Jim Miller Steps Down at USDA

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jan 18, 2011 at 22:48:04 PM PST

At this point, there's no word on why he resigned, but it's fairly normal to have turnover in high level government positions like this. I wouldn't be too surprised if Miller left because he was offered a high paid lobbying position for Big Ag... or if he left for another reason but gets a lobbying job all the same. I also wonder how this will change things around the USDA, and who will be chosen to replace Miller for the remainder of Obama's term.

Some Thoughts on the Political Environment in 2011

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jan 04, 2011 at 23:27:24 PM PST

Over in the White House, Obama's looking for a new Chief of Staff, and one name that has been floated is Tom Vilsack, although most people think he's going to pick a Wall Street crony instead. If, for whatever reason, Vilsack leaves USDA, the name I've heard floated to replace him is Blanche Lincoln. Obviously, neither of these scenarios are good.

Getting back to Congress, we're now really getting close to the 2012 farm bill debate. It's here. Congress actually began working on the 2012 farm bill in 2010, but now that we've all got food safety and child nutrition behind us, we can all begin focusing on the farm bill as well. However, Frank Lucas (R-OK), the new House Ag committee chair, says he wants to put off really working on the 2012 farm bill for a while so he can first engage in oversight hearings.

I'm pretty sure that the EPA is going to be a target of those hearings. For whatever reason, Big Ag suddenly thinks that the EPA is going crazy and overstepping its bounds. The likely reason they say this is the EPA's action on carbon emissions. Big Ag has a major tendency to say "A (which doesn't bother me) leads to B (which I don't like), so I'm going to fight A." In this case, they are worried that if the EPA goes after emissions from power plants now, they might go after ag in the future

Another bit of bad news I've heard is the proposal to decrease the acreage enrolled in conservation programs. Several conservation programs involve paying farmers to NOT plant on areas with grasslands or wetlands, etc, to preserve wildlife habitat and to protect waterways from farm chemical runoff. Traditionally, conservation programs are underfunded, so planning to cut them seems absolutely insane.

The basis for their logic is an ongoing fight we've seen between sellers of commodities like corn, wheat, and soy, who benefit from increased commodity prices, and buyers of those commodities (like factory farms), who hate when commodity prices go up. I've watched this fight - which often centers around ethanol, the assumed cause of commodity price increases - for a few years with amusement. But it won't be funny if they settle their differences by taking acres out of conservation programs, which means plowing up grasslands and wetlands and planting them in MORE CORN.

Meanwhile, over at USDA, Vilsack has called for "coexistence" between conventional, biotech, and organic farmers. He doesn't like to see farmers suing one another, nor does he like one farmer dictating to another how to farm. And those are nice sentiments, really, but how do you propose to "coexist" when one farmer's GE corn blows pollen into all of the neighboring fields, some of which might be organic? Or when pesticide from a "conventional" farmer drifts onto a neighbor's organic crop? There's no easy way out here if you're looking for a way to coexist.

If you're hoping to reform the food system, here's what I think needs to be done now. I would expect roughly NOTHING from Congress. Nothing good that is. I think we need to keep our eye on Congress and make noise if they try to prevent the Obama administration from implementing any good policies. We also need to make noise if Congress puts forward very bad ideas in any upcoming legislation. I doubt we'll get much change for the positive in the farm bill, but we should advocate loudly for conservation programs.

I think we need to focus on making positive change in two areas. First, let's concentrate on the Obama administration and see if we can push USDA, the FDA, and EPA in good directions. You might also work within your own state for political change. And second, let's work on non-political reforms to the food system because that's probably where we'll make the most progress right now. Volunteer in your kid's school garden or in a local gardening group. Get involved in your community. Even just inviting friends over for a meal of fresh, ethically produced food is a great way to take action. Before people get active politically, often they need to get involved by falling in love with fresh food, or their farmers' market, or gardening. We need to engage more people like that, so that more people have a real stake in our movement. Then, when the political situation changes, we'll have more people on our side to speak out.

WTF? Michelle Obama Wants Healthy Food, But Obama Appoints Candy Exec

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Oct 04, 2010 at 22:37:02 PM PDT

Case in point: Obama just appointed Catherine Woteki of the candy company Mars, Inc. to a top post at the USDA. For the past five years, she's been the global director of scientific affairs for Mars, Inc. If confirmed, she will now serve as the USDA's undersecretary for research, education, and economics.

