Barack Obama at an Iowa Farm - July 27th, 2007

The NYT blog Diner’s Journal posted an article about a letter that the nation’s top food advocates — don’t call them “foodies” — sent to President-elect Barack Obama. The letter advocated for six possible choices for the person who could be the very first green Secretary of Agriculture in modern U.S. history.

Signing the letter were 84 sustainable food advocates from around the country, including three from Brooklyn — Anna Lappé, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute; Josh Viertel, President of Brooklyn-based Slow Food USA; and Peter Kaminsky, Brooklynite chef/food critic/author. Signatories included 11 others from NYC and NYS.

The letter expresses, in no uncertain terms, just how important sustainable food and agriculture has become to our society. Here is a snippet:

We believe that our nation is at a critical juncture in regard to agriculture and its impact on the environment and that our next Secretary of Agriculture must have a broad vision for our collective future that is greater than what past appointments have called for.

Presently, farmers face serious challenges in terms of the high costs of energy, inputs and land, as well as continually having to fight an economic system and legislative policies that undermine their ability to compete in the open market. The current system unnaturally favors economies of scale, consolidation and market concentration and the allocation of massive subsidies for commodities, all of which benefit the interests of corporate agribusiness over the livelihoods of farm families.

[...]

Today we have a nutritional and environmental deficit that is as real and as great as that of our national debt and must be addressed with forward thinking and bold, decisive action. To deal with this crisis, our next Secretary of Agriculture must work to advance a new era of sustainability in agriculture, humane husbandry, food and renewable energy production that revitalizes our nation’s soil, air and water while stimulating opportunities for new farmers to return to the land.

The letter is a must-read. Go check it out (pdf).

The six suggested nominees for the cabinet-level position are:

• Gus Schumacher — former Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services and former Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture.
• Chuck Hassebrook — executive director, Center for Rural Affairs, Lyons, Neb.
• Sarah Vogel — former Commissioner of Agriculture for North Dakota, lawyer, Bismarck, N.D.
• Fred Kirschenmann — organic farmer, distinguished fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Ames, Iowa, and president of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY.
• Mark Ritchie — Minnesota Secretary of State, former policy analyst in Minnesota’s Department of Agriculture under Governor Rudy Perpich, co-founder of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
• Neil Hamilton — Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law and director of the Agricultural Law Center, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa.

You, too, can write a letter to President-elect Obama advocating for sustainable food and agriculture — or any other issue. Go to Change.gov and submit your own idea or story.

“America’s farmers are America’s future” ~ Barack Obama, Indianapolis, IN, 10/23/2008

Tags: Action, Anna Lappé, Barack Obama, Change.gov, Farm Subsidies, Humane Animal Husbandry, Josh Viertel, Nutrition, NYT, Organic, Peter Kaminsky, Secretary of Agriculture, Slow Food USA, Small Planet Institute, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Sustainable Agriculture

Category: Climate Change, Community Action, Eat Well Brooklyn, Green Business, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Food

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