Heartfelt thanks, Linn, for so much research and for bringing it together in this clear and direct readable format.  Of all the disturbing news reports for a long time now, this one goes to the top of my list.  I so much hope that many, many people hear and respond to your call to action.

We need to understand that the effort to defend Steve Hixon, a seed cleaner, is an effort to defend the right of all of us and of our farmers worldwide to OPEN access to normal seeds.  We must protect those who collect and clean them and we must roll back the massive corporate efforts to utterly control them - by criminalizing any aspect of owning, growing, collecting, storing and re-using of them.  

Seeds are life and survival itself and our human right to access to them is being taken over.  That is why people are coming together now to help defend Steve Hixon, a seed cleaner.  

by Aurora (0 articles, 95 quicklinks, 52 diaries, 648 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 1:04:18 AM

  (0+)

We have been so involved with the war - Naomi Klein so right about shock leaving us vulnerable - that we have missed what is going on right here and the astounding size and depravity of it.  

Meanwhile, our farmers are in so much trouble, it is almost impossible to adequately report.  I believe that NAIS will be the means to take control over all animals as well, creating false bioterrorism scares as a justification to wipe out animals stocks, and then replace them with patented (PRIVATIZED) animals.  Just like with seeds, and using the same fallacious safety arguments, corporations could use NAIS and food scares to eliminate normal animals and their replacement with patented ones would leave our farmers doing what they do with seeds now, renting them and owning nothing, becoming wage laborers on their own land (if the land is not sacrificed as collateral on the bailout, which the "premises" ID appears it could be.

click here left MUST loudly and strongly oppose NAIS and in doing so, build an alliance with our farmers and see them for who they are, a class of people so discriminated against that they are disappearing.  Down to .5% of the population now from 40% in the 1940s.

The "discrimination" - which includes seeds - is not white against black, it is a government/corporate ATTACK on all normal non-corporate farming.  And the reality is that the farmers are only the leading edge of those discriminated against - all human beings are in this class.

Because our farmers are our cushion and protection from corporate control of food, they are the first to go. 

Thanks for writing. 

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 1:47:33 PM

  (0+)

That click link doesn't open properly, but it's here anyway:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-SCAM-behind-NAIS--Ou-by-Derry-Brownfield-081130-795.html

by Aurora (0 articles, 95 quicklinks, 52 diaries, 648 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 3:17:33 PM

  (0+)

Excellent article Linn

The people of this planet demand that Monsanto be stopped cold.

Their effort to control seeds, and promote unsafe GM Food is criminal and against the interests of the people on this planet.  

Enough is enough.

I ask everyone to talk to their politicians, and oppose Monsanto's conspiracy.

by Rolland Miller (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 227 comments [78 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 12:18:51 PM

  (0+)

Encourage people to join FarmOn which hopes to become a MoveOn like list capable of funding a coalition of legal teams for strategic and landmark legal battles against what corporations are doing to us.  Defending Hixon is a first priority because Monsanto must not be allowed to have an absolute monopoly in the Midwest over grains nor our farmers be trapped any longer in this nightmare.  

FarmOn's list is growing fast and we welcome anyone concerned about what corporations are doing to us, whether from a farming, food, health, environmental, civil rights or human rights reason.  They all are involved and we must all be together in this.  

FarmOn will not be taking anything away from organizations already formed but will be support to them when they are part of an already forming national coalition that is coming together around Hixon.

Also, people can reach any organization they are in and ask them to provide legal help, and at the least amicus briefs about how they are impacted by Monsanto's control of seeds, feed, biofuel and prices, to say nothing of the impact on health and farmers' existence and our own right to collect and own seeds.

And everyone who reads this is encouraged to learn how to file a pro se (on your own) amicus brief in the Hixon case (he has not been served yet) or to find a friend with a legal background who can help.  We are ALL affected and it's past time for us all to express just exactly how.

Thanks for writing.

Get people to FarmOn so we will have numbers like MoveOn does and thus resources  to provide large sums to fight back while asking little from anyone.

