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Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Max Baucus (D-MT)
- Michael Bennet (D-CO)
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Bob Casey (D-PA)
- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Pat Leahy (D-VT)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Mike Johanns (R-NE)
- Dick Lugar (R-IN)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Pat Roberts (R-KS)
- John R. Thune (R-SD)
Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
- Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA) *=House Organic Caucus member B=Blue Dog Democrat
Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA) *=House Organic Caucus member
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
- Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)
P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC) P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Reversing a longstanding policy, the federal government said on Friday that human and other genes should not be eligible for patents because they are part of nature. The new position could have a huge impact on medicine and on the biotechnology industry.
Really? That is a huge turnaround. My first thought was that maybe a lower court judge did this and it could be overturned. But, according to the article, it comes directly from the Department of Justice:
The new position was declared in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Department of Justice late Friday in a case involving two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer.
"We acknowledge that this conclusion is contrary to the longstanding practice of the Patent and Trademark Office, as well as the practice of the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies that have in the past sought and obtained patents for isolated genomic DNA," the brief said.
It is not clear if the position in the legal brief, which appears to have been the result of discussions among various government agencies, will be put into effect by the Patent Office.
The Obama administration is very friendly to biotechnology, and I cannot see them doing something that would so dramatically impact the industry. My prediction is that they will make a distinction between patenting human genes, and genes from other organisms. There have been some efforts to make it illegal to patent human genes, and I can see that happening. But telling Monsanto it no longer has a right to its Roundup Ready genes? I doubt it.
In October 2010, I spent 2 weeks in Bolivia learning about their food and agriculture. I ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for out of the trip, including learning why the rainforest is being destroyed, how eco-tourism might save it, how Bolivia fits into the drug trade (and what the US does to try to stop cocaine production), and how global warming has already impacted Bolivia.
We spent our sixth and seventh days learning about the agriculture of the Bolivian Amazon, and we kept coming across what our guide, Daniel, called "the most important palm tree" of the region, the motacu palm. This diary is a collection of pictures and information about the motacú palm and its many uses.
My trip was organized by Global Exchange and Food First. You can find out about future Food Sovereignty tours at the link.
The biotech/pesticide industry group CropLife International has recently held three forums on biodiversity. Stop #1 was in Iowa, at Iowa State University. "Iowa? For biodiversity?" you ask. Yes, Iowa. The panelists were as follows:
Tom Vilsack, United States Secretary of Agriculture
Rajesh Kumar, Indian Farmer
Pam Johnson, Iowa Farmer
Camila Illich, Brazilian Farmer
Gary Munkvold, Iowa State University
Judy Chambers, IFPRI
Moderator: Orion Samuelson, National Farm Report
This post covers the remarks of Tom Vilsack, before the other panelists spoke. You can watch this event here. I was planning to do a post on the remainder of the panel but it does not seem terribly worthwhile. Everyone said exactly what you would expect people in a forum hosted by a pesticide/biotech industry group to say. The Brazilian farmer said she works on an 8000 hectare (19,768 acre) farm, 5000 hectares (12,355 acres) of which are cultivated as farmland growing commodity grains and soybeans.
Originally posted on Pesticide Action Network's blog, Groundtruth
Monsanto's humiliations are all over the news these days. Last week we heard that Monsanto is actually paying farmers to spray their fields with competitors' weedkillers. Monsanto's latest press release announces it is offering RoundupReady cotton farmers up to $20/acre to pour on extra herbicides. In fact, as The Organic Center's 2009 report detailed, this bizarre practice-a reversal of Monsanto's traditional exhortations to rely on its own chemical Roundup-has actually been going on for over a year now, a response to the Monsanto-induced epidemic of superweeds now ravaging the country.
The Ship is Sinking
By now even Forbes has recanted, acknowledging it got it all wrong last year when it named Monsanto "company of the year." After a century of bad deeds, this corporation is finally taking its karmic hit.
In October 2010, I spent 2 weeks in Bolivia learning about their food and agriculture. I ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for out of the trip, including learning why the rainforest is being destroyed, how eco-tourism might save it, how Bolivia fits into the drug trade (and what the US does to try to stop cocaine production), and how global warming has already impacted Bolivia.
After spending a day with an indigenous community that runs an eco-tourism operation on the sixth day of the trip, Day Seven was a reality check. We visited Daniel Robison's farm and learned about what he is doing to try to "save the rainforest" and what his neighbors are doing, which - in some cases - is not so good. This diary is about a strange attempt to help the Amazon by building a golf course there.
My trip was organized by Global Exchange and Food First. You can find out about future Food Sovereignty tours at the link.
In October 2010, I spent 2 weeks in Bolivia learning about their food and agriculture. I ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for out of the trip, including learning why the rainforest is being destroyed, how eco-tourism might save it, how Bolivia fits into the drug trade (and what the US does to try to stop cocaine production), and how global warming has already impacted Bolivia.
