La Vida Locavore is the blog for anyone whose crazy life includes planting, growing, weeding, fertilizing, raising, picking, harvesting, processing, cooking, baking, making, serving, buying, selling, distributing, transporting, composting, organizing around, lobbying about, writing about, thinking about, talking about, playing with, and eating food!
Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Max Baucus (D-MT)
- Michael Bennet (D-CO)
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Bob Casey (D-PA)
- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Pat Leahy (D-VT)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Mike Johanns (R-NE)
- Dick Lugar (R-IN)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Pat Roberts (R-KS)
- John R. Thune (R-SD)
Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
- Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA) *=House Organic Caucus member B=Blue Dog Democrat
Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA) *=House Organic Caucus member
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
- Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)
P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC) P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) are reportedly considering (sub. req'd) offering amendments to [a major appropriations bill to] force the Environmental Protection Agency to raise the blend level [for ethanol in gasoline] above the current 10 percent maximum as an amendment to the EPA appropriation bill. The corn-state senators would like to see blend limits raised to 15 percent, and E&E reports that it looks likely that the potential amendments would block funding for the EPA if they don't move forward on raising the blend limit. [...]
But the EPA faces opposition to increasing ethanol levels in gasoline from environmentalists, livestock producers, refiners, and other groups. Concerns have been raised about whether most engines can handle higher blends, and recent studies indicate that the use of ethanol may increase global warming. The general impression among opponents of the higher blend is that it doesn't really benefit anyone other than the corn lobby.
I hope Congress will let the EPA make this determination based on all the relevant factors. I understand that senators like to protect major industries in their home states, but increasing the ethanol blend limit isn't even universally good for farmers. As Sheppard indicates, conventional livestock producers could end up paying higher prices for feed.
Francis Thicke announced his candidacy for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture on Wednesday, advocating a range of policies that would yield huge economic and environmental benefits: increasing local food networks, promoting perennial crops for biofuels production and preserving soil and water resources, putting a "moratorium on state subsidies and tax incentives for building new corn ethanol plants," providing incentives for "farm-scale wind turbines," and giving county governments zoning authority ("local control") over CAFO siting.
"I think that one of the fundamental problems that is being overlooked is that these markets are no longer competitive markets," he said. "Economists tell us that if more than 40 percent of a market is controlled by four or fewer firms that it begins to act like a monopoly rather than a free market. And, in hog markets, about 65 percent is controlled by four firms. In beef it is about 85 percent that is controlled by four firms. In dairy, one corporation processor controls about 40 percent of all the milk processing. The interesting thing is that while dairy farmers are at record loss levels, that corporation, during the last two quarters, has had record profits."
"Some real trust breaking - like Teddy Roosevelt style trust busting" needs to be done, according to Thicke, in order for the agricultural markets to realign.
A huge number of Iowans will welcome Thicke's perspective, but Republican Party of Iowa Executive Director Jeff Boeyink called Thicke an "ultra radical":
"Agriculture is serious business in Iowa, and now is not the time to experiment with the backbone of Iowa's economy," Boeyink said. [...]
Gov. Chet Culver, a fellow Democrat, did not reappoint Thicke to the commissions, prompting Boeyink to say if Thicke was "so far out of the mainstream for even liberal Governor Culver to stomach, then he is certainly too liberal to be entrusted with leading our state's agricultural community."
Incidentally, Culver's decision not to reappoint Thicke to the Environmental Protection Commission had nothing to do with "mainstream" opinion; it was an embarrassing cave to agribusiness.
[M]y campaign focuses on increasing the economic and environmental sustainability of Iowa's family farms. Advocating for conserving our soil, water quality, family farms, and rural communities is not radical. To me that fits the definition of a true conservative.
I just saw a show called EcoTech on Planet Green TV. It's pretty cool, one segment had a guy who made green mobile inventions. One was a giant big wheel with a solar panel on top, that could really move! I'm not down for the spinning it did though, I get sick on spinney amusement park rides. Another was a robot-sleigh that walked like a human.
In the segment before they told the story of how ethanol can be made from nonfood parts of plants, and fibrous waste. Turns out they can genetically modify e-coli to break down this fibrous waste. Using E-coli (enzymatic hydrolysis) is far more green than the previous method (chemical hydrolysis). This is GM I can support, it takes stress off commodity crops and the environment by making fuel from waste. It saves fossil fuels in production, and I don't have to eat it. It sounds like a winner.
Yesterday we had 2 big pieces of news. First, the announcement of $50 million to help farmers transition their land or livestock to organic (through the EQIP program at the USDA). Yay! The downside? Farmers have only 3 weeks to apply for the cash. So, let's call that one step forward. It's certainly not much more than that if some of the money might go un-used.
