Know your local farmer, and please take a look at our new, printable list-in-progress of where to buy local products (LINK HERE), and our last two posts, below, but first:
We just got a letter from Food Democracy Now. It reads, in part:
"(President) Obama’s first agribusiness selection is Roger Beachy, to be head of the USDA’s newly created National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Beachy is the founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, MO...essentially the non-profit arm of GMO seed giant Monsanto; Monsanto’s CEO sits on its board, and the company provides considerable funding for the Center’s operations.
As the head of the USDA’s new research arm... Beachy is responsible for deciding how U.S. research dollars will be spent in agriculture. Translation: more research on biotech, less research on how to scale sustainable and organic agriculture.
...Beachy has already started work at the USDA, but the next
nominee—Islam Siddiqui—still must be confirmed by the U.S.Senate. Siddiqui, the Vice President of Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife America, was recently nominated to be the Chief Agricultural Negotiator at the Office of the US Trade Representative....When Michele Obama planted her “organic” garden on the White House lawn, Siddiqui’s CropLife MidAmerica sent the First Lady a letter saying that it made them “shudder”... Siddiqui spent over 3 years as a pesticide lobbyist, an Undersecretary at the USDA and a VP at CropLife....he played a key role in helping establish the country’s first organic standards....those original organic standards would have allowed irradiation, sewage sludge and GMOs [genetically modified organisms]... 230,000 people signed a petition for them to be changed, which they eventually were."
A broad coalition of groups around the country including the National Family Farm Coalition, Institute of Agriculture & Trade Policy, and Center for Food Safety is calling on President Obama to keep his campaign promise of closing the revolving door between agribusiness and his administration.
To visit our Actions You Can Take Now page for more information, go here.
This is not about left or right.
Corporations have not been dealing fairly with the American family farmer.
Until they do, to keep providing food that is healthy for you and your family, and healthy for the planet, America's family farmer needs a big voice in government. Your voice.
Please click here to add your voice.
Lastly - Thanks Land & Sea kids for showing up rain or shine (rain!) for the outdoor Matt M. fish fillet demonstration. What tasty little morsels of fish! Matt's a good cook! We'll do it again.
Plans are also in the works for more showings of "Food, Inc." and a general Land & Sea get together. More posted soon on that.
Top photos: San Juan Islands farm products, courtesy of Becky Bolt.
Bottom photo: Matt Marinkovich
