{"id":3637,"date":"2020-12-24T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=143060"},"modified":"2020-12-24T09:00:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T09:00:43","slug":"for-farmers-bidens-ag-pick-of-tom-vilsack-is-deja-vu-all-over-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/24\/for-farmers-bidens-ag-pick-of-tom-vilsack-is-deja-vu-all-over-again\/","title":{"rendered":"For Farmers, Biden\u2019s Ag Pick of Tom Vilsack is Deja Vu All Over Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Oregon farm in winter. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In 2009 Tom Vilsack was among five of President Obama\u2019s cabinet nominees to be confirmed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate. That he was a non-controversial pick for United States Department of Agriculture Secretary (USDA) spoke to the fact that, like his predecessors in previous administrations, his strong ties to corporate agribusiness made him very acceptable to farm-state lawmakers. He was a safe choice then and as President-elect Biden now fills out his cabinet, Vilsack is again, a safe choice at USDA.<\/p>\n

While Vilsack is more than acceptable to Republicans and the centrist wing of the Democratic party, his nomination was a red flag to reformist progressives, small farm and environmental advocates. Vilsack\u2019s nomination means stepping back to the same old same old of Obama\u2019s ag policy that did little to promote progressive policies that would give farmers fair prices, limit corporate consolidation, rebuild rural communities, discourage overuse of pesticides and the proliferation of Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) or provide land access to women, people of color and beginning farmers<\/p>\n

No doubt almost anyone moving into the \u201cbig office\u201d at USDA would be an improvement over current Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue, with his support for the continuing trend of consolidation in agriculture, his \u201cthe big get bigger and the small go out<\/a>\u201d philosophy, penchant to de-regulate<\/a> agriculture, disdain for organic farming, perpetuation of racist policies<\/a> within the USDA, support for factory farming and his feeling that climate science is a \u201cjoke\u201d<\/a>. Not a high bar.<\/p>\n

Being the safe choice for the incoming administration hardly equates with Vilsack being the choice of rural Americans. Of course agribusiness corporations and commodity farmers welcome his return to USDA, but the \u201cagriculture in the middle<\/a>\u201d got little support from Secretary Vilsack.<\/p>\n

Under Vilsack, country of origin labeling<\/a> for beef and pork was repealed. A series of cross-country listening sessions<\/a> on competition and anti-trust enforcement within the ag industry jointly hosted by USDA and the Department of Justice in 2010 drew thousands of farmers to testify about the unfair prices they were paid in a highly consolidated marketplace. The hearings, it was thought, offered hope, Vilsack listened yet did nothing to foment change.<\/p>\n

Under Vilsack\u2019s leadership USDA failed to reverse decades of institutional racism<\/a> against Black farmers, even as USDA was forced to settle lawsuits for billions of dollars admitting discrimination against African American, Native American, Latinx and women farmers and ranchers. No wonder USDA has been called \u201cthe last plantation<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

His imprudent firing of Shirley Sherrod<\/a>, USDA\u2019s Georgia director of rural development, is still remembered in Georgia and makes one wonder if Georgians see him as a safe choice. Despite pressure from farm, environmental, labor and hunger groups both urban and rural to nominate Ohio Representative Marcia Fudge as USDA Secretary, a position she was well qualified for and actively pursued, she was instead nominated for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.<\/a><\/p>\n

Pressure from corporate agribusiness demanded a continuation of the status quo that serves their interests, not that of rural or urban Americans, food chain workers or those who depend on the USDA nutrition programs that Marcia Fudge<\/a> knows so well. The status quo isn\u2019t working, \u201cWe need someone with vision for a just food system,\u201d said Joe Maxwell, president of Family Farm Action. John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, who campaigned for Mr. Biden and worked with his transition team, said, \u201cI wanted someone new\u201d [at USDA].<\/p>\n

While in his first go-round at USDA, Vilsack did state that \u201clocal and regional food systems are about opportunity,\u201d there seemed to be little effort to make those systemic changes happen. President Obama selected organic advocate Kathleen Merrigan<\/a> as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and Vilsack seemed committed to raising the presence of organic agriculture at USDA. Planting the \u201cPeoples Garden<\/a>\u201d and placing a beehive on the roof of the USDA building in Washington along with Michelle Obama\u2019s organic White House Kitchen Garden<\/a> and beehive on the South Lawn of the White House gave an indication that perhaps the administration and Vilsack were ready to take the USDA in a new direction. But old habits are hard to break and Monsanto\u2019s \u201cBiotech Governor of the Year<\/a>\u201d was more inclined to approve bio-tech crops<\/a> than he was to support organic farmers.<\/p>\n

In his position heading the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) for the past three years, Vilsack found himself in a real conundrum. The cheese he wanted to export is a commodity<\/a> no one really wants. Last fall Rogue River Blue<\/a> was named \u201cBest Cheese in the World.\u201d It is made exclusively with milk from Rogue Creamery\u2019s Certified Organic Dairy Farm, where cows graze on pastures bordering the Rogue River, in Oregon, a far cry from the commodity cheese from CAFO farms that\u2019s piling up in cold storage.<\/p>\n

Vilsack justly applauded Rouge River, saying, \u201cThis is more than a win for Rogue Creamery of Central Point, Oregon, \u201cThe \u2018Best Cheese\u2019 title creates a halo effect that will cause global customers to look at all U.S. cheeses in a brighter light.\u201d Really? American cheese singles may sell at the convenience stores, but clearly not on the world market.<\/p>\n

As head of USDEC, Vilsack\u2019s answer to the surplus of U.S. dairy production was to demand an open market<\/a> into Canada, in effect forcing the Canadians to dismantle their widely supported dairy supply management system that has kept their farmers profitable. That troubles many small and medium-sized U.S. dairy farmers who feel implementing supply management<\/a> here might be their last, best hope to end the wild fluctuations in milk prices which, for decades, have been consistently below the cost of production. Mr. Vilsack\u2019s solution for low farm-gate prices and the growing problem of surplus dairy production \u2014 increasing dairy exports \u2014 has not worked.<\/p>\n

In a September interview,<\/a> Mr. Vilsack (at the time an adviser to the Biden campaign) said \u201cI don\u2019t think most farmers want government payments,\u201d noting a \u201cneed for new policies that support a more resilient farm sector.\u201d Under a Biden administration, he added, \u201cthe USDA could set up regional food-supply markets and direct federal incentives to farmers who adopt climate-friendly practices.\u201d Right on!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s give Vilsack credit for embracing that kind of thinking. And let\u2019s lift up the idea of a just food system, feed ourselves, pay our farmers and farm workers fairly and pay everyone else a fair wage \u2014 as Bernie Sanders says, \u201ca minimum of 15 bucks an hour.\u201d Let\u2019s admit that forcing over-production of dairy, or any commodity, on the world market is a losing game. If folks like Rogue River and others can export their specialties, more power to \u2018em.<\/p>\n

Ricardo Salvadore<\/a> at Union of Concerned Scientists stressed that \u201cany change in administration is an opportunity to strike in a new direction. So, obviously, going back to a [USDA] secretary of the past is not the way to strike in a new direction. That is status quo.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Given a second chance, will Tom Vilsack be that \u201csomeone with vision for a just food system\u201d as Joe Maxwell hoped, someone who will Build Back Better, or will it be \u201cd\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again\u201d? The fate of farmers, rural communities, and our food system depends on the answer.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oregon farm in winter. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair. In 2009 Tom Vilsack was among five of President Obama\u2019s cabinet nominees to be confirmed by unanimous consent of the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,266,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3638,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3637\/revisions\/3638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}