Fertile Ground USA...Celebrating the people behind the plow

organic matter: ups and downs of organic movement

USDA Deputy Secretary Pledges
Full Organic Integration Across Department

Merrigan Says: “Organic can no longer be stove-piped at USDA”

STEVENSON, Wash. --  In a message to attendees of the third annual Organic Summit on Thursday, Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan pledged that organic will be integrated across all agencies at USDA. Delivering pre-recorded comments, Merrigan stated that, “here is where I’d like to fulfill a promise I made to many of you…and that is, organic should be integrated across all the agencies, not just the NOP, but each and every agency at USDA should have some engagement with the organic sector.” In addition to the integration, Merrigan said, “Organic can no longer be stove-piped at USDA.”

special alert: new food bill hits congress

obamaland: adventures in national food policy

[image comes from countrycomestotown]


AGRICULTURE SECRETARY VILSACK EXPANDS "THE PEOPLE'S GARDEN" TO PROMOTE HEALTHY FOOD, PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE NATION
WASHINGTON, April 22, 2009 - In honor of Earth Day, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack declared the entire grounds at the USDA Jamie L. Whitten Building as 'The People's Garden' and unveiled plans to create a sustainable landscape on the grounds.

"USDA is an every day every way kind of department and this garden will help illustrate the many ways USDA works to provide a sustainable, safe and nutritious food supply as well as protect and preserve the landscape where that food is produced," said Vilsack. "The garden will help explain to the public how small things they can do at home, at their business or on their farm or ranch, can promote sustainability, conserve the nation's natural resources, and make America a leader in combating climate change."

USDA's Historic Actions to Assist Minority Farmers
Federation of Southern Cooperatives by Ralph Paige
For more than 40 years and through nine administrations I've personally seen black farmers discriminated against by the USDA. I've seen discrimination complaints submitted to the USDA by black farmers shoved aside, thrown out or not processed.

Vilsack's first official visit outside the District of Columbia as the Secretary of Agriculture was to the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund. Now in our 41nd year, the Federation has worked diligently to help black farmers stay on the land across them South. Secretary Vilsack told our farmer membership in Albany, GA this February that he wanted to send a message to the country that without question, as Secretary, he will address the civil rights problems at
USDA.

High Level USDA Spots Filled
Three political appointees were sworn into positions at USDA.
(4/9/2009)
Farm Futures Staff
Three members of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's subcabinet were sworn into office Wednesday following their confirmation by the Senate last week. Kathleen Merrigan became the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture; Jim Miller takes over Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services; and Joe Leonard is sworn in as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.

The Iowa Jeremaid
Obama Foodorama
The White House has announced that President Obama will spend Earth Day in Iowa. On Wednesday, the President will visit the small town of Newton, about forty minutes from Des Moines, and speak about climate change, wind energy...and, of course, Recovery.

a new day?? the obama administration and sustainable ag

With a new administration coming in, everyone is wondering how our national agriculture policies will change....or won't. Keep this page bookmarked to stay informed on the future of our national food supply.

You can also stay current by checking out my postings on newsvine

Myth Or Fact? A Bill In Congress Will Mean The End of Organic Farming
Debunking 6 viral myths about H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act 0f 2009
The Daily Green by Marion Nestle
March 20, 2009 at 3:28PM
My e-mail inbox is flooded with copies of the wild message about how proposed food safety legislation will kill organic farming....

Food Safety Bills of 2009
Broader View Weekly By Martha Goodsell
Internet users are up in arms regarding House Bill 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act, but much of what is circulating over the network is hype and inflated fears. However, that’s not to say that HR 875 is not a threat to both small scale and organic farmers and those consumers who support such farms. In its present form, it is a very real- though not a highly probable- threat. HR 875 is not the only food safety bill recently proposed following the peanut butter contamination. There are six other bills that must be monitored....from an email to the Comfood listserv: Yes I've researched HR 845, but no, not all of what you're reading is true. Here's some research I've done on the food bills. I'm most concerned with Senate bill 510 and House bill 1332. Watch them very closely. The bills are very similar though not conferenced at this point.  They are broad sweeping reform bills, just as vague as HR 875 and could be just as, if not more, detrimental to small scale farmers and processors. Unlike HR 875 which exempts some activities which fall under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or the Poultry Products inspection Acts and specifically excludes in section 3.14 any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation, there are no such express exceptions in these other two bills. The record keeping, product testing and HACCP requirements (all electronically of course) would be, in my opinion, overwhelming for most small scale operations. Look what HACCP did to our slaughterhouses-- gone! Any bill that will require one-size rules must be watched intently. These two bills( S510 and HR 1332)  have bi-partisan support so don't let them off your radar by any means. Read them for yourself:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-510

