What does Obama have to do to alienate the liberals walking lockstep behind him as he catapults, not veers, directly to the right? The floating of the GOP's own Ann Veneman as a possible VP choice is disturbing. Her tenure as George W.'s Secretary of Agriculture raises some serious questions that she put blind adherence to powerful corporate lobby interests over the health and safety of all Americans...
As Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Veneman often sided with big agri-business lobbyists over the health concerns of the American public. In 2001, the USDA floated an idea that would weaken the criteria for testing meat included in school lunches. As the Democratic Underground noted on April 9, 2001:
Ann M. Veneman - NEW! Weeks on chart: 1 - Just when we started to think that the Bush Administration couldn't possibly stoop any lower pandering to corporate lobbyists on K Street, the Agriculture Department came up with this brilliant proposal: Let's get rid of the federal rule that requires the meat in school lunches be free of salmonella! Of course, if you're going to risk the lives of school children to pay off the meat industry, you can't have the Secretary of Agriculture call a press conference herself to announce it. So they got a low-level staffer to float the idea - just to see if anyone would notice. Faced with a massive outcry from consumer groups and parents, the whiplash-inducing flip-flop took less than 24 hours. Said Secretary of Agriculture Veneman: "The safety of our food supply, particularly school lunches for our children, is an extremely important issue and USDA will continue to take appropriate steps to ensure the safest possible food supply is available for all consumers." Whatever. We've got a modest proposal that is guaranteed to keep our food supply safe: Make Ann Veneman eat school lunches.
Really? Can Mr. Obama not do any better than this? Poisoning poor children who can't afford to bring lunch from home just doesn't seem like change I can believe in.
In May of 2004, ConsumersUnion.org, the non profit publisher of Consumer Reports, offered this bit of interesting news. The USDA had neglected to inspect a cow in texas believed to potentially have mad cow disease. Instead, they destroyed the evidence, over objections of agents in the field:
May 5, 2004
Dear Senator:
On Friday, April 30, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it had discovered a cow demonstrating central nervous system problems at a Texas meatpacking plant, and that it was going to test that cow for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). On Monday, May 3, USDA announced that the cow had not been tested for BSE, and instead was sent to a rendering plant. Given the heightened concern about the possible spread of mad cow disease, we find USDA’s failure to test this highly suspect animal unacceptable.
Attached is a letter that we sent to Secretary Ann Veneman asking that she investigate this incident to determine why this cow was not tested for BSE. We ask her for details about what USDA has done to ensure that none of the animals that may have shared feed with this cow are infected with BSE, and what USDA has done to work with the Food and Drug Administration to ensure that the potentially tainted rendered product is tested for BSE.
Today we have learned that the failure to test this animal was not a bureaucratic mix up, but an active decision by USDA personnel not to test this animal. Attached is an article from the online publication Meatingplace.com in which it is alleged that USDA inspectors in the plant where this animal was slaughtered were overruled by their supervisors when they sought to have this animal tested for BSE.
Given this latest news, we believe that Congress should investigate this incident. It also makes it clearer than ever that USDA’s response to mad cow has been inadequate. Therefore, we once again urge you to take up and pass legislation that would require the testing of all cattle over the age of 20 months at slaughter. In addition, we urge you to support establishment of a mandatory, national animal identification program. These measures are absolutely necessary to prevent the spread of mad cow disease in the human food supply, as well as to ensure that Americans remain confident in the safety of our nation’s beef supply.
We look forward to continuing to work with you on this important food safety issue.
Sincerely,
Adam J. Goldberg
Ms. Veneman also changed criteria for importation of cattle from Canada, allowing cattle under 30 months of age to come into the United States, despite a 3rd canadian cow in 19 months being discovered to be infected with mad cow disease.
Some of Ms. Veneman's statements as Executive Director of UNICEF have been very encouraging to those supporting women's issues and drawn the ire of conservative groups, saying that "women perform 66 percent of the work while owning only 1 percent of the wealth", as IntellectualConservative.com
shows here. But I'm guessing it's possible to find a candidate who undestands and supports women's issues who doesn't also think e.coli, salmonella and mad cow disease are really not a big deal.