Democracy Now! Discusses Vilsack Nomination for Agriculture Secretary
DemocracyNow.org
A courageous journalist and champion of media reform, Amy Goodman is
not the least bit shy about reporting on stolen elections, military contractors or mysterious plane crashes. Today's topic is slightly less exotic but as usual, Amy and Juan Gonzales have done their homework. I try to watch DemocracyNow! every day. In Iowa City, PATV channel 18 airs it twice daily at 7 am and 11 am. You can also get DN on TV in Sioux City on Siouxland Community Media Channel 12 at 7 am, 11 am, and 9 pm M-F; and Waterloo on WCTV Ch. 17 at 7 am, 11am & 11pm M-Th; on the radio in Ames at Experiment FM, 102.1 at 5pm M-F; and Grinnell at KDIC 88.5 FM at Noon M-F.If you don't have DN where you live but would like to, there is a page at their website devoted to helping communities add DN to their local stations. Often, stations add programming to their schedules simply in response to requests from the community, so call and get your friends to call your local TV or radio stations. DemocracyNow! is an incredible resource for truth.
Recently, on DN, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez discussed Tom Vilsack’s nomination for Secretary of Agriculture with Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association and Brian Moore of the National Audubon Society.(Click here to read, stream, or download the entire conversation).
JUAN GONZALEZ: As Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack will manage a staff of more than 105,000 and a budget of more than $95 billion.
From 1999 to 2007, Vilsack served as the Democratic governor of Iowa. After a brief run for the presidency in 2007, he worked as an attorney for a corporate law firm that has represented food giants Cargill and ConAgra. He is a strong backer of biofuels and genetically engineered crops. In 2001, the Biotechnology Industry Organization named Vilsack Governor of the Year. On the issue of farm subsidies, he has supported reducing government subsidies of factory farms.
This is part of what Tom Vilsack said on Wednesday after being nominated to be Agriculture Secretary.
TOM VILSACK: As a small-town lawyer, I had the responsibility of helping farm families during tough economic times. I know these people. America’s farmers and ranchers deserve a Secretary of Agriculture that respects them for the contribution they make to all of us every day. I hope to be that secretary. I look forward to working with congressional leaders who share the President-elect’s vision of bringing hope to rural America, of being good stewards of our natural resources, of providing American leadership on climate change, and making America a nation truly dedicated to health and nutrition.
AMY GOODMAN: Brian Moore, let’s begin with you. What do you think of Governor Vilsack as the pick for Secretary of Agriculture?
BRIAN MOORE: We’re encouraged by the pick of Governor Vilsack, and for various reasons. First of all, we believe it’s someone we can work with. This governor, as governor and as a presidential candidate, has said he would like to reduce global warming emissions by 70 percent by 2050, a nice environmental position, conservation position on reducing global warming gases. He’s also been a supporter of changing the large subsidy scale, large subsidy system, within the Department of Agriculture and, in fact, moving some of that money to the natural resources conservation programs that they run.
JUAN GONZALEZ: … do you have any concern about his close relationship with some of these huge agribusiness companies? For instance, he’s been known to fly on Monsanto jets on more than one occasion.
BRIAN MOORE: Well, it’s an interesting question… I understand agriculture, while agribusiness is something different. And I believe it’s important to have a Secretary of Agriculture that understands the agriculture system in the United States, and agribusiness is part of that. So the assumption that the nominee for the Secretary of Agriculture is in bed with these people, I’m not sure about it. My assumption is that this is someone from a farm state who understands agriculture and, more importantly for me, understands conservation, understands the need to reduce greenhouse gases.
AMY GOODMAN: Ronnie Cummins, while the Audubon Society is applauding the choice of Governor Vilsack as Agriculture Secretary, he still has to go through the confirmation process in the Senate. What are your plans?
RONNIE CUMMINS: We’ve started an online campaign at stopvilsack.org. We need to send a message from hundreds of thousands of organic consumers and sustainable-minded Americans to Obama, to the Senate and to Vilsack, that we want big change, not small change, and that we need to start moving this country toward an energy-efficient, carbon-sequestering, healthy food and farming system that is organic and in transition to organic. We don’t need these biofuels. We don’t need genetically engineered crops. We need to take the climate crisis, the public health crisis, the food crisis seriously and do something about it. We need major change, not small change.
Goodman also noted that if
Vilsack is confirmed, it will be the first time that both the
Agriculture Secretary and the Senate Agriculture Committee chair are
both Iowans.
For more reactions to the Vilsack nomination, check out Bleeding Heartland.
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