The two steps back came with the announcement of a major government push for ethanol. Step one is the creation of a new Biofuels Interagency Working Group that includes the cabinet secretaries for Energy, EPA, and USDA. Step two is the potential increase in the amount of ethanol allowed in our fuel - the "blend wall." It is currently set at 10% and may go to 15%.
Just when you though the world couldn't get any crazier, it turns out the E. Coli turning up in hamburger might be due to ... antibiotics used to control the unwelcome bacteria in the ethanol production process(!)
I've got a backlog of biofuels news to share. There's so much out there and I just keep procrastinating on reporting it. Maybe because biofuels aren't edible and, thus, they are less interesting. To start you off, Mother Jones talks about why biofuels are the rainforests' worst enemy. More news below.
It's not yet clear whether Iowa's Republican Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey, will seek re-election in 2010 or run against Governor Chet Culver instead. But at least one Democrat appears ready to seek Northey's job next year.
Francis Thicke, an organic dairy farmer near Fairfield with a Pd.D. in agronomy and soil fertility, announced yesterday that he has formed an Exploratory Committee to consider running for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. I've posted the press release from Thicke after the jump. One of his top priorities would be expanding local food networks:
"Growing more of our food in Iowa represents a multi-billion dollar economic development opportunity." This potential economic activity could "create thousands of new jobs and help revitalize rural communities in Iowa, as well as provide Iowans with fresh, nutritious food," said Thicke.
Thicke would be an outstanding asset to Iowa as Secretary of Agriculture. A working farmer and expert on many agricultural policy issues, he currently serves on Iowa's USDA State Technical Committee and has an impressive list of publications. In the past he has served on the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission, the Iowa Food Policy Council, and the Iowa Organic Standards Board.
He has also won awards including "the Activist Award from the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Outstanding Pasture Management award from the Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Friend of the Earth award from the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition in Washington, D.C."
Thicke's relationship with the Culver administration is strained, to put it mildly. He did not go quietly when Culver declined to reappoint him to the Environmental Protection Commission. In addition, Thicke is a strong advocate for "local control" of confined-animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge opposes and Culver has not pursued as governor.
If Thicke runs for Secretary of Agriculture, his campaign is likely to become a focal point for environmentalists who aren't satisfied with our current Democratic leadership in Iowa.
UPDATE: Denise O'Brien, founder of the Women Food and Agriculture Network and Democratic candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture in 2006, responded to my request for a comment on Thicke's candidacy:
I have pledged my support to Francis. He has an excellent background to be a strong leader of our state agriculture department. His depth of knowledge of agriculture and natural resource management gives him credibility when it comes to truly understanding the relationship of agriculture to the rest of the world. It is my intention to work hard to get Francis elected.
What's our friend Mr. Vilsack been up to? Well, the cutest thing he did was definitely his meeting with Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster was in D.C. looking for cookies. I think he might have been more successful if he were looking for pork (I'm sure John McCain would have been happy to help him find it).
For example, Biofuels may speed up, not slow global warming: study, says that when demand for crops goes up, farmers will cut down rainforests and with them, deplete the planet's ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Grist makes this case too. And Mother Jones provides a fantastic investigative piece on the same theme.
As if that isn't enough, Civil Eats chatted with one of my favorite experts on agriculture and energy issues, David Pimentel. Here's an excerpt:
His most recent paper Pimentel D et al. Food versus biofuels: environmental and economic costs, published in the journal Human Ecology, is as scathing an indictment of the effects of biofuel policy as a scientific paper can be. He and his coauthors conclude, "Growing crops for biofuel not only ignores the need to reduce fossil energy and land use, but exacerbates the problem of malnourishment worldwide."
Ethanol's making headlines this week, so it's time to talk about it. The latest is that Wes Clark will co-chair a pro-ethanol group called Growth Energy. Normally I see agribusiness as monolithic - me against them - but in this case they are split into two very stubborn camps, pro and anti ethanol. It bothers me that my anti-ethanol stance puts me in bed with the likes of factory farms and soda companies. Where we differ is that I am not against ethanol because I'm addicted to cheap corn - factory farmers and the Grocery Manufacturers Association are. Here's what George Naylor and Irene Lin had to say about the politics of corn ethanol:
In Washington, a major schism has arisen in the big Ag community, with the National Corn Growers Association, American Farm Bureau and pro-ethanol interests battling against their normal partners-in-crime, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and livestock interests like the National Cattlemen Beef Association (NCBA) and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC).
