A farmer's look at Ag policy

This is by a retired dairy farmer. Most of it has to do with the massive red flags raised by the pick of Tom Vilsack as Ag Secretary. I'm quoting the concluding paragraphs, which suggest that all is not lost by any means.

In a Sep­tem­ber inter­view, Mr. Vil­sack (at the time an advis­er to the Biden cam­paign) said ​“I don’t think most farm­ers want gov­ern­ment pay­ments,” not­ing a ​“need for new poli­cies that sup­port a more resilient farm sec­tor.” Under a Biden admin­is­tra­tion, he added, ​“the USDA could set up region­al food-sup­ply mar­kets and direct fed­er­al incen­tives to farm­ers who adopt cli­mate-friend­ly prac­tices.” Right on!

Let’s give Vil­sack cred­it for embrac­ing that kind of think­ing. And let’s lift up the idea of a just food sys­tem, feed our­selves, pay our farm­ers and farm work­ers fair­ly and pay every­one else a fair wage — as Bernie Sanders says, ​“a min­i­mum of 15 bucks an hour.” Let’s admit that forc­ing over-pro­duc­tion of dairy, or any com­mod­i­ty, on the world mar­ket is a los­ing game. If folks like Rogue Riv­er and oth­ers can export their spe­cial­ties, more pow­er to ​‘em.

Ricar­do Sal­vadore at Union of Con­cerned Sci­en­tists stressed that ​“any change in admin­is­tra­tion is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to strike in a new direc­tion. So, obvi­ous­ly, going back to a [USDA] sec­re­tary of the past is not the way to strike in a new direc­tion. That is sta­tus quo.”

Giv­en a sec­ond chance, will Tom Vil­sack be that ​“some­one with vision for a just food sys­tem” that Joe Maxwell hoped for, some­one who will Build Back Bet­ter, or will it be ​“déjà vu all over again”? The fate of farm­ers, rur­al com­mu­ni­ties and our food sys­tem depends on the answer. - In These Times

This has an interview with the new Chair of the House Ag Committee, Rep. David Scott (D-GA).