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 1:56:45 PM

  (0+)

This author is relentless and indeed effective, but seems that hundreds of millions of Americans are absolutely ignorant of the vicious acts of Monsanto, the worst corporation in America, by far, even rivaling but worse beyond the stupidity and bestiality of Halliburton and Blackwater.

Will Monsanto try to place its corporate lawyers in key positions in Obama's administration, like former Monsanto lawyer John Ashcroft becoming Attorney General, and Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court? I think not. I hope not. I pray not...

by Stephen Fox (96 articles, 3 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 802 comments [33 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 12:48:32 PM

  (0+)

I think that the bailout, ironically, is helpful, because before we saw the reality of the extent these guys will go to to steal from us, it was less possible for anyone to fathom a coordinate attack on our access to seeds, that is an attack on our access to surviving away from them.  And we know that there is no real surviving within the corporate system since the food has meant a 90% rise type 2 diabetes in an incredibly short amount of time, click here the FDA not stopping the insane ads on TV mocking anyone who raises the subject of high fructose corn syrup, now directly linked to diabetes,

click here you know very well about aspartame's (once owned by Rumsfeld and then Monsanto) extreme dangers,

click here melamine in our baby formula with the FDA first covering it up and setting a standard quickly to allow for it.

http://www.naturalnews.com/024947.html 

And then there are all the attacks on natural substances by the FDA, their latest Orwellian one being a switch from saying that they are worthless because there have been no studies to show otherwise, to saying now (this regulation is being pushed at this very moment) if there is ANY study ever done on a supplement, it can't be transported across state lines.   

And there are the SWAT team attacks on organic coops in Ohio

click here state troopers attacking Mennonite dairy farmers in Pennsylvania and the criminalization of real milk by the USDA, which means the criminalization of NON-corporate milk.

click here are closing a large trap on all of us, financially and in terms of seeds, food, land, water.  First, we need to stop Monsanto around seeds.

We need our young law students realizing they are on the cusp of the greatest civil rights battles in human history and could do incredible good here. 

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 2:13:24 PM

  (0+)

by and from Monsanto. They need to be reigned in, quickly, as they are making a really bad name for the USA internationally, especially in India, where we can ill afford any more bad press and hostile consumer reactions!

by Eliot Gould (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 28 diaries, 200 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 12:57:16 PM

  (0+)

And I think most people have no idea.   I think the sheer size and sadistic greed of it makes it hard to take in or believe.  But the bailout's cruelty and greed certainly sets people to see bigger pictures than they had ever imagined and to begin to see some of what corporations are doing to us.

Thanks so much for writing.  Join FarmOn, we'd be pleased to have you. 

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 2:16:28 PM

  (0+)

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=11117

by Mr M (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 66 diaries, 2845 comments [654 recommended, 27 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 1:41:46 PM

  (0+)

I don't usually reply to your comments because they are so powerfully about where we are heading, I have to regain my balance, because I believe you.  

Thanks for your comments and for the cartoon as well. 

Hope you'll join FarmOn.   

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 2:19:45 PM

  (0+)

We have very little, scratch that, we have no time left. I've been saying for years now that time is short, now time has run out. If we don't act now the very survival of life on this planet is over. There may be some species of life that will survive, but nothing with a functioning brain.

We have no idea how these GMOs are going to mutate. We've unlatched Pandora's Box and even if we stopped right now polluting this world and started working to make things right we still have a medium chance of righting this ship.

If anyone wants to survive you'd be wise to stop eating processed foods  now. Eat only locally grown fruits and vegetables, stop eating meat altogether, as well as fish, unless you know for sure where it came from. If you have a co-op in your area, join it. If not, start one. Growing your own garden wouldn't be a bad idea either. None of this is as hard as you may think, and once you start on this diet you'll feel the benefits almost immediately. I recommend a colon and toxic cleansing to start you off. The weight lose and energy increase are immediate.

Food is their weapon. It's a "soft-kill" weapon and the main one in their arsenal. And yes, there is a "they" and they do want us dead. And for those of you that ask why would they do that, I don't have an answer for you other than they're insane, and insanity doesn't need a reason. And they have been at war with us for longer than we've been alive and are damn near the end of their game. We have a lot to make up for and no time to do it.