The Bush Administration so far has sided with the pro-ethanol camp, with USDA attributing only 4 percent of food price increases to the increase in corn prices. Meanwhile, food processors and livestock corporations blame high corn prices and ethanol for shrinking their profits and cite a World Bank economist's estimates that 75 percent of the food price increase can be blamed on ethanol.
Will we get a Prius in every garage and a farmers' market in every neighborhood as the Boston globe jokingly suggests in its article Is A Sustainable Food Strategy on Obama's Menu? The article leaves the reader with more questions and answers, such as:
Can a community organizer from Chicago support community supported agriculture? First, he must display the courage to defend what the likes of Michael Pollan have to say, without apology.
Another article, this one by Christopher Cook, author of Diet for a Dead Planet, specifically calls for Obama to put a number of objectives on his food policy to-do list. In A Food Agenda for Obama, Cook calls for:
1. New public investments targeting sustainable agriculture, defined as organic, small- to mid-sized, diversified farming.
2. New investments in local/regional food networks and foodsheds - to help build up the connections between farmers and consumers, to open up and expand new markets for organic farmers and those considering the transition; for more farmer's markets and food stores that feature local produce.
3. A moratorium on agribusiness mergers, and strenuous antitrust provisions and enforcement to protect what little is left of diversity in the food economy.
4. A moratorium on all new genetically modified (GMO) products, and an expansion of existing ones, and appointment of a blue-ribbon panel/commission to assess the impact of GMO foods on our environment and our health.
5. A moratorium on - and gradual phasing out of - concentrated animal feeding operations, aka factory farms, which are among the nation's top polluters of water and air, and breeders of widespread and virulent bacterial strains.
6. Dramatically expanded regulatory enforcement and staffing in the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to protect food safety and meat industry labor and environmental practices.
7. Slowing the hazardously fast meatpacking (and poultry) assembly line, to protect workers and consumers.
8. Incentives for small-scale urban, suburban, and rural farming ventures oriented toward diversified local food systems.
9. Bold public investment in a raft of public awareness campaigns that build support, and expand markets and demand, for sustainable alternatives such as urban agriculture and gardening, and reducing fast-food consumption.
(Thanks Kacie for a great diary! - promoted by Jill Richardson)
Ethanol is the solution to our dependence on foreign oil, right? Maybe according to some Midwestern senators and corporate agriculture advocates, but the ethanol-as-savior myth has been convincingly deflated recently. The United Nations reported that the year of 2007 saw an additional 75 million people worldwide plunged into hunger and food insecurity. The world crisis has been blamed on a number of factors, one of the foremost being the rapid conversion of agricultural land from food production to fuel production. Even the World Bank, one of the biggest proponents of biofuels and globalized industrial agricultural, admitted that increased ethanol production is a major cause of the global food crisis that gets deeper and affects more people every day.
Yesterday, I had an article up on Alternet called Corporations have big plans to profit from global warming. My worry isn't so much the obvious companies this title might evoke, like Exxon Mobil. We all know they are evil. I am worried about Monsanto, ADM, and Bayer. These companies are presenting themselves as the SOLUTION TO global warming, but actually they are part of the problem. The US is trying to get off oil, but we're trying to get ON ethanol. That's bad.
Thursday, in John McCain's speech to the Clinton Global Initiative, made while he claimed to have suspended his campaign, he said again that he opposed agricultural subsidies and would end them. Last night, during the debate, he said he opposed ethanol subsidies.
The "debate" over ethanol continues - if you can call an argument in which enormous, polluting corporations with stakes in either side of the issue fight using astroturf groups as proxies a debate. Texas obviously took the pro-factory farm/junk food side of the fight, asking the EPA to let them out of using the required amount of ethanol as fuel. The EPA said no.
(Washington, DC - August 7, 2008) Following extensive analysis, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. Johnson today announced his decision to deny a request submitted by the State of Texas to reduce the nationwide Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). As a result, the required total volume of renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, mandated by law to be blended into the fuel supply will remain at 9 billion gallons in 2008 and 11.1 billion gallons in 2009.
"After reviewing the facts, it was clear this request did not meet the criteria in the law," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "The RFS remains an important tool in our ongoing efforts to reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions and lessen our dependence on foreign oil, in aggressive yet practical ways."
Current law authorizes EPA to waive the national RFS if the agency determines that the mandated biofuel volumes would cause "severe harm" to the economy or the environment.
Monsanto and companies like ADM that make money from selling farmers seeds and fertilizers and then processing corn into ethanol are pro-ethanol. Those who suffer from higher commodity prices oppose ethanol. I'm not even sure which side to take in this. I oppose ethanol, but I'm not thrilled about oil either. And I certainly don't have a dog in the Monsanto vs. Grocery Manufacturers fight. Why aren't we pursuing solar and wind more aggressively?
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