At Least He's Not Earl Butz

“Bad choice Obama. Not progressive enough for a position that has regressed.” — Edwin S

“With this pick, I guess we can kiss goodbye any chance of a change in food policy in this country.” — jane

“Where’s your CHANGE now?” — mojo1988

I think it's fair to say that there's a general sense of disappointment among progressives over Barack Obama's Cabinet picks. The President-elect clearly favors pragmatism and experience over ideology and innovation. It's a pattern of decision-making that began publicly with Joe Biden and has been evident each week at the now customary nomination press conference. It's also one that has taken off some of Obama's revolutionary, "hope-mongering" sheen. A parade of hoary-headed technocrats from the Clinton administration does not immediately suggest a new start.

In Obama's defense competency should be an overriding qualification. I can hardly impugn a process that selects lieutenants based on their capability, and I'm comforted to know that in their hands the government will not jump its rails, an everyday confidence which at this moment shouldn't be taken for granted. It helps, too, to understand Obama's practiced and centrist Cabinet as a reaction to the mismanagement and extremism of the Bush Presidency. Hopefully, there is no Browny here, no Alberto Gonzales—and mercifully, no righteous political bloodlust, foreign policy built on abstraction, nor vulgar, corrosive displays of self-interest.

On the other hand, the opportunity for seismic change, promised ad nauseam during the campaign, is hardly apparent. Steven Chu, nominated for Secretary of Energy, at this point is a coruscating choice, but from where else among this team are visionary ideas or overdue revisions to policy going to come? Top-down. That's my answer and attenuated faith a month before the inauguration. I'm still sustained by the excitement of an incoming President who seems to be meditative, sincere about the issues that concern me, and emblematic of the modern world. He's got credit to use, and until he uses it, I'll look forward to the change we were all promised, mandated by Obama and carried out by his deputies.

That's how I'm going to approach Tom Vilsack, the tab for Secretary of Agriculture, with a healthy skepticism about my skepticism. Obama's still very much a Washington neophyte: He may have a breathtaking legislative agenda, but he needs people who can implement it, who know the room. And when it comes to the national food system, Vilsack certainly has standing relationships. As the two-term governor of the country's top corn-producing state, it's impossible not to have connections to the industrial corn industry and the huge federal subsidy program for that commodity. At the press conference Obama remarked, "Obviously, if you don't know agriculture, you're not going to become governor of Iowa." State-level agricultural authorities from around the nation are also praising his experience.

However, organic and sustainable proponents have been less than thrilled, particularly in light of Vilsack's most recent position analyzing the risks and benefits of genetically modified plant and animal products. The Organic Consumers Association fired, “[He] has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto." For groups like OCA, Vilsack's ties to the corn industry conjure terrifying images of proprietary genetic manipulation, prodigal antibiotics use, a totally processed food supply, intensive monoculture farming with deleterious environmental effects, and purses swelled by large commercial lobbies.

None of that is a divergence from the status quo, and it's not hard to understand the collective sigh of frustration at Obama's announcement. Because the U.S.D.A. and its wild subsidization routines have been under attack by economists, ecologists, and nutritionists alike, it appeared to be the one place most ripe for radical alteration. Both practically and symbolically, Vilsack does nothing to encourage the belief it will happen. That's an unmitgated shame, as the position did not lack inspiring candidates.

On Tuesday, Reuters compiled an informed list of possible choices. Notably, Vilsack was absent:

• Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: South Dakota, "Blue Dog Democrat," supports renewable fuels.
• Rep. Sanford Bishop: Georgia, conservative Democrat, African-American, would be Obama's first Southern appointee.
• Dennis Wolff: Pennsylvania, agriculture secretary, dairy farmer.
• Jill Long Thompson: Indiana, former representative and Undersecretary for Rural Development, lives on a farm.
• Gus Schumacher: Former Undersecretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, favors sustainable agriculture.
• John Boyd Jr.: Founder and president of National Black Farmers Association, has led a class-action suit against the government for allegedly denying black farmers loans and other aid, farmer in Virginia.
• Karen Ross: Head of the California Association of Winegrape Growers, see below.
  