During the Great Depression, and if that one was "great", this one will be called the "colossal", 7 million people starved to death, and that's when we had 90% of people living off a land that wasn't tainted with GMOs. Today we have 90% of the people living in urban areas and most couldn't grow weeds with instructions. CODEX alone, in their own papers, says that 3 billion will die in the first year of their world-wide implementation starting in 2010.

The time of living in denial is over. It is that bad. We're on the edge of the cliff and every moment pretending that things will be okay just as long as you keep doing what you've always done is delusional at best.

by Mr M (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 66 diaries, 2845 comments [654 recommended, 27 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 3:58:19 PM

  (0+)

I find it impossible to understand those doing this other than their being in some corporate structure, seeking more and more power and achievement, psychologically totally dissociated from everything they are doing.  Or they are worse than that.

But all I can think is that we need to work together in order to feel stronger and also to be stronger.  We need to stop blaming each other and wasting time on "enemies" or people in different political groups or racial or ethnic groups.  All that kind of thinking just makes it easier to get things past us.  

Right now I am most concerned that because the food is so bad, they can use "food safety" (though it's their horrible food) as a means to destroy good food and real farmers, and if that doesn't work, they can throw in bioterrorism and destroy seeds, animals, and crops that way.

So, we on the left have to quit being afraid of food and those on the right, of terrorism, and we all have to be opposed to large government controls and plans.  The right is right about that part and we need to make alliances with them.

Are you aware there is a constitutional convention being pushed state to state and is close to being arranged?  Farmers know about it and fear it will be used to finish connecting us to the WTO and UN and large international organizations that are creating world systems (globalization and Codex and the rest).

Always hard to read your comments.  How do you cope day to day? 

Best,

Linn 

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 9:29:34 PM

  (0+)

is appointed to head the USDA, we will face increased risks of starvation.

by Laudyms (0 articles, 1142 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 708 comments [138 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 2:13:15 PM

  (0+)

This is when we must stop genetic engineering and NAIS.  It's as though we are in quicksand and must pull out before we go any deeper.

Thanks for writing.  

Hope you will join FarmOn. 

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 2:21:15 PM

  (0+)

Excellent and Valuable Post.

Make sure you destroy all competiton so that you can reach the "Promised Land".  Food is the Final Frontier.  No more cars,houses, TV's or Stereo's can be sold at anyprice, everyone is broke.  Food is the only frontier with a leg to stand on.  No matter how bad it gets, people need food. Monsanto is near a global monopoly on life itself.

by kato krause (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 216 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 5:07:31 PM

  (0+)

Like the force of your argument.

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 9:31:45 PM

  (0+)

 Of course, food is only one of the weapons the global corporations with our governments help and the use of our military as their security force, they also seek total control of the worlds  Water, Energy and Raw materials (minerals), and oh yeah, Money.

Once the elite and their global corporations control enough of these, and they are close, well, then we will all be hostages to the Global Corporate Government .  Then the herd may be culled to stop the use of their Goddess, Mother earth, otherwise known as Gaia from being used as a giant feed lot. 

In todays Industrial world we only need 1 billion people to serve our elite, and not 6.66 billion.  The human bubble must be popped, so the neo-malthusians believe. Of course, they may do it in a humane way over time, life expectancy in the US is already declining and our fertility rates are less than replacement levels (population growth in the US, Europe is entirely related to immigration from high population growth areas).

Ever hear of the Spermicidal Seed they developed?  How about the Terminator Seed (crops yield no seeds).  And what do you think that Doomsday Seed Vault in the Arctic is all about?  Hmm?

Ever read the book The World Without Us?  A Study to find out how long it will take cities and infrastructure to be destroyed by decay without any human population.   Much of the authors information come from government/UN agencies or scientists paid with government/UN grants for the research.

by pft (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 601 comments [7 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 7:55:06 PM

  (0+)

For me, I have to focus on what I can do.  A lot of people go down the road of futility or cynicism but I don't have the right to do that.  I believe that life is incredible and no matter what is going on, is worth living if people are good to each other and decent to animals and nature.  We are in this together and we can either find each other and have the joy of that and work on this as best we can together, or we can be angry at each other and fight miserably or not fight at all.  I prefer for us to be happy in each other and do all we can to make the world sane and good.  We aren't going to win everything we would hope to but we can't know what we might accomplish or what is already growing now that is resisting the insanity.  We have numbers on our side.  We only need join them and then count on each other to have strength.    