I highly recommend reading Tom Philpott's piece on Woteki (at the link), where he describes how she'll be working directly under the biotech-loving former Monsanto guy Roger Beachy, and how, when she worked at the USDA in the Clinton years, she felt that "the government's only responsibility to the public concerning the technology is to support it vigorously." What a team these two will be.

Oh, and to Michelle Obama: If I were you, I'd make the President sleep on the couch.

Fun With Bureaucracy: Egg Workers Say USDA Inspectors Ignored Their Complaints

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Sep 03, 2010 at 14:07:00 PM PDT

So you've already got USDA inspectors in the egg operation that sold the tainted eggs, only they aren't looking for salmonella.

According to the AP article "Former egg farm workers say complaints ignored by USDA employees working at the site:

The USDA employees worked next to areas where roughly 7.7 million caged hens laid eggs at the two operations, but agency spokesman Caleb Weaver said their main duties are "grading" the eggs and they aren't primarily responsible for looking for health problems.

While they were busy grading the eggs, did they notice or (no pun intended) give a shit about the 8 foot piles of manure and rodents? Nope.

Two former workers at Wright County Egg facilities, Robert and Deanna Arnold, said they reported problems such as leaking manure and dead chickens to USDA employees, but nothing was done.

The USDA "graders" worked in buildings adjacent to where hens laid eggs, focusing on weighing, measuring and inspecting eggs before they were packaged. They are the people who determine if an egg is A or AA, for instance.

"It didn't matter which USDA officer was working, if we reported something they would just turn their heads," Deanna Arnold said. "They didn't care."

Any else in favor of one single food safety agency instead of the regulatory mess we've got?

See also: Deep Harm's diary on this subject.

Whistleblowers at contaminated egg facility were ignored

by: Deep Harm

Fri Sep 03, 2010 at 10:20:09 AM PDT

Two former workers at Wright County Egg facilities, Robert and Deanna Arnold, said they reported problems such as leaking manure and dead chickens to USDA employees, but nothing was done. (AP)

Factory Farms Fight Back

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Jul 21, 2010 at 20:07:55 PM PDT

I'm leaving Guadalajara tomorrow and likely won't have internet for the next week or so after that, so I can't follow up on this immediately. But I will follow up once I get back in order to provide more information on this so folks can write informed letters to the USDA and to Congress.

US Promoting Biotech in Honduras

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jul 06, 2010 at 13:43:09 PM PDT

His ouster was the result, the letter said, of adopting measures in 2006 that affected U.S. oil companies, and a plan to convert the U.S.-built Palmerola airbase into a civilian airport.

Another reason for his fall, according to Zelaya, was his rejection of the "recessionary policies of the IMF (International Monetary Fund)" in favor of subsidizing transportation and boosting wages.

Zelaya also claimed that Washington also didn't approve of Honduras' decision to join Venezuela's Petrocaribe initiative, under which Caribbean and Central American nations receive Venezuelan oil on generous terms.

The U.S., of course, denies it. That said, the U.S. is having a great time in post-Zelaya Honduras. Last week, a USDA press release described how the U.S. is promoting biotech in Honduras, which Zelaya's successor, President Lobo, supports. The press release tells how the U.S. donates excess U.S. agricultural commodities to a group in Honduras, which sells the commodities and uses the money to buy the inputs for industrial agriculture. Awesome. I must say that the only benefit of being flat broke is that I pay minimal taxes to the U.S. government to support this garbage.

Awesome New USDA Antitrust Rule on Meat Industry

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Jun 18, 2010 at 21:01:35 PM PDT

The rules would place the sharpest limits on meat companies since the Great Depression, drastically lowering the bar that farmers and ranchers must meet to sue companies  whom they accuse of demanding unfairly low prices.

The rules would dictate how meatpackers buy cattle on the open market, and prohibit them from showing preference to big feedlots rather than buying from small producers.

They would also limit the control chicken companies have over the farmers who raise birds for them. The companies couldn't require farmers to take on debt to invest in chicken houses, for example, unless farmers were guaranteed to recoup 80 percent of the cost.

The law would also make it easier to file suits under the Depression-era Packers and Stockyards Act by stating that farmers don't need to prove industrywide anticompetitive behavior to file a lawsuit under the act.

Sen. Feingold, a longtime champion for fair competition in agriculture, has already come out praising this rule in a statement I've included below. South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson praised the rule as well, as did R-CALF USA. You can see the USDA's press release about this here and the actual rule itself here.