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1332
Guest column: Budget makes hard choices but maintains farm safety net
Des Moines Register
March 13, 2009
by TOM VILSACK, fmer governor of Iowa, now Secretary of Agriculture
I acknowledge that capping farm program payments and tightening eligibility for direct payments may not be popular with some of Iowa's farmers or producers from around the country, but we must remember that direct payments were never intended to be around this long. They were temporary payments in the 1996 farm bill, and although they were scheduled to expire, they were included in the 2002 and 2008 farm bills, at a cost to taxpayers of about $5.2 billion per year.

Obama’s First Forty Days: What Are the Signals for Agriculture and Food?
The Dakota Day by Thomas Dobbs
Friday, 06 March 2009 17:29
Will the President’s priorities favor agribusiness and big farms, or will they favor environmental sustainability, small- and mid-sized farms, and healthy food?

Tufts Prof. Merrigan tapped for No 2 USDA post
Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:28pm EST
Reuters, by Charles Abbott
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama chose Kathleen Merrigan, an assistant professor at Tufts University who helped develop U.S. organic food labeling rules, for the Agriculture Department's No 2 job, the White House said on Monday.

Prepping the soil
Vilsack continues to lay the groundwork for reform
GRIST, posted by Tom Laskawy (Guest Contributor) at 2:35 PM on 10 Feb 2009
Vilsack called on farmers to accept the political reality that U.S. farm program direct payments are under fire both at home and abroad and therefore farmers should develop other sources of income. In his remarks to the groups he said he intends to promote a far more diversified income base for the farm sector, saying that windmills and biofuels should definitely be part of the income mix and that organic agriculture will also play an increasing role.

Vilsack Adviser Predicts Vegetable Garden On White House Lawn By Summer
CBS News by Christine Lagorio
On the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth earlier this month, the Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and his staff at the department’s Washington headquarters broke out its shovels and “broke pavement” on a garden.

Dubbed The People’s Garden, the project seems slated to simply replace a lot of unnecessary pavement with grass. But it is nonetheless a symbolic nod to the eat-local movement, which encourages community gardens in urban areas.

Vilsack says USDA must sharpen focus on civil rights
CongressDaily by Jerry Hagstrom
 February 23, 2009 ALBANY, Ga. -- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced he intends to place civil rights front and center at USDA, including calling on Congress to elevate the position of assistant secretary for administration to the undersecretary level and making sure civil rights get as much attention as other program areas headed by undersecretaries.

Tom Vilsack, The New Face Of Agriculture
Washington Post, Wednesday, February 11, 2009;
by Jane Black
Sustainable-food and farming activists in Washington have long felt they were on the outside looking in. New Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says he wants to change that. In an interview with staff writer Jane Black, the former Iowa governor, 58, talked about his personal struggles with food and about his vision of how to transform the department -- maybe even rename it -- to serve a broader range of interests.

Future farming: The call for a 50-year perspective on agriculture: an interview with Wes Jackson
Znet, February, 05 2009, By Robert Jensen
As everyone scrambles for a solution to the crises in the nation's economy, Wes Jackson suggests we look to nature's economy for some of the answers. With everyone focused on a stimulus package in the short term, he counsels that we pay more attention to the soil over the long haul.

Ron Paul Introduces Bill to End Interstate Raw Milk Ban
Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund
On January 28 Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced HR 778, a bill to authorize the interstate traffic of unpasteurized milk and milk products that are packaged for direct human consumption. Under the bill, the federal government  may not take any actions that would prohibit, interfere with, regulate, or otherwise restrict the interstate traffic of milk, or a milk product, that is unpasteurized and packaged for direct human consumption solely on the basis that the milk or milk product is unpasteurized. The bill defines "interstate traffic" as the movement of any conveyance or the transportation of persons or propertyŠfrom a point of origin in any State or possession to a point of destination in any other State or possessions.