Thanks for writing.  

Join FarmOn. 

Best,

Linn 

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 15, 2008 at 9:39:30 PM

  (0+)

There is a risk of losing sight of the forests for the trees.  Many issues are connected and the same people tend to be behind what we see as madness. 

That said, you are on the right side of the battle you choose to fight.  Good luck.

by pft (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 601 comments [7 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008 at 12:16:52 AM

  (0+)

     Thanks so much Linn for the news on the seed cleaner targeting.  Things are getting downright grim for the future of food, as you explain by showing the vital function the seed cleaners provide to sustainability.   You are doing a great job keeping us informed on what is really happening in agriculture.   Please keep the articles coming.

     The GMO companies have no more love for the people and their wishes than Malthus did.   If the people don't regain control of their biologic commons, their inalienable rights and freedom from tyranny, they will literally be exterminated like vermin within the next decade or so.    Monopoly, collectivisation, and subsidy of corporate ag has been going on for decades, only now accelerating with warp speed into a death spiral.   I am hoping corporate ag will collapse due to Peak Oil, aquifer depletion, and financial speculation before it is too late, leaving the small farms intact, but my best guess is that it has enough gas to pretty much finish us off in the next few years on its current trajectory.    They must realize it too, what with the doomsday seed bank the GMO companies are involved in.

     I can't speak for Mr. M about how he copes knowing the system is completely insane now and catabolizing itself viciously, but Linn probably realizes that sunlight on what is happening is the only disinfectant, which she well applies in her articles.

        Sorry to always post late on threads.   I work on a family farm in Hawaii during daylight and only get to dialup  at night after the US mainland has gone to bed.    We live completely under the boot here at the mercy of the US military which overthrew the  Sovereign Nation of Hawaii in 1893 at the point of a gun, then illegally annexed the archipelago as a military base.     Governor Ben Cayetano courted the GMO corporations as a replacement for the moribund sugar industry.   They set up on Kauai where at various times the schools downwind of the fields have had strange illness outbreaks.   Police brutality on Kauai is notorious.  Senator Inouye also set up the Pacific Missile Range there.   When the surfer kids blocked the arrival of PNAC member John Lehman's Superferry at the harbor on Kauai, Republican Governor Linda Lingle flew over to threaten the parents with confiscation of their children.   The University of Hawaii performs paid research for GMOs and sends its scientists to County Council testimony to speak against any legislation banning GMOs.    If the people win a round in Council, the corporate newspapers invent spurious and fanciful arguments against the decision.     I'm just sorry we activists have not stopped them because I see it will devastate the world through all the testing here on us non persons and their non land---which the tourist bureaus desperately flog as paradise keeping a lid on the DU blowing off the ranges and frankenstein plants on the corporate farms.

      The terminator elite secretly tested nerve gas and a backpack nuclear weapon on my island.  We only broke these stories last year.   Basically once the people have been slandered, disenfranchised, deceived, attacked, inculturated, jailed and handed an unpayable IOU  they are not even considered a threat to the schemes being hatched against them.

      Mr M is shocking yall because he is one of the few warning that if you don't WTFU very soon it will be too late for fixin.

by io (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 100 comments [11 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008 at 2:36:06 AM

  (0+)

The hard part of what I am doing is learning so much more than one wants to ever know and then finding some way to keep one's balance so it's possible to keep going and somehow, in all that, be okay day to day.

I am trying to give large overviews and just realized from a comment about boiling frogs on Dailykos, that those large overviews raise the temperature fast enough for the frogs to feel what is going on.  

I am upset by what you say about Hawaii.  Sad.  Not surprised but disturbed.  It's as though for those places we have not yet considered, we still hold them in us in some untouched way, and finding out things loses us that belief that had meaning we didn't even realize.  

