Joel Salatin (0.00 / 0)

"I go to Farmer's Markets and the producers there are progressive, but they tend to talk like conservatives.  They hate government regulations, which basically just punish small farmers who want to grow and sell high quality foods, and tend to distrust and dislike the political system."

I'd suggest reading Joel Salatin's book "Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front."  Joel is an organic farmer in Virginia who holds no punches in criticizing our current government system of subsidies and regulations.

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by: FreedomDemocrat @ Thu Oct 18, 2007 at 13:00:00 PM CDT

Not sure where you're getting your PVIs from... (0.00 / 0)

But I have this as an R+5.6 district.

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by: James L. @ Thu Oct 18, 2007 at 13:16:38 PM CDT

asdf (0.00 / 0)

And there's such a high percentage of BushDogs on the Ag Committee... (what a nifty catch-all phrase that is!).  Of course, ag policy is one of the few areas where party affiliation doesn't seem to have any correlation to common sense and good policy-making, but it's discouraging knowing that Peterson probably speaks for lots of his fellow Dem committee members on this issue. 

Calling Willie Nelson and the Farm Aid crew!!  Time to get a little more politically involved than throwing a concert or 2....

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by: Claire @ Thu Oct 18, 2007 at 14:12:42 PM CDT

Rural Vermont (0.00 / 0)

Speaking of organizing the sustainable agriculture community, some of us are working on that angle, though there's (obviously) a long way to go, esp on the national level.  But I am a member of Rural Vermont, an advocacy and education organization of small farmers and the activists who love them... and we have met some success already. 

This spring, for instance, we convinced the legislature to pass, and our very conservative governor to sign, an easing of state restrictions (stricter even than national standards) on small poultry farmers -- how many they could raise, permission to process them on the farm, and who they could sell them to, including local restaurants and farmer's markets.  This helps build our local food infrastructure, and our next target is similar problems for small dairy.

But this Peterson fellow is dumb as a stump, as they would say here.  "For whatever reason?" "Dumb enough to pay that much?"  That is some real commitment to small farmers you've got going on their, Chairman.

Tim Wolfe

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by: bruorton @ Thu Oct 18, 2007 at 16:19:42 PM CDT

Bigtime progressive interest in agriculture is relatively recent (0.00 / 0)

(like, last 15 years or so).  Obviously it hasn't filtered through to the Ag Committee yet.

The fact that all our committees (and the chairs especially) are basically 20 years behind, because they're stocked with people who were on top of their game 20 years ago and who probably aren't anymore, really sucks.

Actually, the Senate committee is not too bad, with Harkin in the chair, and Leahy, Conrad, Brown, and Klobuchar on there.  It's the House committee that's a nightmare.  There's not a single progressive non-freshman, and for the freshmen it's just Walz, Kagen, and Gillibrand, and then a bunch of new Blue Dogs.

Someone needs to send Tester over to Peterson's office to explain real slow and gentle what organic agriculture is all about.  Then arrange a taste-test for him that'll contrast a tomato grown in Virginia with one shipped in from California.  If he still has taste buds maybe he'll get it.

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by: texas dem @ Thu Oct 18, 2007 at 16:29:15 PM CDT

In California ... (0.00 / 0)

I've just discovered this rural initiative apparently backed by the state Democratic party (folks I have little confidence in) that seems to be working to fill the Democratic void in rural places that shouldn't be out of reach for us. It seems very realistic about what a Democratic comeback outside the cities might take.

Can it happen here?

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by: janinsanfran @ Thu Oct 18, 2007 at 17:19:43 PM CDT

Union for Tasty Food (0.00 / 0)

"The sustainable agricultural community, as far as I can tell, isn't organized in any sort of union with people like me who like tasty food and will pay higher prices so I don't get poisoned and don't have to emit as much carbon. "

Oh, but we are!  There is the Organic Consumers Association (www.organicconsumers.org), and it has over 850,000 members and is working on just the issues you mentioned.  They have an excellent e-mail newsletter and last election cycle organized their own political wing to endorse candidates.

There are a lot of other groups doing excellent organizing around the Farm Bill as well, like Oxfam America.  The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy is a great source for policy information.  Check them out. 

Peterson's district contains the flat part of Minnesota, full of large-scale, subsidized corn, soybean and sugar beet farms.  He's entirely married to industrial ag.  The Land Stewardship Project, another great group, has an office in his district.  I'd love to se him go down.

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by: Erik from Mpls @ Fri Oct 19, 2007 at 16:25:50 PM CDT

And southeastern Minnesota is a hotbed of local farms (0.00 / 0)

and organic growers along with southwestern Wisconsin.

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by: northcountry @ Fri Oct 19, 2007 at 18:54:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I know some of the DFLers out there (0.00 / 0)

The Chair of Senate District 20 (one of the local party units) is a real old fashioned lefty.  He publishes a column in the weekly paper and plenty of Letters to the Editors too. Here's a sample on the farm bill:

LET'S HAVE AT IT  9-25-07 Issue 

The New Farm Bill

Minnesota's two U.S. Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman, are in good positions to influence one of the most important laws for our rural communities, our environment and our rural families.  The ongoing pollution of our groundwater, our lakes and streams must stop.  This nation and planet desperately need a farm law that will tie payments to farmers to practices that will stop the erosion and pollution, with good accountability.  Payments should stop simply being based on the # of bushels of corn or beans or the amount of cotton, and instead be tied to good erosion and pollution control practices, especially on production land.  The loopholes that have allowed schemes by mega "farms" to avoid payment limits must be ended.  We also need to stop our taxpayer money going to the giant animal confinement outfits to finance their giant sewage lagoons in our rural neighborhoods.  Our Senators have the unique position of being on the Senate Agriculture Committee, and they should back the plans of Senator Harkin of Iowa, which would accomplish these long overdue goals.  Repeated surveys of the farmers show that they also support these common sense steps.  Senators, lets do it, please!

Brian Wojtalewicz

Chair, Senate District 20 DFL

Appleton, MN  56208

And his column on SCHIP

COLUMN

"Let's Have At It"  10-2-07

Kids' Health Insurance

Just in case you had any doubts about Mr. Bush's true colors, take a look at his current stance about the Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIPS). It has been providing health insurance coverage for about 6.6 million American kids. They are in families of the "working poor," whose parents are just over the eligibility line for medical assistance, yet can't afford to pay for commercial health insurance. The other day Shrub got in front of the national cameras and claimed that it was an excessive spending program because parents making as much as $80,000 a year could get their kids on it. This was another one of his  bald-faced lies. Even many Senate Republicans couldn't stomach it. Republican Senator Grassley from Iowa got on the cameras just afterward to say it wasn't true.

The program pushed by the Democrats in Congress would add about $35 Billion per year, adding coverage for about 4 million more American kids.  The current estimate for uninsured kids in Minnesota alone is 70,000! One of the features about the program that is so contrary to the way Mr. Bush does business is that the Democrats have arranged to actually pay for it. Unlike borrowing billions of dollars against our children's future, as Shrub has done for the spending on his Iraq war, the Democrats would pay for it with a tobacco tax of 61¢ per pack. Yes, they like the statistics that show that fewer children start smoking each time the tax is increased on tobacco.

Brian Wojtalewicz

Chair, Senate District 20 DFL

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by: northcountry @ Fri Oct 19, 2007 at 18:52:33 PM CDT