making sick food to doing sick marketing. You can now un-friend 10 Facebook friends for a free Whopper. Your friends get a message saying you like Whoppers better than you like them. As I said in the diary at the link, if anyone does this to me, then we weren't meant to be friends in the first place. Follow the link for more of Burger King's stomach-turning antics. Gross.
(As a side-note, Burger King made news last year for spying on student activist groups. The students were advocating for Burger King to pay the workers who picked their tomatoes an extra penny per pound because the workers made terribly low wages and in some cases worked in slave conditions. Ultimately Burger King signed the agreement to pay the extra penny but not before doing just about all they could to avoid doing so and make other fast food companies back out of similar agreements too.)
CREW Exposes Fast Food, Booze, Tobacco, and Anti-Union Shill
Rick Berman is Dr. Evil and finally somebody put up a GREAT and comprehensive website exposing him. In fact, it's called BermanExposed.org. I've been following Berman for a while now... like his group's Christmas Cookie Liability Waivers that they told people to have Santa sign before eating the cookies you left for him, so he couldn't sue you for making him fat.
Sustainable Transportation, by JayInPortland
JayInPortland (who posts here as Hardhat Democrat) wrote a fantastic diary about sustainable transportation in a post-Bush America. He covers a topic that is a particular frustration of mine: trains. I LOVE taking trains all over Europe, so why can't I take a high speed train to get to my grandmother in Phoenix or my friends in San Francisco??
AAF Makes Me Drool in a Potato Gratin Diary
Asinus Asinum Fricat wrote a diary all about potato gratin that is truly drool-worthy. He assures me that next week he is writing about garlic, including a recipe for garlic ice cream. Umm... I'll take potato gratin over garlic ice cream, thanks.
"Naturally Raised" Label Now Allowed... Will Undercut Organics
I've been railing against this one for a year, and thankfully, Consumers Union and Food and Water Watched have joined me. Meat can now bear a "naturally raised" label if it meets a pathetically minimal standard - no growth promoting antibiotics and no animal by-products in feed. Is that what you would call natural, if the animal was still raised in a factory farm? According to polls, most people don't.
Going To the Inauguration? You Need This Guide to Eat Well!
Eat Well Guide has joined the celebration by publishing a guide to eating well on the road to DC. So if you want to eat something other than gas station hot dogs or (best case scenario) Subway on your way to DC, check it out.
ACTION: If you're still reading this, go here and take action against GE corn deregulation. Then pat yourself on the back for being all up to date on the food news of the week.