Is there anything more important than access to healthy food and clean water? As everyone in the country is advising President-Elect Obama on who he should pick for his presidential cabinet, environmentalists are hoping (some might even be praying) that he will pick a progressive Secretary of Agriculture.
Food Democracy Now! is running an online campaign to urge Obama to pick a Secretary of Agriculture that will have a vision that includes creating regional food systems, supporting the growth of humane, natural and organic farms, and protecting the environment, biodiversity and the health of children while implementing policies that place conservation, soil health, animal welfare and worker's rights, as well as sustainable renewable energy, near the top of their agenda. Today we have a nutritional and environmental deficit that is as real and as great as that of our national debt and must be addressed with forward thinking and bold, decisive action, explains Food Democracy Now!.
You can sign their petition at: http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/
It is inarguable that America’s food systems are in a hell of a mess with heavily subsidized corn, genetically modified crops, high sugar consumption, factory farming, unhealthy school lunch programs, child and adult obesity, water pollution from livestock, methane production from farm animals, and the FDA’s current draft proposal on introducing genetically engineered animals for meat consumption.
With more than two out of every three Americans overweight, Americans consume one of the worst diets for a developing nation in the world. The World Health Organization reports that there are more than a billion people worldwide who are overweight, more than 300 million of whom are considered obese; and these figures should be compared to the 800 million who do not have enough to eat.
Michael Pollan, bestselling author of In Defense of Food, explains that we are now facing an unfamiliar dilemma in America; we are the human beings who manage to be both overfed and undernourished.
A progressive American Secretary of Agriculture would make an enormous difference in addressing the agricultural problems in America. Food Democracy Now! Wants Obama to pick one the following choices for Secretary of Agriculture:
Gus Schumacher, Former Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Former Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture.
Chuck Hassebrook, Executive Director, Center for Rural Affairs, Lyons, NE.
Sarah Vogel, former two-term Commissioner of Agriculture for the State of North Dakota, attorney, Bismarck, ND.
Fred Kirschenmann, organic farmer, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Ames, IA and President, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY.
Mark Ritchie, current Minnesota Secretary of State, former policy analyst in Minnesota's Department of Agriculture under Governor Rudy Perpich, co-founder of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
Neil Hamilton, attorney, Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law and Professor of Law and Director, Agricultural Law Center, Drake University, Des Moines, IA.
Unfortunately, the Associated Press is reporting that Obama’s choices for Secretary of Agriculture include:
Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture.
Tom Buis, president of National Farmers Union.
Former Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas.
Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo.
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D.
Former Rep. Jill Long Thompson, D-Ind.
Visit: http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/
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