Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Max Baucus (D-MT)
- Michael Bennet (D-CO)
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Bob Casey (D-PA)
- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Pat Leahy (D-VT)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Mike Johanns (R-NE)
- Dick Lugar (R-IN)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Pat Roberts (R-KS)
- John R. Thune (R-SD)
Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
- Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA) *=House Organic Caucus member B=Blue Dog Democrat
Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA) *=House Organic Caucus member
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
- Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)
P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC) P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
(Promoting organics is the only way to a clean environment...and health. - promoted by Asinus Asinum Fricat)
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is suddenly adopting the progressive rhetoric of food activists like Michael Pollan and Nicholas Kristof, who've both called for big changes in the USDA. In an interview with the Washington Post, Vilsack just announced a previously unheard-of concept for the USDA: That it should also represent people who eat food, not just the people who grow food, which both Pollan and Kristof have been busily promoting.
"This [USDA] is a department that intersects the lives of Americans two to three times a day. Every single American," Vilsack told Wa Po. "So I absolutely see the constituency of this department as broader than those who produce our food -- it extends to those who consume it."
Given USDA's historic stance as a walled castle of agribusiness, it's amazing that Vilsack is going on the record with such a progressive statement. Even better, Vilsack currently has a huge opportunity to really put words in to action for change, by appointing Chuck Hassebrook as his deputy secretary, something Kristof also supported in an op-ed piece. The director of the Center for Rural Affairs, Hassebrook is not only a visionary in terms of reforming the way government deals with agriculture, but he's also got huge grassroots traction. A petition supporting his candidacy from Food Democracy Now! has gotten almost 85,000 signatures.
Nicholas Kristof hit one out of the park today in the New York Times: Deputy "Secretary of Food". He writes about his hopes that Chuck Hassebrook will be appointed as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture - a hope that I share.
One of those whom I did suggest is Chuck Hassebrook, a Nebraskan ag expert who has long called for reforms and argued that the high limits on farm payments encourage consolidation in agriculture at the expense of the family farm. So I was delighted to hear that Vilsack was considering Hassebrook to be his deputy: That was a credit to Vilsack's willingness to think outside the box and reach out to critics.
But now apparently some senators - such as Kent Conrad from North Dakota - have protested ferociously and Hassebrook may not be chosen.
Here's what confuses me. Obama has stated on the campaign trail and once in office that he's for payment limitations on commodity subsidies. I believe the amount everyone's discussed is a limit of $250,000 per farm. In the last farm bill this was debated but the amendment (proposed by Byron Dorgan and Chuck Grassley) narrowly failed. So, Obama is for this. Chuck Hassebrook is for this too.
Well, what are Hassebrook's opponents' big problem with him? He's for payment limitations on commodity subsidies - JUST LIKE OBAMA. Seems to me it would be crazy for Obama to dismiss Hassebrook as a "controversial" choice because he shares the very same "controversial" views that Obama campaigned on!
Also important to note: None of the other candidates for Deputy Secretary are reformers like Chuck. Obama promised us change. Will he give us change at the USDA or not?
We've already got Tom Vilsack as the head of the USDA, but the Vilsack USDA will also be incredibly influenced by the Deputy Secretary. And I have bad news about that that requires immediate action by all progressives.
As you know, I've been advocating the "Sustainable Dozen" chosen by Food Democracy Now (go there and sign their petition!) as candidates for USDA Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary positions. Several of these Sustainable Dozen, including Chuck Hassebrook were being seriously considered. And then... a few DC-type people spoke up against him. What??? This election was a victory for CHANGE. So why is anyone being heeded when they advocate an anti-change agenda??
The names now up for Deputy USDA Secretary are nasty pro-industrial ag, anti-sustainable ag people like the Big Bad Dennis Wolff of Pennsylvania. Wolff is known for unilaterally deciding that Pennsylvanians do not have a right to know whether their milk has artificial growth hormones in it or not (a policy that was thankfully overturned by the PA governor after much consumer outcry).
Furthermore, Joy Philippi, former past president of the National Pork Producers Council, co-chair the Rural Americans for Hillary is being considered for an under secretary position. The National Pork Producers Council is the lobby group for hog factory farms. That means we'd be installing the fox in the henhouse every bit as completely as Bush did during his eight years. Again, this is going against what Obama promised us, as he has promised to have an administration free of lobbyists.
Putting Dennis Wolff or others like him in as the #2 at the USDA would be an end to any hope for change in American agriculture during Obama's time as President. And if this election was a victory for Hope and Change, then choosing Wolff as Deputy Secretary (or another person with similar ideas as him) would directly violate what the people of this great country voted for on November 4.
Write your Senator and Representative today. The best thing you can do right now is to send an email or a fax (as opposed to calling or sending snail mail). You can find your Representative here and your Senator here. Ask them to speak to the Obama transition team about this. Ask them to support reform candidates like Chuck Hassebrook or others in the Sustainable Dozen for USDA Deputy Secretary and to oppose anti-sustainable ag candidates like Dennis Wolff.
Email a link to this blog post to your friends and ask them to take action as well.
Cross-posted at Bleeding Heartland. Apologies if this has already been posted here.
In November, Food Democracy Now started a petition drive urging President-elect Barack Obama to appoint a secretary of agriculture with a vision for a more sustainable food system.
Now that Obama has decided on Tom Vilsack for this position, Food Democracy Now has launched a new petition:
Now that the Secretary of Agriculture has been selected, it's more important than ever that we send our message to Washington. Today's farmers need a serious voice for sustainable change at the USDA.
Therefore, Food Democracy Now! has created a list of 12 candidates for the crucial Under Secretary positions that will stand up for family farms, safe food, clear air and water, animal welfare and soil preservation.
We need your help to continue to spread the word to your friends and colleagues to reach our goal of 100,000 signatures in the next two weeks before the Inauguration!
These 12 candidates have spent their lives fighting for family farmers and we're calling them the Sustainable Dozen. Help us send them to Washington.
If you've already signed the petition, please forward this to one other person who cares about these issues to help us reach our goal of 100,000 Americans for a sustainable food system for the 21st century.
Once the Secretary of Agriculture is confirmed, we will deliver this letter with your comments to him and President Obama in Washington DC.
We at Food Democracy Now! are continuing to give voice to these concerns with policy makers at the federal, state and local levels, to gain a seat at the table and keep these issues at the forefront of future policy decisions.
Currently we are MORE THAN 60,000 voices strong. Please help keep this conversation going...Donate today. By donating as little as $5 or $10 you can make a difference in shaping the conversation at the USDA. Through our collective efforts, this letter has successfully reached "the right people" in Washington and we need to continue this vital work to create a future that we can ALL BELIEVE IN.
From all of us at Food Democracy Now! - Have a Happy, Sustainable New Year!
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