If FarmOn can grow large enough, it can help to fund legal battles that need to be happening.  Right now, organizations are working alone and on shoe strings.  We need coalitions of them and they need resources. We have numbers.  We need to come together.  

Thank you for writing.

You might be pleased to know that this article has gotten over 600 comments on Dailykos and is main headlined there as well and at the top of their list.  Word is getting out.  At Dailykos, it set off a discussion about intellectual property laws and a debate between pro"science" (pro-genetic engineering) people and those who say that science must be moral.  

Thank you for writing.  Look out at the beauty there, however wounded, and know that it is larger than us and larger than maniacs, and be comforted by that.  We will all do our best to overcome horrors but as we do so, I believe we will hold together better in being glad to be alive and in being happy to know each other.  

We need to look after ourselves and enjoy each day so we can do the work that needs to be done.  Look after Hawaii for me, would you?  

All best wishes,

Linn 

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008 at 12:09:11 PM

  (0+)

Monsanto, because of its heavy use of test fields in Hawaii, since they can be worked year round with no seasonal interruption, has a massive and diabolical corporate presence in Hawaii, which of course by definition extends into the Hawaii Legislature, where at least two full time lobbyists work to convince the Senators and Representatives that every thing is just peachy keen, and no need for any resistance in the legislative context.

Fortunately, the people recently prevailed in a major city council vote to prevent GM Taro and Coffee, I want to say on the Big Island. Io, correct me if I am wrong....can you go into some detail on this, please?

Despite this, we are still tryiing to pass a Senate and a House Resolution asking in a polite way the next FDA Commissioner to rescind the approval for Aspartame. We are doing this in Hawaii and in New Mexico, and even though Monsanto has long ago sold its patent on Aspartame (which it bought from G.D. Searle after Rumsfeld left as CEO), it will be using its influence to kill the Resolution as it did last year, when that same Resolution never even got a hearing in Senator David Ige's Senate Health Committee!

In New Mexico, Altria Corporate Services/Phillip Morris used heavy duty lobbyists to do the same with a little old bill to create a New Mexico Nutrition Council to ask questions about carcinogenicity, neurotoxicity, colorings, and artificial sweeteners. Maybe this recent news will keep them busy as they will be under siege from suits again (Bravo, Hallelujah!):

WASHINGTON (Reuters) Tobacco firms can be sued under state law for deceptive advertising of "light" cigarettes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a decision that could affect some 40 suits around the country seeking billions of dollars.

By a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled against Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA unit and held the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act does not bar or preempt such state court lawsuits.

The case involved three longtime smokers from Maine who wanted to proceed with their suit against the largest U.S. cigarette maker. The justices upheld a U.S. appeals court ruling that allowed the lawsuit to go forward.

The class-action lawsuit claimed Philip Morris engaged in unfair and deceptive acts or practices in its representations that certain brands of its cigarettes are "light" or have "lowered tar and nicotine."

The lawsuit said cigarettes like Marlboro and Cambridge Lights are deceptively designed and marketed, and that a smoker of those brands consumes the same amounts of tar and nicotine as a smoker of regular cigarettes.

Lawyers for Philip Morris argued Congress in adopting the federal law in the 1960s wanted one national source of regulation for advertising of cigarettes and health claims.

But lawyers for the smokers said Congress did not intend to give cigarette makers immunity for false statements.

Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, said in the court's majority opinion the lawsuit can proceed.

Stevens said neither the Federal Cigarette Labeling Act nor the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's action in this area preempted the fraud claim under state law.

Stevens said the court only ruled on whether the lawsuit can proceed, not on the merits of the claims. The smokers still must prove the company's use of "light" and "lowered tar" violated the state deceptive practices law, he said.

The court's four most conservative members -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito -- dissented.

Because liability in this case is premised on the effect of smoking on health, Thomas wrote in dissent that he would hold that the state-law claims are expressly preempted by the law.

NO FINDING OF LIABILITY

"While we had hoped for a dismissal based upon federal preemption, it is important to note that the Supreme Court made no finding of liability," said Murray Garnick, an Altria senior vice president and associate general counsel.

