USDA and the facts

I know months have gone by since I have posted here and I have tons of pictures of all the veggies I have grown, but I have been too busy with stuff and things to post anything. But now I am angry at how the government once again takes quick decisive action on the wrong things. While the company formerly known as Blackwater continues to get government contracts, BP continues to get military contracts and so on...

In case you have not heard about the story of Shirley Sherrod read here.

Or just google Shirley Sherrod. I am not going to get into the whole story, but in a nutshell, a right wing website posted an excerpt of a speech given to the NAACP by USDA official Shirley Sherrod who is African American. The speech is about how she overcame her own feelings of prejudice after her father was killed by the KKK and helped a white farmer keep his farm while working for a non-profit many years ago. The clip that was posted appeared to show her "admitting" to withholding help from a white farmer due to his race. Fox news aired it over and over and the USDA quickly fired her. The NAACP also condemned her without first talking with her and has since apologized. The USDA is re-considering their actions now that the full video has surfaced.

I think that Tom Vilsack should offer his own resignation.

Here is what I wrote at http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?edeployment_action=changenav&navid=FEEDBACK_FORM

I am writing to urge you to offer Shirley Sherrod her job back. It seems to me that you are taking longer to re-consider the situation than you did to ask for her resignation without knowing all of the facts. This rush to action without full consideration of the facts is deeply troubling. I would urge you to consider offering your own resignation in light of this very unfortunate incident.

Food Safety and Damn Lies

It is all over the news, Center for Science in the Public Interest has announced that leafy greens are dangerous!!!  Seriously, I believe this report.  It has everything to do with the centralized and industrialized food system we have in this country.  Contamination by pathogens spreads very quickly across the country and through many food streams.


Friends, our food system is sprawling and vulnerable. To me, this only underscores the importance of being as close to your food source as possible.  If you cannot grow it yourself, try to support local farms through farmers markets, shopping at stores that sell local produce or join a CSA farm.  We are very fortunate to be able to grow a lot of this stuff ourselves and to have a long growing season.  We have a lot of small farms in this area as well.

Sometimes it is difficult or impossible to get this safe local food.  Maybe you are on the road.  Maybe you are very poor.  Maybe you went out to eat.  For these occasions, we do need real safety rules that are actually adhered to.

There is some legislation, H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009,which I do not know a whole lot about. In general, I would tend to not trust it, as I know a lot of legislation is deeply influenced by the industries it is meant to address. 

A while back I got a lot of emails about how this bill was going to hurt small farmers, was written by Monsanto. Here is an example, but if you scroll down to the comments section, people are saying that it emanated from the Ron Paul political campaign.  Don't know if that is true, but it appears to be further debunked here and here. 

This has been debunked for months yet I just found a posting from the other day about it at truthabouttrade.org written by someone at americanthinker.com a proudly right wing web site. It particularly claims, "There are fears that the new laws will make growing organic foods illegal by outlawing the use of manure and requiring chemical pesticide application to all crops. Other frightening interpretations of the provisions in these bills include potentially mandating genetically-modified (GM) crops and "terminator" seeds that will require farmers to purchase new GM seeds each season."

Who are these truth tellers?  It says on their "about us" link that they are "committed to promoting free trade and agricultural biotechnology through farmer-led educational initiatives that target public officials, opinion leaders, and the agricultural community." They somehow do not strike me as concerned about organic farming, genetically modified terminator seeds and required pesticide application.

It kind of looks like these kinds of rumors emanate from the industries this legislation might impact.  It kind of reminds me of the lies that have been flying around regarding health care reform.  It is a little creepy that these lies are deliberately written to freak out people who want to grow food and support others who do the same. 

What do you think? Will this legislation offer real solutions to food safety concerns or will it create more problems than it solves.  And what is with the disinformation campaign?

ACORN

This post is not about nuts in the literal sense. It is not about food or homesteading at all. I am deeply troubled by the controversy surrounding the organization known as ACORN.

I find it very hard to believe that anyone would be "fooled" by this James O'Keefe character.

According to ACORN's chief executive Bertha Lewis, these people were kicked out of numerous ACORN locations and the people in these tapes have been fired.  The right wing likes to crow about other ACORN employees being arrested and prosecuted for so-called voter fraud. In all of those cases, these people were turned in by ACORN to the authorities because the employees had fraudulently filled out voter registration forms. In many states it is illegal to discard the forms once they are filled out, so ACORN flagged the forms and turned them in. Blaming ACORN for "voter fraud" is like blaming Safeway when an employee is prosecuted for shoplifting. 

The videos of the ACORN employees giving advice about prostitution and taxes seem kind of damning but I just don't buy this story.  Something does not smell right.  I would like to see the un-edited tapes.  I would like to see real investigations. 







The House and Senate just voted to strip ACORN of all Federal funding.  Given the nature of these tapes and the organized right wing effort to smear ACORN and anyone who supports them, I can see why these resolutions passed so quickly and overwhelmingly.

Gee, I wonder if we can get a resolution to defund DynCorp whose employees were allegedly having sex with children in Bosnia.  Employees who came forward were fired.  What about Blackwater, now known as Xe?  They have been accused of murder and other serious crimes.  How about ArmorGroup, who recently had a video scandal of their own and required employees to engage in sexually deviant behavior, according to a whistleblower? Or Kellogg Brown and Root, which has employees who engaged in gang rape that the Defense Department refused to investigate?!?!?!? Or And I am sure the list goes on and on.  Given the number of times these companies have overcharged the government for services, maybe we could pay for health care with the windfall we would reap.

So, in short, I understand how terrible it was, what ACORN employees seem to have done, but I did not realize how quickly Congress could act when they want to.  And they didn't even wait for an investigation.  How unusual.

How much money do you suppose ACORN gets from the government vs. DynCorp, Blackwater, KBR, etc.?  How many people are killed or raped by ACORN?  For ACORN's part, they need to get their employees on message and on the alert, but by this time it could be too late.  The right wing is vicious.

I understand that various law enforcement agencies are investigating these allegations.  I hope they uncover the entirety of these tapes and that they  can shed more light on this controversy.