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Tuesday, December 23
Democracy Now! Discusses Vilsack Nomination for Agriculture Secretary
by
Trish Nelson
on Tue 23 Dec 2008 05:00 AM CST
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.
Tuesday, December 16
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement to House Leaders: ENOUGH!
by
Trish Nelson
on Tue 16 Dec 2008 05:00 AM CST
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement to House Leaders: ENOUGH!
 iowacci.org
Members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) are calling for House leaders Kevin McCarthy and Pat Murphy to remove Dolores Mertz as Chair of the House Agriculture Committee due to her voting record and close ties to the factory farm industry.
Last week, Mertz was re-appointed by House leadership as the Ag Committee chair for the 2009 legislative session. Mertz is starting her eleventh term as a state representative, a seat she retained by a razor-thin margin of 42 votes. For more than a dozen years, she has consistently voted for policies that benefit corporate factory farms and worked against the interests of hundreds of thousands of everyday Iowans. In addition, Mertz's son, Peter, owns a 4,000-head hog factory, which raises other questions about her votes.
"Mertz claims she supports family farms, but her votes and actions clearly show she has bent over backwards to please the factory farm industry," said Kevin Shilling, a CCI member and livestock/poultry farmer. "McCarthy and Murphy knew exactly what they were doing when they re-appointed her as House Ag Chair. It's shameful that they care more about the factory farm industry than the quality of life of everyday Iowans."
As the House Ag chair, Mertz controls what bills pass and don't pass out of her committee. Mertz has voted for dozens of bills that support the factory farm industry. She voted for House File 519 in 1995, a bill that opened the door for corporate factory farms to flood the state. She also more recently voted for the so-called "odor study" that would funnel $23 million of taxpayer dollars to factory farms. Mertz voted for the odor study when it was in her committee and both times it came to the floor of the House for a vote.
CCI members are also calling on McCarthy and Murphy to re-assign Representative Mark Kuhn to the Ag and Environmental Protection Committees. Kuhn served on both committees and introduced legislation that called for stricter regulations on factory farms. He was passed over for a spot on the committees in the 2009 session.
Iowans across the state have demonstrated strong opposition to hog factories for a number of reasons. Among these are the threat of manure spills, which lead to fish kills and water pollution. Factory farms also cause air pollution, threaten public health, and lower the property values of nearby homes.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is a 33-year old organization with thousands of members across the state from all walks of life who talk, act and get things done on critical issues affecting all Iowans. CCI members recognize the power of uniting and standing up for what's right. For more information, visit iowacci.org.
**BFIA ACTION ALERT**
Contact Speaker Pat Murphy and Kevin McCarthy to stand with ICCI and voice your support for family farms, not factory farms.
E-mail: Kevin.McCarthy@legis.state.ia.us (Majority Leader)
Snail mail: 5220 SE 31st Court, Des Moines, IA, 50320
Home Telephone: 515-953-5221
E-mail: Pat.Murphy@legis.state.ia.us (Speaker)
Snail mail: 155 N. Grandview, Dubuque, IA, 52001-6325
Home Telephone: 563-582-5922
For contact info. for any member of the Iowa General Assembly, click here.
Tuesday, December 9
New Report Exposes Subsidies to Factory Farms
by
Linda Thieman
on Tue 09 Dec 2008 05:00 AM CST
New Report Exposes Subsidies to Factory Farms
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, iowacci.org
Family Farm Groups Demand Reform of Environmental Quality Incentives Program
Des Moines, Iowa - A report released yesterday exposes how industrial hog and dairy operations are subsidized through the federal Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The report, entitled Industrial Livestock at the Taxpayer Trough, estimates that between 2003 and 2007, roughly 1,000 industrial hog and dairy operations have captured at least $35 million per year in taxpayer support through EQIP. (Follow this link to read the report.)
Representatives of the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment (CFFE), a coalition of family farm organizations in the Midwest, say the report gives further evidence that the factory farm industry is reliant on taxpayer funding.
“This report demonstrates what family farmers have known for years—this corporate-controlled, industrial model of livestock production can’t survive without taxpayer support,” said Rhonda Perry, a livestock farmer with the Missouri Rural Crisis Center from Howard County, Missouri. “Taxpayers should not have to foot-the-bill for this corporate welfare that is fueling the industrialization of the livestock industry at the expense of family farmers, rural communities and the environment.”
EQIP was established in the 1996 Farm Bill as a cost-share program targeted at family farmers to help them incorporate conservation practices into their farming operations. However, the 2002 Farm Bill opened the program to factory farms, allowing them to use EQIP to help them expand their operations to the tune of $450,000 over five years.
“I have used the EQIP program and found it to be valuable,” said Jon Peterson, Land Stewardship Project member and dairy farmer from Peterson, Minnesota. “I believe the focus has shifted from helping small to midsize operations find cost effective solutions to environmental concerns. It now seems to be a production subsidy to help large confinement operations expand. It is as if the bigger the pollution risk an applicant can create, the greater his chances of getting funding.”
In addition to highlighting factory farms’ excessive use of EQIP funds, the report also points to a lack of disclosure within the taxpayer-funded program. A provision in the 2002 Farm Bill prohibited the USDA from releasing specific information about conservation contracts -- how participants in these taxpayer-funded programs are using the money.
“That means that the public can't evaluate whether program funds are being used effectively and whether they result in real environmental benefits,” said Elanor Starmer, the author of the report. “There is no reason to restrict public access to conservation payment information when we can access information on other programs, such as commodity payments. As it stands, EQIP suffers from an unacceptable lack of accountability.”
At the insistence of family farm organizations nationwide, the 2008 Farm Bill lowered the amount of funding operations can receive through EQIP from $450,000 to $300,000 over the life of the Farm Bill. USDA will likely conduct rulemaking before the end of the year. As a part of that process, there will be an opportunity for the public to weigh in during the comment period. CFFE is also urging Congress and President-Elect Obama to reform the program based on the report’s recommendations:
• EQIP should be structured to deliver the maximum amount of environmental performance for the least amount of taxpayer money. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) should return to prioritizing contracts based on cost-efficiency, not on the level of pollution generated by the operation.
• The amount of funding available to an individual operator should be capped at $150,000 per operation.
• EQIP should not subsidize the construction or expansion of industrial livestock operations. USDA and Congress should prohibit EQIP funding for waste facilities on all new and expanding industrial livestock operations.
• Taxpayers and policymakers deserve to know how EQIP funds are being used. Legislators should strike existing language prohibiting USDA from releasing detailed information on the use and amount of conservation program contracts.
• Congress should appropriate money to NRCS and instruct the agency to track EQIP funding to livestock operations by size category and amount of manure generated by the operation.
“During his campaign, President-Elect Obama said conservation programs like EQIP should help family farmers use good environmental practices, not fund corporate expansion,” said Vern Tigges, member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and family farmer from Carroll, Iowa. “He needs to make this a priority and stop factory farms from abusing taxpayer-funded programs like EQIP.”
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