Phyllis,
I am thrilled with all of Obamas Cabinet choices so far with the exception of Vilsack for Secr of Ag. Hes his weakest pick by far so far. Vilsack has been too cozy with Big Ag, biochem, GMOs, CAFOs, etc. I expect to see the beginnings of fundamentally huge changes in infrastructure as well as shifts in the way our gov is run during Obamas first 100 days......
Im going to Karens New Years Open House, & again well miss seeing you there, but have a wonderful trip & STAY WARM!!
Sharon
The only two obstacles to health and longevity:
Lack of education and complacency
www.exploremannatech.com www.nobelsugars.com
www.novagenesis.net/skincare
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:55:58 -0600From: [log in to unmask]: Op-ed Vilsack DM Register 12-22-08To: [log in to unmask]
Written by Michael Richards, Sustainable Ecological, Economic Development. Will forward it to Obama.
If I remember correctly,Obama only got a score of 35% on the environment from LCV. His environmental choices and choice of an anti-choice for women and anti gay/lesbian preacher gives me little hope for change--more or the same, not as bad as Bush but a major disappointment for those of us who never supported him originally and did our best to get him elected despite grave doubts. I had begun to think he would be different. Phyllis
Vilsack Needs Courage to Face up to Big Ag 12-22-08 Des Moines Register
It's major news when a fellow Iowan is elevated to the presidential Cabinet. Tom Vilsack's story epitomizes the American Dream of an orphaned youth that rises to lofty national stature.His impressive political journey started as a small-town attorney in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. I restored the historic Harlan hotel there during the 1980s. Vilsack and family were among our most regular customers in the lobby restaurant. Mount Pleasant is an idyllic county-seat town. It could be a Mayberry movie set. From small-town Iowa to the halls of Washington power and influence is quite a journey.
It takes courage to step forward as an Iowan to offer an alternative view. I congratulate Vilsack as secretary of agriculture, but I will not line up in his parade to cheerlead the status quo. I challenge him to consider provable facts that what has worked for agriculture during the heyday of the petrochemical paradigm will no longer work.We now face careening climate change and a rapid descent down the carbon-energy bell curve. We are in a new reality. It takes courage to face hard facts. Petrol-driven ag that consumes 10 calories to produce 1 calorie of food or fuel is not sustainable. Only real conservation of land and energy can provide a sustainable future for our grandchildren. Deep systemic change is urgently required.
I ask hard questions: Will President-elect Barack Obama bring real change to our economy? Will Vilsack foster sustainable agriculture, or continue with ag-biz short-term thinking? Obama takes his cues from Wall Street, not Main Street. Vilsack's rise up the political ladder was supported whole hog by
multinational ag-business special-interest groups. Politicians follow money. Statesmen that have the courage to initiate real change are as rare as hen's teeth.
Vilsack is one of us "folks" with deep Iowa roots. The question is: Does Vilsack get marching orders from common, concerned citizens or the four horsemen of the Big Ag gravy wagon: Dupont, Monsanto, ADM, Cargill? We are in an era of rapidly diminishing returns from factory farming. New ways of thinking, new ways of farming, novel economic solutions are necessary.The petrochemical-powered agriculture juggernaut rolls on roughshod to deplete once-fertile soil, poison our waters and churn out unhealthy, nutrient-depleted factory food. Our children are the first generation in history that will have a shorter life span than their elders as a direct result of our wrong choices.
Big Ag has the carbon footprint of a 900-pound gorilla. Vilsack joins Sens. Tom Harkin, Charles Grassley and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey to defend the ag empire. They all answer to the ag-biz lobby. Our children deserve the quality of water and soil that our grandparents stewarded into our present generation. Future generations have no lobby in Washington.
If we continue with Big Ag and business as usual, Iowa family farms have no viable future. Half of our rich, vital top soil has already been extracted and sloughed down the Mississippi River along with a toxic soup of petrochemical runoff. The dead zone now extends into the Gulf 500 miles beyond the river delta. At the present rate of soil depletion, the Midwest Dust Bowl is only one generation away.
The average age of Iowa farmers today is 64. The biofuel boom has bid land prices so high that potential young farmers cannot afford to buy into the system. Only a small percentage of Iowa land is farmed by owner-occupants. Most is already leased out by absentee owners. The total shift to corporate factory farming is nearly complete.The media image of the yeoman family farmer is nearly extinct. Remaining Iowa farmers are indentured to big banks and the four ag giants. Iowa agriculture serves under the iron-grip control of out-of-state multinational corporations. Formerly independent farmers have been reduced to the economic status of sharecroppers on their own deeply mortgaged land.
Iowa topsoil continues to blow in the wind. Our once-resilient and absorptive Iowa land now sheds water like one huge parking lot. Floodwaters rise higher, as political defenders of the status quo sell off the future of our children for a factory-ag fast buck today.
If we continue with Big Ag and business as usual, Iowa family farms have no viable future. Half of our rich, vital top soil has already been extracted and sloughed down the Mississippi River along with a toxic soup of petrochemical runoff. The dead zone now extends into the Gulf 500 miles beyond the river delta. At the present rate of soil depletion, the Midwest Dust Bowl is only one generation away.
The average age of Iowa farmers today is 64. The biofuel boom has bid land prices so high that potential young farmers cannot afford to buy into the system. Only a small percentage of Iowa land is farmed by owner-occupants. Most is already leased out by absentee owners. The total shift to corporate factory farming is nearly complete.The media image of the yeoman family farmer is nearly extinct. Remaining Iowa farmers are indentured to big banks and the four ag giants. Iowa agriculture serves under the iron-grip control of out-of-state multinational corporations. Formerly independent farmers have been reduced to the economic status of sharecroppers on their own deeply mortgaged land.
Iowa topsoil continues to blow in the wind. Our once-resilient and absorptive Iowa land now sheds water like one huge parking lot. Floodwaters rise higher, as political defenders of the status quo sell off the future of our children for a factory-ag fast buck today.____________________________________________________________Save $15 on Flowers and Gifts from FTD!Shop now at www.ftd.com/17007- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask] Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/
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