"We continue to view these cases as manageable, and the company will assert many of the strong defenses used successfully in the past to defend against this very type of case," he said in a statement issued in Richmond, Virginia.

Vice Fund portfolio manager Charles Norton said the ruling removed one defense used in cases involving light cigarettes, but does not signal a shift in tobacco litigation.

"In spite of today's ruling, I expect the future of (light cigarette) litigation to continue to move in the direction that it has in recent years, in favor of the industry," he said.

A related case is before a U.S. appeals court.

In October, a three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., heard arguments on whether a lower court erred in finding tobacco companies conspired to lie about the dangers of smoking.

Companies, including Philip Morris USA, were found to have violated federal racketeering laws in 2006 by a U.S. District judge, who ruled the firms could no longer use expressions such as "low tar" or light" in their cigarette marketing.

Other firms and trade groups appealing the ruling were the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco unit of Reynolds American Inc, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard Inc, Vector Group Ltd's Liggett Group, British American Tobacco Ltd., the Council for Tobacco Research and the Tobacco Institute.

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission rescinded guidance from 1966 which allowed the firms to put tar and nicotine figures on cigarette packages as part of their advertisement.

The agency said the numbers were misleading because smokers believed low tar and nicotine cigarettes were safer even though smokers cancel out that advantage by inhaling more deeply when they smoke the cigarettes.

The case is Altria Group Inc v. Good, 07-562.

by Stephen Fox (96 articles, 3 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 802 comments [33 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008 at 12:47:39 PM

  (0+)

I REALLY HOPE I AM PROVEN WRONG....LINN, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS?

_________________

Harkin: Vilsack tapped for agriculture secretary

THOMAS BEAUMONT
tbeaumont@dmreg.com

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack is expected to be named President-elect Barack Obama’s designee to be U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on Wednesday, Democratic officials said today.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin said he expected Vilsack to be named USDA chief and for his Senate confirmation to go smoothly.

Yepsen: Vilsack pick is a clear thank you to Iowa, though it's not as clear what the former governor brings to the job

“All the signs point to the fact that this will be happening in the next few hours and that Barack Obama will indeed recommend Tom Vilsack to be the next secretary of agriculture,” said Harkin. The Iowa Democrat is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee and lobbied for Vilsack to be agriculture secretary.

“I think it will be a very smooth hearing and, as chairman, I can assure you it will be smooth,” Harkin said. He said he expects hearings to begin in his committee in early January.

Obama is expected to make the announcement at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday in Chicago, where he is expected to be joined by Vilsack.

Vilsack would be the first Iowa Democrat to serve as a Cabinet secretary since Henry A. Wallace held the same position during President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration.

It would also mark the first time the agriculture secretary and Senate Agriculture Committee chairman were both Iowans, creating a unique confluence of Iowa authority over agriculture and food policy.

Vilsack had been mentioned as a consideration for agriculture secretary until last month, when the former Iowa governor said he had not been contacted about the job.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a workforce of more than 105,000 and a budget of more than $95 billion. As governor, Vilsack managed a state workforce of roughly 20,000 and a budget of more than $5 billion.

The department has far-reaching oversight over policies concerning farming and agriculture, food production and safety, trade, natural resources and conservation. It includes the U.S. Forest Service and the Food Stamp Program.

Vilsack could not immediately be reached to confirm the announcement.

As governor, Vilsack had been a proponent of renewable energy and worked to develop industry related to the state’s ethanol and wind-generated electricity production. Iowa is nation’s leading producer of ethanol and among the leaders in wind-generated electricity.

Iowa Department of Economic Development Director Mike Tramontina said Vilsack, as agriculture secretary, would benefit Iowa in multiple ways.

Tramontina, a Democrat and Vilsack supporter, said the department is the primary source of federal dollars to the state. Its impact on commodities and trade, renewable energy, water quality, and more immediately, flood control, would be magnified with Vilsack at the helm, he said.

“We’ll have someone there who understands Iowa’s animal agriculture, a person who understands Iowa’s topography, its rivers and streams and its small towns,” Tramontina said. “To have someone like Tom Vilsack, who understands Iowa the way he does, is going to be a tremendous benefit to us.”

