Obama's got a lot of cleaning up to do. (Fortunately, you can track his executive orders online.) Bush left him a bunch of flaming bags of poo in the White House. Worse than taking all of the W's off the keyboards. Bush tried to push through every single regulation he could to ensure lax standards for ALL of his buddies before Obama got into office. Fortunately, in some cases (where the rules aren't yet in effect... they require 60 days after being issued to go into effect), Obama can overturn them.
For Obama, though, this must be playing whack-a-mole. When the economy's in the shitter and we're in 2 wars, what do you even do first? Deal with the minor regulations that make up the fine details of our laws, or try to un-piss-off world leaders, restore the economy, and stop all of the breaches of the Constitution that may be continuing?
More below on a few charming moves by Bush, left for Obama to clean up...
Bush USDA Issues Final COOL Rule
This one happened last week, which means Obama's got til March 16 to do something about it. COOL stands for Country of Origin Labeling. It was initially passed years ago but its implementation was delayed until 2008. I've detailed the many loopholes but I think they are best summed up with a quote by Food & Water Watch:
Given the recent scandals about the safety of imported food, it is unacceptable that the rule was approved with an overly broad definition for which foods are 'processed.' This definition exempts from labeling over 60 percent of pork, the majority of frozen vegetables, an estimated 95 percent of peanuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts, and multi-ingredient fresh produce items such as fruit salads and salad mixes. It is inexcusable to exempt so much food from this basic labeling requirement just because one ingredient has been added or because something has been roasted or cooked.
Obama HAS stated that he is FOR COOL. Does that also mean he plans to tighten up the loopholes?
Poison Peanut Butter
I diaried this yesterday but the recall seems to expand every day. Obama's problem is not only the current peanut butter recall but the overall food safety problems in our entire food system. To understand the problems better, I highly recommend reading Marion Nestle's book "Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coalmine" about the pet food crisis of 2007. For an intro to the subject, you can check out an interview I did with her here. I will continue to do updates on the peanut butter recall on my blog, and you can check it out here or subscribe to RSS updates to keep up with the latest news.
The F'ing Economy
Thanks a lot, George W. Hoover. I doubt I need to say much about this. But I did read a fantastic plan for the stimulus put together by the Campaign for America's Future and then write up a summary of it plus my own ideas here if you'd like more details.
Organics Are Good Enough For Bush... But Nobody Else
Did you know that Laura Bush was actually fanatical about eating organic food? And the White House chef under Bush (and now Obama) was pretty good at getting local ingredients? Yep. It's true. You'd never know it though because Bush's policies reflected an attitude of "Let them eat pesticides." Details here.
Factory Farms Got a Last Minute Gift From Bush
I'm actually a little sketchy on the details here so I'd appreciate if anyone can give me a good update. Apparently Bush made some last minute changes to exempt factory farms from reporting toxic emissions. Several environmental groups are suing the EPA over it now. But I've also read that there are new regulations REQUIRING factory farms to report on emissions... and in fact the pork lobby is suing over THAT. What's going on?? Seriously, I'm asking...
Obama's Plans
Several of Obama's plans showed up on the brand-spanking-new Whitehouse.gov site the other day. And here they are (also diaried here on my site).
About those factory farm (CAFO) emissions:
Regulate CAFOs: Strictly regulate pollution from large factory livestock farms, with fines for those that violate tough standards. Support meaningful local control.
And COOL:
Establish Country of Origin Labeling: Implement Country of Origin Labeling so that American producers can distinguish their products from imported ones.
And organics:
Encourage Organic and Local Agriculture: Help organic farmers afford to certify their crops and reform crop insurance to not penalize organic farmers. Promote regional food systems.
In other words, he hasn't directly said that he'll address these problems Bush left behind, but he has made it clear that these are issues he cares about and plans to focus on. Oh, how nice to have the grown-ups in charge once again!
UPDATE: Apparently Obama's admin is totally on top of this: USDA Regulations Being Reviewed By Obama Administration