New USDA Rules Will Put Small Slaughterhouses Out of Business

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Apr 19, 2010 at 18:40:57 PM PDT

It's with this in mind that I read a very disturbing email that was forwarded on by the Cornucopia Institute. The email lays out a problem very well, so I have pasted it below but removed anything identifying the sender. The basic problem is that the USDA wants to impose regulations on all slaughterhouses (big and small alike) that would cost the little guys (or their customers, small farmers) more money than they can afford.

Vilsack's Child Nutrition Priorities

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Feb 15, 2010 at 15:13:48 PM PST

Ha! Obama Ag Policy is Schizophrenic

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Feb 11, 2010 at 11:00:51 AM PST

The Obama administration's competing agricultural policies could prompt a bad case of indigestion - or whiplash.

Longtime food policy observers are having a difficult time squaring the Department of Agriculture's entrenched preference for high-tech industrial agriculture that emphasizes biotechnology and genetically engineered crops with its newfound interest in helping those who favor low-tech ag: small farmers, advocates of organic and local food and champions of sustainability.

Margaret Mellon, senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, describes the USDA as schizophrenic. "It wants to promote both organic and sustainable local," she said. "It is also committed to promotion of biotech here and around the world. So far, there has not been collision between those two priorities, but I'm not sure that situation will last much longer."

She's got it soooo right. I think this idiotic contradictory policy is due to a fundamental lack of understanding of agriculture... and a very good understanding of politics. Obama's doing very well to try and please two very disparate constituencies - the biotech/pesticide lobby and health & environmentally conscious citizens. You can't have it both ways, but they sure are trying.

Seven reasons to worry about Obama's food safety pick

by: Deep Harm

Tue Jan 26, 2010 at 13:02:51 PM PST

I do hope that you will read it, though, because the safety of our food supply depends on getting the right person in that job.

The Quest for Safe Beef and Morality Continues

by: Eddie C

Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 19:44:09 PM PST

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a recall on 864,000 pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. The meat was packaged by Montebello, Calif.-based Huntington Meat Packing and sold to consumers under the Huntington, Imperial Meat, and El Rancho brands. Some of the meat in question was sold almost two years ago. This is the second beef recall of 2010-the first came on January 11 and was initiated by the Massachusetts Department of Health over 2,500 pounds of beef from Adams Farm Slaughterhouse, LLC.

Each year there are more and more recalls so it may seem that the government is getting a handle on dangerous tainted beef but much of the 864,000 pound recall was already sold and the reason for the Adams Farm recall was that someone got sick.

Has the situation improved?

USDA Announces $25 Million in School Lunch Equipment Grants

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 14, 2010 at 13:10:58 PM PST

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2010 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the availability of $25 million in grants to help schools operating a National School Lunch Program (NSLP) replace outdated equipment with new, energy efficient, appliances such as refrigerators, ovens, and other food service related equipment.

Often, poorly equipped kitchens are a major roadblock to schools serving healthy lunches. Schools where more than 50 percent of the kids are eligible for free or reduced price meals will receive priority when these grants are awarded.

If I understand right, this is money that was authorized by Congress previously and it is being made available by the USDA now. In other words, it's great news but it's not unexpected. However, since Rep. Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee (the committee that will pass the Child Nutrition Reauthorization this year), has put out a statement applauding these grants, perhaps we WILL see new money for future, similar grants authorized soon.  

Vilsack's new chief of staff is one of the "sustainable dozen"

by: desmoinesdem

Sun Jan 10, 2010 at 15:37:20 PM PST

It's encouraging to know that a voice for family farmers and sustainable practices will be running Vilsack's office. In recommending Ross for an under-secretary position at the USDA, Michael Dimock of Roots of Change wrote more than a year ago,

Karen will represent well the diverse crops of our nation's largest agricultural state. We know she will be a voice of innovation and adaptation that will support full expression of a sustainable agriculture over time. She did a great job shepherding the State Board's recent visioning process for agriculture that rendered what we see as a very constructive vision for our future. Karen has also been a defining and constructive voice in the [Roots of Change]-funded California Roundtable for Agriculture and the Environment.

The visioning process Dimock mentions was California Ag Vision, an "effort to develop a broad consensus on how California might arrive at a farming and food system that can be sustained by the year 2030."

Ross will replace Iowa native John Norris, who did not come from an agriculture background but had worked closely with Governor Vilsack for years. Norris agreed to be Vilsack's chief of staff at USDA with the understanding that it would be a temporary position. Norris was pursuing a spot on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to which the Senate confirmed him in December. Having completed his work as Vilsack's chief of staff, Norris will start work next week at the FERC.