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, a Republican, had kind words for Vilsack. “It’s nice to have an Iowan in this job,” Northey said. “He understands what’s going on in agriculture. He’s a quick study and I think Iowans will have good access in the USDA.”

The news adds the name of yet another onetime rival of Obama to the Democratic president-elect’s prospective Cabinet.

Vilsack, 58, briefly sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination but withdrew from the race after roughly three months. He also campaigned aggressively for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign until Obama clinched the nomination in June.

Vilsack would join former rivals Joe Biden, who is vice president-elect, as well as Clinton, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Clinton has been tapped to be secretary of state and Richardson, secretary of commerce.

“I think the way Obama is going to govern is by using and leveraging and resources at his fingertips,” said JoDee Winterhof, a longtime Iowa and national Democratic campaign organizer who was a top Iowa aide to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. “Shown by whom he has reached out to, there is a true commitment on his part to move this country forward with the help of their leadership and talents.”

Last week, Harkin complained that he had not been contacted by Obama’s transition team to discuss the president-elect’s choice for agriculture secretary. The Senate will vote on the nomination.

Harkin was later contacted by a high-ranking member of the transition team and said he was satisfied that the team was making an effort to consult with the Senate.

“I think all of the things that I feel so strongly about, like conservation, renewable energy, rural development, helping beginning farmers, all point to Tom Vilsack tracking very well with all of them,” Harkin said. “And I’ve had a lot of discussions with Barack Obama about these things and how much he supports them.”

Vilsack is the second Iowan to be named to a senior position in the Obama White House.

Jackie Norris of Des Moines, a key Iowa campaign aide to Obama, was named chief of staff to incoming first lady Michelle Obama.

Former U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle, a Republican, is the most recent Iowan to serve in the president’s Cabinet. He has served as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget since last year.

— Reporter Dan Piller contributed to this article

by Stephen Fox (96 articles, 3 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 802 comments [33 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008 at 8:46:46 PM

  (0+)

He just sold out.  

We have to do the work ourselves.  To me, it looks like nothing has changed and it would be a wast to expend time and energy trying to get through the corruption to get something done.  

To me, it is better to bring people together and get enough resources to do what is needed without depending on government.  

I am very disturbed at Obama for this choice and uncomfortable at the misleading way it was carried out - with Vilsack dropping out and everyone believing they had been heard and working even harder to promote Pollan or other sane choices - and then Vilsack pops up again. 

by Linn Cohen-Cole (76 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 189 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008 at 11:24:38 PM

  (0+)

Breaching Contracts with Monsanto

Hi, 

I am following your series of articles. With this story, the main problem I see concerns those who buy seed from Monsanto, signing Monsanto's contract, and then attempt to hide saving the seed to use it. It is awful that Monsanto is such a tempter, but farmers need to stop buying Monsanto seed. 

If it is so much more expensive and there are so many negatives associated with it, why are the farmers buying it? Perhaps you could address that in a future article. 

Buying seed under contract with Monsanto and then breaching the contract by cleaning is serving Monsanto's cause. It is playing right into their hands making it easier to go after people who don't buy Monsanto seed but who do save their own seed. 

It is critical for people in your movement to differentiate between these two groups and to disassociate yourselves from those who willfully breach their contracts. 

Immediately place all your public support behind those who do not buy Monsanto seed but who are attacked by Monsanto. Those are the people who will gain the most support from the non-farming community. 

If you wait until Monsanto does a huge counter campaign pointing out those who breach their contracts, if you allow Monsanto to get their first, it will damage your movement. You will appear as though you may be siding with cheaters (even though Monsanto will still look bad). Beat Monsanto to it. Preempt them. 

Then, when they do a major PR campaign against the movement, the movement will be pre-positioned to say that it has already beaten Monsanto to that issue and does not support breaching contracts but is focused squarely on Monsanto's bullying (with corrupt government's assistance) people who have never entered into any such contracts and who aren't purchasing Monsanto seed but who are suffering financial and other pain and suffering as a direct result of Monsanto having contaminated their natural and organic fields. 

Don't let them put you on the defensive.