After spending a day with an indigenous community that runs an eco-tourism operation on the sixth day of the trip, Day Seven was a reality check. We visited Daniel Robison's farm and learned about what he is doing to try to "save the rainforest" and what his neighbors are doing, which - in some cases - is not so good. This diary is about some of the dumbass things happening that destroy the rainforest.
"Save the Rainforest"
My trip was organized by Global Exchange and Food First. You can find out about future Food Sovereignty tours at the link.
Farmers in the Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania are fighting a losing battle against increasingly degraded land. Repeated plantings are quickly depleting the nutrients in the soil, leaving it nearly barren and vulnerable to erosion. Meanwhile, downstream, the water is dark with sediment, unfit for drinking and expensive to treat. "Downstream, people are complaining about the quality of water," says Lopa Dosteus, program manager for CARE International's Equitable Payment for Watershed Management (EPWM) program. "And upstream, the farmers are struggling to grow enough food while their soil washes away."
Michael Pollan says you should support Francis Thicke for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture... and if Michael Pollan said it, it must be true :) Francis Thicke is an amazing candidate who has blogged here before. I've spoken with him on the phone and supported him since long before his campaign was making news. If you're broke like me, cross your fingers for him on Nov 2... but if you've got a few bucks, you might want to send them his way. Cuz, uh, Michael Pollan told you to. (More info here)
YAY to Civil Eats for posting about the GIPSA rule. It sounds boring BUT it's got factory farm interests absolutely foaming at the mouth because it's GREAT for family farms - and bad for them!
And yay to Grist for its post on reverse trick or treating... the practice of going door to door on Halloween and handing homeowners FAIR TRADE chocolate (plus some info about why to buy fair trade).
I'll leave you with one last Halloween-themed post, this one from Tom Laskawy. He says (and I agree) that some candy is just fine so long as the rest of your diet isn't total crap too.
In October 2010, I spent 2 weeks in Bolivia learning about their food and agriculture. I ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for out of the trip, including learning why the rainforest is being destroyed, how eco-tourism might save it, how Bolivia fits into the drug trade (and what the US does to try to stop cocaine production), and how global warming has already impacted Bolivia.
After spending a day with an indigenous community that runs an eco-tourism operation on the sixth day of the trip, Day Seven was a reality check. We visited Daniel Robison's farm and learned about what he is doing to try to "save the rainforest" and what his neighbors are doing, which - in some cases - is not so good. This second diary covers Daniel's cattle ranch.
My trip was organized by Global Exchange and Food First. You can find out about future Food Sovereignty tours at the link.
(Thanks for the update from New Orleans Marcia. I usually attend this conference but missed it this year due to my trip to Bolivia. - promoted by Jill Richardson)
Originally posted on Pesticide Action Network's blog, GroundTruth .
I'm writing from warm, sunny New Orleans, where 900 food justice activists attending the Community Food Security Coalition conference have just wrapped up five days of workshops, conversations and field trips to the region's innovative and indomitable farmers, fisherfolk, urban gardeners, food workers and local organizers. These brave souls are-against all odds-reinventing healthy and sustainable food systems in their communities.
Meanwhile, 1,000 miles away in Des Moines, Iowa, Rajiv Shah-the head of USAID-was also talking about food and agriculture, but with a very different message.
In October 2010, I spent 2 weeks in Bolivia learning about their food and agriculture. I ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for out of the trip, including learning why the rainforest is being destroyed, how eco-tourism might save it, how Bolivia fits into the drug trade (and what the US does to try to stop cocaine production), and how global warming has already impacted Bolivia.
After spending a day with an indigenous community that runs an eco-tourism operation on the sixth day of the trip, Day Seven was a reality check. We visited Daniel Robison's farm and learned about what he is doing to try to "save the rainforest" and what his neighbors are doing, which - in some cases - is not so good. This first diary covers just one of Daniel's three projects, his agroforestry system.
My trip was organized by Global Exchange and Food First. You can find out about future Food Sovereignty tours at the link.
Two years ago, on this day, I had a brother. And it was his birthday. Two years ago, he turned 23. Today he would be 25. Two years ago, we were happy. He was my best friend, today was his birthday, my birthday was 8 days away (it still is), and Obama was about to be elected. We didn't know yet that "change" was just an election slogan, and we looked forward to a new progressive era to cleanse our nation after eight years of Bush.
In October 2010, I spent 2 weeks in Bolivia learning about their food and agriculture. I ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for out of the trip, including learning why the rainforest is being destroyed, how eco-tourism might save it, how Bolivia fits into the drug trade (and what the US does to try to stop cocaine production), and how global warming has already impacted Bolivia.
Our sixth day was one of the highlights of the entire trip. We visited San Miguel del Bala, an indigenous community in the Amazon rainforest, to learn about their traditional food and farming. I've already written a few diaries about their agriculture. This diary focuses on the community itself and the day we spent with them.
My trip was organized by Global Exchange and Food First. You can find out about future Food Sovereignty tours at the link.
