WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden made two key domestic policy picks Tuesday, selecting former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role along with Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary in his administration, according to five people familiar with the decisions.
That is disappointing. USDA needs a new vision, one that focuses on providing high quality food to all Americans and restoring our depleted soils (an excellent carbon sink). I am concerned that Vilsack will be more concerned with supporting industrial agriculture and corporate profits than helping lower income people, which is critically needed, especially at this point.
Fudge is an ancient Norman name that arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The name Fudge comes from the Germanic personal name Fulcher. It is composed of the elements folk, which means people, and hari, which means army.
Source: House of Names
(Was interested in that unusual last name. Folk Army!)
Politico first reported the news of Fudge’s selection, while Axios was first to report Vilsack as agriculture secretary.
Marcia Fudge lobbied for the Agriculture position so that they wouldn’t give the same cabinet pick they always do because she is a POC.
I was coming here to say that very thing. Iowa, in fact, is a pretty good demo for much that is wrong with farm policy here: over 90% of its farmland is given over to two crops, corn and soybeans. Most of that will go to feed animals in feedlots, be converted into ethanol or additives in processed foods, or be sent overseas; little of it will be directly consumed by people. And corn, I know, requires a lot of water, which will become increasingly scarce (especially if commodities traders, of all people, get their way).
I appreciate (and, yes, kinda sorta want) Biden’s restore-the-status-quo approach to things, but farm policy is decades old and really needs re-imagining. Vilsack, I fear, won’t be the guy who will do that.
Fine…now pick a younger person as ‘deputy’ or whatever they are called. Not only do we need to get YOUTH in there but we need to move forward on policies.
It’s like the old joke about scorpions always doing what scorpions do.
Biden’s no scorpion but, like all of us, he comes with his own limitations.
MR. MONSANTO rides again…
This is a bummer but, I guess, whatever…
Carbon is an excellent fertilizer. After I had two silver maples cut down in August of 2019, I had enough sunlight to plant things again in the Southern flower beds. For years I used to just throw about a foot of grass clippings there to prevent weeds from growing because I didn’t want to plant hostas or anything else as the trees not only blocked the sunlight, they mostly blocked the view also. After 15 years of letting grass clippings degrade into the soil every year, the ground was pretty rich. I planted a sweet 100 cherry tomato plant there last summer and did not stake/cage it. It grew ten feet wide. Had I staked it, it would have went at least that high. I never fertilized at all. And the red bell peppers I planted there grew to softball size.I gave forty of them away after freezing all I had room for before the first hard freeze. The Tomato plant was still spreading late August so I had to pull it up because I couldn’t use use my front door anymore because of the tomato vines covering the entire entryway steps leading up to it.
Plant natives. Restore our damaged planet. Everything we choose to plant must be native. It would have a considerable affect. No more need for fertilizer or watering.
That is why the claim that the American farmers feed the world is complete BS. Most of what they grow goes to feed animals and produce ethanol (which gives little or energy gain over petroleum products). The people who feed the world are mostly women growing food for their families on small plots that doesn’t even get counted in world food production.
That’s not a bad impression of certain Democrats.
If this had been a true wave election in which we had taken the Senate and held the House by convincing margins, then Biden would have a lot more room for progressive picks that would be seen as threatening by certain consistencies.
But for whatever reason, that didn’t happen. That progressive silent majority some people like to dream about just isn’t there. Until we start winning more elections more consistently, we’re going to have to live with moderate, mainstream policies in many areas. It’s still way better than having right-wing idiots like Sonny Perdue in charge.
As a small organic farmer in NY State, I couldn’t agree with you more. This disappointing pick does not represent the future of ag in this country, which needs to become small, local and sustainable. I fear Vilsack will continue supporting destructive, unhealthy, chemical-laden methods with our tax dollars. Big Ag loves them some socialism, if they are the beneficiaries. The financial support of the government needs to be applied to programs that sustain a healthy, local food system, whether through grants to farmers to offset the higher costs of organic production, or to increase the food stamp programs so that all Americans can eat healthy food. And if you want to call me a socialist, that’s fine with me.
The worst and most incompetent Biden pick so far. Vilsack’s only constituency (outside of Biden) is Big Agriculture. Horribly disappointing.
I’m just shaking my head. Just when Biden is about to win the electoral vote, he fucks up our chance to possibly elect two Senators in Georgia by appointing Vilsack as Ag Secretary. Vilsack does not have a good history with blacks. He fired Shirley Sherrod in 2010, an Agriculture official in Georgia, and a black woman, only to learn that he had been conned about the reason for her firing.
Civil rights leader warns Tom Vilsack nomination could depress voter turnout in Georgia
In leaked recordings, Derek Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, warned specifically against choosing Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary. He cited Vilsack firing Shirley Sherrod and that the Vilsack pick could depress turnout in Georgia
Here’s the story of Sherrod’s firing:
Vilsack came out of it with egg on his face, bigtime. And if you read Sherrod’s wiki, you will understand how Sherrod was the Harriot Tubman of the Ag Dept, fighting racism in the Ag Department, going back many years before this firing.
Vilsack–wrong man, at the worst time possible.
A letter I received from this organization:
Dear xxxxx,
Today, president elect Biden announced big food lobbyist Tom Vilsack as his choice for USDA secretary. Vilsack will be returning to USDA after having served during the Obama administration, working to further globalize our food system for the benefit of a handful of monopoly corporations. We need a new direction at USDA: one that supports resilient local and regional food systems and provides opportunity for all farmers.
To that end, Family Farm Action has pushed forward its top policy recommendations for Vilsack, which will address some of Vilsack’s historic shortcomings including, but not limited to, systemic discrimination against Black farmers, failure to enact meaningful antitrust laws, and lack of transparency in the use of checkoff program funds.
These policy recommendations are drawn from our larger transition paper, “Build Back Better: Our Call to Action and Roadmap for Rural America.” This paper outlines recommendations for the administration to successfully revitalize rural communities and was endorsed by 16 food, farm, and rural organizations.
We will continue to work with the Biden administration, applying pressure as needed to remedy the grave injustices that have been perpetuated by the USDA and fight for a food system and economy that works for all of us. If you can, please contribute to keep our work going.
Thank you for your support,
The Family Farm Action Team