Blessings,

by Tom Usher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 84 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008 at 11:32:43 PM

  (0+)

to set up a contract, sign it, break the contract, then countersue when they sue, but Monsanto's lawyers are among the best in the business. I mean here is a company that gets its own guys made US Attorney General (John Ashcroft) and on the US Supreme Court (Clarence Thomas). What is a little skirmishing on individual contracts going to mean to them? I am not scoffing at all at your excellent idea, just pointing out a few pitfalls and bumps in a well traveled road. What do you think Linn? You have the farmers in your organization.

I remember horror stories about dairy farmers in NH and in Vermont that wanted to put rgbh free on their cartons, and Monsanto I believe won against them in those district courts....correct me if I am wrong. It was about 8 years ago.

by Stephen Fox (96 articles, 3 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 802 comments [33 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 10:42:10 AM

  (0+)

Thank you, Linn. 

We know all about this where we live in the Corn Belt. The radio stations here are few and far between - but every week the ranchers are voiciferously standing up against the enforced use of Monsanto seed and feed. Grassfed Angus beef used to mean something - freshness, purity, quality, sweetness. Now Monsanto is shoving their garbage down ranchers' throats and forcing them to use the overpriced and poor quality garbage-evolution seed. They've known about this for years, too - but no one's listening; everyone wants their beef in cello wrappings, on foam trays, never mind where it came from or what it will do to them.

Can't you just see the rich being able to afford real beef, while the poor get the soy-burger again? It is coming back to stay, and sooner than you think. WHY did Ted Turner buy out here, WHY is he trying his best to sabotage his neighbors, and WHY does everyone hate him so - and WHY is he an investor in the huge multimillion dollar heirloom-seed bank in Greenland? Like his cohorts, they are planning to be, going to be overlords - because you cannot live without food.

by B Jones (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments) on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 7:51:32 PM

  (0+)

Thank you, Linn. 

We know all about this where we live in the Corn Belt. The radio stations here are few and far between - but every week the ranchers are voiciferously standing up against the enforced use of Monsanto seed and feed. Grassfed Angus beef used to mean something - freshness, purity, quality, sweetness. Now Monsanto is shoving their garbage down ranchers' throats and forcing them to use the overpriced and poor quality garbage-evolution seed. They've known about this for years, too - but no one's listening; everyone wants their beef in cello wrappings, on foam trays, never mind where it came from or what it will do to them.

Can't you just see the rich being able to afford real beef, while the poor get the soy-burger again? It is coming back to stay, and sooner than you think. WHY did Ted Turner buy out here, WHY is he trying his best to sabotage his neighbors, and WHY does everyone hate him so - and WHY is he an investor in the huge multimillion dollar heirloom-seed bank in Greenland? Like his cohorts, they are planning to be, going to be overlords - because you cannot live without food.

by B Jones (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments) on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 7:52:11 PM

  (0+)

Tens of thousands of farmers in India are committing suicide because Terminator seed steals the increase from the farmers' labor, leaving them destitute and forcing them off land their families have farmed for generations.They can no longer hold back seed for next season's planting. Like Mr. Spock says, 'You humans are not logical.'

Yet corporations see no downside in patenting life, itself. US hospital patients are finding that their own DNA has been patented and no longer legally belongs to them!

Such legal absurdities to create corporate profit centers abuse our rights and defy reason. From patents on seed stock to pharmaceutical companies patenting the DNA in your own body-- One would have to get permission-- a license-- from a corporation to test one's own genetic make-up for liability to sickness!

That turns the HIPAA law upside-down. Not only have you no privacy, but you can be divested of owning your own genes! And all so a monolithic corporation can take profit from, and monopolize, life,itself. Now the stockholders and Wall Street hold our lives in their trading accounts.

Yet they need more than our lives. They need our money to help them own us yet more profitably. What a scam. Talk about three-card monte! And they got 48% of the vote this year. No wonder they cut funds for education. Education would hurt corporate profits and reduce the numbers of volunteers to enlist in the military to fight and die for corporations.

by martinweiss (41 articles, 6 quicklinks, 13 diaries, 503 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Dec 19, 2008 at 2:15:43 AM

  (0+)