Vilsack: USDA Must Serve Eaters as Well as Farmers
Washington Post, By Jane Black Staff Writer
Thursday, February 5, 2009; Page A04
When former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack was nominated as secretary of agriculture, many food policy activists, noting his reputation as a friend to corporate agriculture and ethanol producers, rendered a verdict that was swift and harsh: agribusiness as usual.

The Leonard Lopate Show / January 27, 2009 / Obama on Food
Obama on Food Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Bush White House chef may have served organic meals to the First Family, but many food policy watchers were unhappy with food and farm policy in the U.S. throughout the Bush administration. How will things change under Obama? Leonard talks to Gourmet magazine’s Ruth Reichl and New York Times food writer Kim Severson.

Ready, set, go change the food system: A checklist for evaluating the new USDA’s first six months by Ethicurean @ 5:00 am on 30 January 2009.
behind the scenes, the groups that are immersed in a single facet of the problem — whether it be food justice, farmworkers’ rights, children’s nutrition, organic farming, animal welfare, food safety, or conservation to name just a few — are right now laying the groundwork in the new Obama administration for a set of policies that, taken together, just might someday result in food that nourishes not only eaters but the farmers and the farmworkers who produce it, as well as American soil itself.

USDA Announcement: SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE VILSACK LAYS OUT PRIORITIES, EXTENDS COMMENT PERIOD FOR PAYMENT LIMITATIONS RULE : Withdraws Proposed $3 Million Cut to Fruit and Vegetable Program

WASHINGTON, Monday, January 26, 2009-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced he will extend the comment period for the 2008 Farm Bill Farm Program Payment Limitation and Payment Eligibility rulemaking process.

"In keeping with President Obama's recent pledge to make government more transparent, inclusive, and collaborative, I would like to pursue an extended comment period so that more farmers and other individuals can participate in this rulemaking process," he said. "I'm particularly interested in suggestions that would help the Department target payments to farmers who really need them and ensure that payments are not being provided to ineligible parties for future crop years."

Whither Agriculture?: Vilsack, USDA and Future Challenges
by FREDERICK KIRSCHENMANN
PUBLISH DATE: 1.27.09
During his confirmation hearings Vilsack made it clear that he shared some of President-elect Obama’s priority concerns, especially climate change, nutrition, sustainability, and energy independence. Of course, as always, the devil will be in the details.

Obamas Hire Chef From Chicago
New York Times
By MARIAN BURROS
Published: January 28, 2009
WASHINGTON — Sam Kass, a chef who cooked for the Obamas while they were living in Chicago, is now cooking for them in the White House.
First MacArthur "genius grant," now calls from Obama team
JS Online, by Karen Herzog Jan. 16, 2009
Obama’s transition team last month sought out Allen, winner of a $500,000 “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, to learn more about his innovative approach to growing healthy food for urban populations, and training farmers to raise fresh produce and fish in cities.

Agriculture does not need 'business as usual'
Chicago Tribune, by George Naylor
January 20, 2009
I'm sorely disappointed in George McGovern and Marshall Matz's disturbing commentary piece, "Agriculture's next big challenge" (Jan. 4), which makes a failed argument to continue with business as usual for industrial agriculture.

Agriculture's next big challenge
Chicago Tribune
By George McGovern and Marshall Matz
January 4 2009
President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Iowa's former Gov. Tom Vilsack to be his secretary of agriculture. Vilsack was an excellent choice, but some have criticized the appointment because he supports agricultural biotechnology and commercial agriculture. The critics assume that anyone who holds these views is an enemy of organic farming and sustainable agriculture. We disagree.

USDA Regulations Being Reviewed by Obama Administration 
 COOL, EQIP, grasslands, wetlands and other conservation programs being reviewed.
Farm Futures by Farm Futures Staff, 1/22/2009
The Obama administration will review USDA regulations that the Bush administration issued last week, including mandatory country-of-origin labeling according to a USDA spokesman.
Call To Arms: Defend Small Family Farmers!
Bonnie Powell, aka Dairy Queen on the Ethicurean
Senator Pat Roberts from Kansas saw fit to define the typical small family farmer as "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."

