Greetings, from the Official Stalker of Tom Vilsack (me). At least, that's what I feel like I've turned into. I've been all over the web, looking for any information about our new Secretary of Agriculture and what he's up to. You'll find my full report below - along with lots of juicy details about the future of our food system under the Obama administration.
Note: You can find my ongoing coverage of Vilsack here - or sign up for RSS or Twitter updates instead.
COOL: Country of Origin Labeling
This is the latest segment in a long story that started years ago. I believe it was first passed in the 2002 farm bill but don't quote me on that. Regardless, the law was mostly postponed so that it wouldn't go into effect until Sept 30, 2008 and would not be enforced until the start of 2009. So - tada! - we're here. COOL is now being enforced.
But that's the part that happened in Congress. Once Congress passes a bill, then the executive branch - in this case, the USDA - implements it. Bush's USDA started out with all of the preliminary proposed rules, comment periods, etc, and then January 15, they published a final rule for COOL.
No sooner than they published the rule than Consumers Union, Food and Water Watch, and food bloggers everywhere started complaining about it. Particularly, complaining about the loopholes, which were big enough to drive a truck through. Or, as Hardhat Democrat said:
Forget a truck, those loopholes are big enough to run a fleet of container ships through.
You might want to check out the full rundown of loopholes, but in short, the bill specified that processed foods are exempt and so the Bush administration gave a REALLY BROAD definition of processed foods. Pork chops have to be labeled if sold in a grocery store (but not at a butcher shop) but bacon doesn't have to be labeled. Raw peanuts must be labeled, roasted ones don't. Frozen peas must be labeled. A bag of frozen peas and carrots does not.
In other words: Americans only have a right to know where their food is from sometimes.
Well, Obama's campaign platform and official rural agenda both voice support for COOL. It struck me as odd because they were supporting something that was already in existence. The law was already passed. It was already in effect. All that was left to do was the final rule. Once Obama took office, his administration froze all Bush rules that hadn't gone into effect. The crappy Bush rule was set to go into effect March 16 but now it was on hold.
This past Tuesday Tom Vilsack announced his plans to call for stricter voluntary COOL standards. Stricter and voluntary. Yikes. He said he would write a letter to industry asking them to pretty please (with a cherry on top) observe a more comprehensive set of rules that closed up some of the huge loopholes. If they do that voluntarily, no problem. If not, he'll start the rulemaking process to close the loopholes.
Vilsack was going to have a press conference Thursday but canceled at the last minute. Then, the next day, he announced that the Bush rule would become final on March 16 as scheduled and he also released his letter, as promised, asking industry to observe stricter voluntary standards (see the text of the letter at the link).
Vilsack Speaks to Commodity Growers
Already since he took office a few weeks ago, Vilsack has spoken to wheat growers, rice growers, and cotton growers. So I guess that means he needs to speak to corn, soy, and hay growers and he'll have over 90% of American agriculture accounted for.
In these appearances, he called for a single U.S. food safety agency and made it clear that the cost of fighting 2 wars and the huge deficit were going to effect the USDA's ability to pay for farm programs. He said he wanted to keep a safety net in place for farmers but also asked them to look for other sources of income:
Vilsack called on farmers to accept the political reality that U.S. farm program direct payments are under fire both at home and abroad and therefore farmers should develop other sources of income. In his remarks to the groups he said he intends to promote a far more diversified income base for the farm sector, saying that windmills and biofuels should definitely be part of the income mix and that organic agriculture will also play an increasing role.
Keep in mind here that in this particular case - speaking in front of wheat growers - he was talking to a group who owns the largest farms in the nation. Farms over 2000 acres account for 2/3 of wheat production in the U.S. And Vilsack told them to start thinking about wind power or going organic!
Vilsack's Other Interviews and Appearances
Tom Vilsack has had several other notable interviews and appearances. First, there was an absolutely incredible interview that appeared in the Washington Post. Apparently Tom Vilsack was abandoned to an orphanage shortly after birth and lived there a year. When he was finally adopted, his adoptive mother was an alcoholic who was quite abusive to him. He had an eating disorder as a kid and his mom was, shall we say, less than sympathetic to him about it. Reading this article made me just want to give him a big hug!
Some money quotes from the article:
In a perfect world, everything that was sold, everything that was purchased and consumed would be local, so the economy would receive the benefit of that. But sometimes that stresses the capacity: the production capacity or the distribution capacity. Especially since we don't have yet a very sophisticated distribution system for locally grown food. One thing we can do is work on strategies to make that happen. It can be grant programs, loan programs, it can be technical assistance.
the vision [of the USDA]: a sufficient, safe, nutritious food supply produced in a sustainable and environmentally supportive way.
And, in another WaPo article, Vilsack made headlines by saying the USDA should serve eaters as well as farmers. Wow! THAT is revolutionary!!! Of course - now he needs to back up his talk with some action.
For the occasion of Lincoln's 200th birthday, Vilsack planted a new garden at the USDA that will grow fruits and veggies for local soup kitchens. He announced a goal of gardens at each USDA facility, focusing on improving water quality and providing pollinator habitat with native plants, as well as growing food.
This week Michelle Obama visited Vilsack at the USDA, presenting him with a magnolia tree seedling for his garden. Here's what she said as she presented it.
It's a very good thing--and, kicking off this effort to build these gardens all over the world, in all the facilities of the USDA, because I'm a big believer in community gardens, both because of their beauty and for their access to providing fresh fruits and vegetables to so many communities across this nation and the world.
So to help kick this effort off, I've brought a little gift to get this garden going. It's right here in this pot.
It is a seedling. It will be beautiful one day.
But right now it's a seedling. And it's a special seedling because it comes from the Jackson magnolia tree. And the Jackson magnolia tree sits on the south portico of the White House. And it's a special tree because it was planted by President Jackson in honor of his wife Rachel who passed right before they moved into the White House.
So I hope that this seedling brings years of joy and beauty--to the garden that will be planted here--in the same way it has brought beauty to the White House for 180 years. So please accept this gift from the White House.
So there's your Vilsack update. I will continue to stalk him and provide reports on a regular basis.