Better yet, Food Democracy Now! put together its own impressive wishlist (HT: Vimala). After Vilsack was named, the organization changed its focus to Undersecretary positions and added six individuals, who have also "been champions on issues of sustainability and standing up for independent family farmers as indicated by their life's work":

• Gus Schumacher: Former Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture, see above.
• Chuck Hassebrook: Executive Director, Center for Rural Affairs, Lyons, NE.
• Sarah Vogel: Former two-term Commissioner of Agriculture for North Dakota.
• Fred Kirschenmann: Organic farmer, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Ames, IA; President, 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, co-founder of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minneapolis, MN.
• Neil Hamilton: Attorney, Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law and Professor of Law and Director, Agricultural Law Center, Drake University, Des Moines, IA.
• Doug O'Brien: Assistant Director at Ohio Department of Agriculture, former staff attorney and co-director for the National Agriculture Law Center in Arkansas; Reynoldsburg, OH.
• James Riddle: Organic farmer, founding chair of the International Organic Inspectors Association (IOIA), has served on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Organic Advisory Task Force since 1991, appointed to the USDA's National Organic Standards Board, serving on the Executive Committee for 5 years and was chair in 2005, Winona, MN.
• Kathleen Merrigan: Director, Agriculture, Food and Environment M.S./Ph.D. Program, Assistant Professor and Director of the Center on Agriculture; Food and the Environment, Tufts University; former Federal Agency Administrator U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service; creator of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, mandating national organic standards and a program of federal accreditation, Boston, MA.
• Denise O'Brien: Organic farmer, founder of Women, Food, and Agriculture Network (WFAN), represented the interests of women in agriculture at the World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, organized a rural women's workshop for the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome, Italy; Atlantic, IA.
• Ralph Paige: Executive Director, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund; served as presidential appointment to the 21st Century Production Agriculture Commission; participates on the Agriculture Policy Advisory Committee for Trade, the Cooperative Development Foundation, and the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education & Economics Advisory Board, East Point, GA.
• Karen Barrett Ross: President of the California Winegrape Growers Association and Executive Director of the Winegrape Growers of America, Sacramento, CA.
  

So why Vilsack, why someone so far inside the machine when there are other bright, successful people with more impressive resumes? The experience justification looks flimsy unless Obama was after a specific type of experience, that is, with corn. I'm purely conjecturing:

Because he has backed ethanol and tax breaks for the industry, Vilsack might offer a bridge to eventual comprehensive energy reform. Ethanol is probably not a long-term alternative solution to the country's energy needs. (Even its status as a short-term fix is highly questionable due to the resources it pulls from the food system. Not only is corn necessary for ketchup, it's also an integral meal for the average cow before it becomes a hamburger. As we found out this Spring, when corn is diverted to ethanol, the price of basic food stuffs goes up. Yet, to play the devil's advocate from the foodie's perspective, maybe that's not entirely a bad thing. Michael Pollan will happily tell you America's food supply is artificially and absurdly cheap. Giving it proper value would level the playing field for organic products, as well as discourage overconsumption. Why not pay more for better goods--say, grass-fed beef--and eat less?) But corn and the infrastructure to process it are abundant. And besides satisfying his Midwestern constituency, Obama might consider ethanol strategically crucial to meeting his preliminary environmental and diplomatic goals.

Maybe Obama's just being a sly dog, and he plans on remodeling the nation's food system by gradually sucking the corn syrup out of it. If not, if the American people should only expect babysteps toward reduced subsidies and more incentives for ethanol, then Vilsack's appointment is a bitter pill. I explained my current attitude, in spite of my reservations, earlier in this post. There are many out there writing positive (and bromidic) reviews of the new Secretary of Agriculture. I suppose I'll add to them my own cliche: Like this "new rural economy" that Vilsack and Obama have touted, we'll just have to wait and see.


(Note: The initial version of this post suffered from serious grammatical and graphic flaws, attributable to my carelessness and deficient know-how. Apologies to all who stopped by and were offended by those homely information tables. I have deleted both. For Earl Butz's apologia for his subsidy program, watch the film King Corn and the filmmakers' interview with Butz in his nursing home.)