check it out:
Foodies had reason to think Obama would lean in their direction. In an interview with Time magazine’s Joe Klein, he said he’d read Michael Pollan’s New York Times Magazine cover story “about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil.” Momentum built as Pollan, along with Alice Waters, Rick Bayless, Wendell Berry, Eric Schlosser, Dan Barber, Marion Nestle, and many others, sent a letter to the transition team with their suggestions for the next secretary of agriculture. The letter inspired a hugely successful petition, swiftly collecting 55,000 signatures, helped in part by the Times’ Kristof, who called on Obama to focus on a “secretary of food.”
Vilsack’s appointment was like a slap in the face, and “sent a chill through the sustainable food and farming community,” said a representative from the Organic Consumers Association. The association has started a new online petition to mobilize opposition to Vilsack.
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David Troyer! Is that you? With a Pittsburgh makeover?
Comment by wanderer82 Monday, 22 December 2008 @ 21:09-Andrew
I signed the petition! Thank you, VA state, for covering this. Vilsack, evidently, is in the GE corn racket and the world does NOT need more of THAT. Kathleen Temple
Comment by Ted Grimsrud Saturday, 27 December 2008 @ 8:05