We at the Ethicurean blog are posting photos of *real* small and organic farmers to Flickr, and tagging them as roberts_meet_small_farmers. We've asked readers to join us in posting similar photos to Flickr. A slide show of them has been generated and is being streamed here.

AGRIBUSINESS AS USUAL: Obama's campaign ag adviser mounts a weak defense of industrial food
GRIST, by Tom Philpott at 6:58 AM on 07 Jan 2009
Will Obama lead food and ag policy in new directions?...Obama made a boldly conventional pick for USDA chief -- a corn-belt ex-governor with ties to the GMO and biofuel industries. And now the chief adviser to this campaign on agricultural issues, Marshall Matz, has come out with a Chicago Tribune op-ed advocating a business-as-usual approach to ag policy. Matz co-wrote the piece with Democratic Party eminence grise (and farm-state politician) George McGovern.

Ripe for Change?
Huffington Post, Dan Imhoff, Author, Watershed Media Director
Posted January 7, 2009 | 12:14 PM (EST
American public's demands for a radical new direction in the country's food and farm policy are beginning to gain some rather serious volume. It's a new year, a new administration is assembling, and the unrequited expectations of the last eight years are being vocalized: in key newspapers, on the blogosphere, among community organizers, and at dining tables around the country. We are experiencing a shift in the global gestalt, not only around the possibility and need for change, but in the places where such reforms have to start.

A 50-Year Farm Bill
New York Times, OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS
By WES JACKSON and WENDELL BERRY
Published: January 4, 2009
THE extraordinary rainstorms last June caused catastrophic soil erosion in the grain lands of Iowa, where there were gullies 200 feet wide. But even worse damage is done over the long term under normal rainfall — by the little rills and sheets of erosion on incompletely covered or denuded cropland, and by various degradations resulting from industrial procedures and technologies alien to both agriculture and nature.

Maybe Vilsack Won't Suck?
by: Living Liberally
Fri Dec 19, 2008 at 16:00
Vilsack's cozy with that agrarian Antichrist, Monsanto, for starters--and if you don't know what's scary about that, you haven't heard that Monsanto's apparently hellbent on seizing control of our entire food chain. Kind of like a cheesy Austin Powers plot, except that IT'S REALLY HAPPENING.

Another Roundup-ready White House?
Searching for the hope in Obama's USDA pick
by Claire Hope Cummings, author of Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds.
Is it too early to peal my Obama sticker off my car? I am more than disappointed by the President-elect's nomination of Tom Vilsack for secretary of agriculture. But after some reflection, this dark cloud may have one ray of light coming through.

Change Starts at the Top and at the Bottom: Thoughts on the Vilsack Appointment
Submitted by Brian Depew on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 18:20
Whoa folks. It's just the Secretary of Agriculture (not to begrudge you anything, Mr. Secretary).

Vilsack Picked for Agriculture Secretary, New York Times
By Jeff Zeleny
December 16, 2008, 6:00 pm
CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama has settled on Tom Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, as his Agriculture Secretary. The announcement will be made here on Wednesday morning, according to Democrats familiar with the decision, as Mr. Obama works to round out his Cabinet nominations this week.
more

Obama will name Vilsack to top ag post
By THOMAS BEAUMONT, Des Moines Register • tbeaumont@dmreg.com • December 17, 2008
Vilsack would be the first Iowa Democrat to serve as a Cabinet secretary since Henry A. Wallace held the same position during President Franklin Roosevelt's administration.

 Vilsack not likely to take USDA in radical direction
by PHILIP BRASHER, Des Moines Register• pbrasher@dmreg.com • December 17, 2008
The Obama administration, meanwhile, will get an agriculture secretary who is sympathetic to big agribusiness that dominates Iowa and a believer in biofuels and agricultural biotechnology. In short, Vilsack is not likely to shift the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a radical new direction as many of Obama's liberal supporters had hoped.

A Cautious Farm and Food Pick , The Nation, posted by John Nichols on 12/17/2008 @ 11:06am
The most telling Cabinet pick that Barack Obama will make -- and from a long-term standpoint perhaps the most meaningful one -- is not his selection for secretary of State, secretary of Defense, Treasury secretary or attorney general. Obama, constrained by circumstance and the demands of official Washington, has filled those positions with predictable players from the usual D.C.-insider lists.

Michael Pollan On Vilsack, Agriculture — And Food
When President-elect Barack Obama nominated former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as his secretary of agriculture, he praised Vilsack's knowledge of both agriculture and energy. But author Michael Pollan says the incoming administration's focus should be on food and the people who eat it.
Obama should launch a New Farmer Corps
Des Moines Register
NEIL HAMILTON is director of the Agricultural Law Center and Dwight Opperman Professor of Law at Drake University. Contact: neil.hamilton@drake.edu. • December 1, 2008
The history of American agriculture is a tale of declining farm numbers. Our rapidly aging farm population and growing concentration of land with absentee owners place the future of farming in doubt. Research by Michael Duffy at Iowa State University shows that today more than 60 percent of Iowa farmland is rented, and 55 percent is owned by people over 65. As the countryside empties and land moves to non-farmer owners, the security and sustainability of our food system is threatened.

Ironically, this is happening as surging interest in local food, the environment and health open new markets for farmers. Janie Simms Hipp, USDA's national program leader for beginning farmer development, agrees we are at a critical juncture in transferring our farming infrastructure.

In his nomination acceptance speech, Obama said, "America, now is not the time for small plans." Here is a big plan the president could embrace: Launch a New Farmer Corps and set a 10-year goal of establishing one-half million new farms in the United States.
more

Brasher: Obama, like Bush, may be ag biotech ally
by philip brasher • Des  Moines Register
pbrasher@dmreg.com • November 23, 2008
Washington, D.C. - The agricultural biotechnology business could hardly have had a better friend than George W. Bush.
His administration challenged the European Union's anti-biotech regulations and avoided imposing rules domestically that would hinder the industry's growth, with the exception of the most controversial products, such as pharmaceutical crops.

But there are clues President-elect Barack Obama could be an ally of the industry, too, especially in the effort to put biotech crops into widespread use in Africa. These hints come from both statements of policy and the type of people from whom he's taking advice.

Michael Pollan Optimistic About Future Food Policy
Paula Crossfield, Managing Editor, Civil Eats

On WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show, Michael Pollan spoke about the change in food policy he'd like to see under the next administration.  Although there has been a move to nominate him for Secretary of Agriculture, Pollan stated that while he is flattered, he thinks he wouldn't make the vetting process (See The Botany of Desire, Chapter 3: Marijuana.  But then again, our new president has a past of his own).  He did however say that he felt that President-elect Obama is one of the most synthesis-oriented presidents we've had in a long time, and he feels that while he might not implement all of the ideas Mr. Pollan put forth in his recent letter in the New York Times Magazine, he feels confident that we will begin to see change in the right direction.  Perhaps an ode to Thomas Jefferson by adding an organic garden on the White House lawn?

Wait an Ag Sec: Getting real about who will head the USDA, By Steph Larsen
12:33 am on 15 November 2008.
The excitement of the recent election has worn off. In its place, a new horse race has emerged. The media is now obsessed with who President-Elect Obama will pick to help lead his government of change. We in the sustainable food, rural and agriculture community are particularly susceptible to this when it comes to suggesting nominees for Secretary of Agriculture.

Going Up? Sustainable food and ag folks offer their elevator pitches for Obama
Posted by Grist on 07 Nov 2008
We asked a number of leaders in sustainable food and agriculture to imagine they found themselves in an elevator with the president-elect -- giving them one minute of his undivided attention. Here are their messages to Obama about how he should approach environment, energy, climate, and food policy. (For more perspectives, check out Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4 of our elevator-pitch series.)

Tasks for Obama's ag sec: School food, subsidy cap
By Charles Abbott
Reuters
Friday, November 21, 2008; 5:47 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for U.S. agriculture secretary will face daunting tasks ranging from tightening farm subsidy rules to improving school meals, lawmakers and farm groups said on Friday.

During his campaign, Obama backed a $250,000 a year "hard" cap on subsidies to replace the current, porous limits. He also supported speedy development of new-generation biofuels to supplement corn-based ethanol, blamed for higher food prices.

Also looming are questions of how to shelter the farm sector from the financial turmoil slowing the U.S. economy and whether to expand school meal programs.