Organic foodies love Obama again

[babylonsister]

Organic foodies love Obama again


The sustainable, organic, suspicious-of-big-agriculture foodies greeted President Obama's choice of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as secretary of agriculture with a chorus of boos and frowns of disappointment. Iowa is ethanol country, and Vilsack was considered a Monsanto man, through-and-through. But the decision to appoint Tufts professor Kathleen Merrigan for the No. 2 post at USDA is sparking a completely different reaction.

Pure, unadulterated ecstasy. As tasty-good as a freshly picked organic peach or heirloom tomato. Containing absolutely no high fructose corn syrup and fully compostable!

"Dr. Merrigan is a thrillingly unexpected pick," gushes the Ethicurean.

"This amounts to a major win for organic, sustainable and local food advocates," writes Samuel Fromartz, author of "Organic, Inc.," at his blog, Chewswise.

"In the sustainable-ag community, the reaction has been near euphoric," writes Tom Philpott at Grist. "The activist chef Dan Barber, of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, described Merrigan like this in an e-mail to me: 'Kathleen's incredible ... She's smart, dedicated, and ferocious. We couldn't have a better advocate I don't think. Very big news ...' Several lesser-known sustainable-ag folks echoed that sentiment in e-mails."

more...

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/02/24/the_foodies_rejoice/index.html

[Thrill]

1. For all the scary things people were saying about Vilsack

He's been just the opposite so far.

[FrenchieCat]

2. Folks need to have faith in our President......

He really is on our side, even if sometime it appears that he's going in another direction.....

that's just to psych his enemies out, and therefore giving him greater latitude.

[ClarkUSA]

3. They were foolish to doubt Barack in the first place. I've never doubted Team O's motives.

[valerief]

4. Blind faith is fundie faith. The prez should be supported only with both eyes open. nt

[FrenchieCat]

5. There's a difference between having one's eyes wide open,

and one having one's mouth wide open.

Second guessing is harzardous unless one understands not just what needs to be done,
but how and when in order for it to be most effective.

A left hand turn doesn't have to come on cue based on when the backseat driver chooses....
because after all, being in the backseat means you've got to let the driver drive.

[valerief]

10. See #9. nt

[ClarkUSA]

8. lol! The only people who are blind so far seem to be the ones who ever doubted Barack Obama.

My eyes have been wide open since January 2007 and I've been proved right. How about you?
I notice that those who doubted Obama have been proved wrong again and again. This example
is another in a long line of vindication for those of us who trust President Obama to do the right
thing.

[valerief]

9. I do hope he'll do the right thing. That's why I voted for him. That's why I have hope.

Blind faith, no. Hope, yes.

[ClarkUSA]

11. Your self-righteousness is misplaced. You obviously don't know me.

I haven't agreed with all of Barack's decisions but my trust Team O's skill in playing political chess with the public's interest
in the uppermost of their minds is inversely proportional to my respect for DU's Greek chorus which I suspect are made up
of people from both sides of the aisle who are still nursing bitter grudges from the primary wars. So spare me. :eyes:

[Cha]

14. It's not "blind faith"..it's having

confidence in someone you voted for and not second guessing every crap thing the corporatemediawhores make a big freakin' deal out of.

[Fleshdancer]

6. Smart strategy

He named the more moderate and conservative people at a time when everyone was focusing on who he would choose. Now the focus is on the economy and how the republicans refuse to cooperate...perfect timing to seat the liberal activists we need.

[babylonsister]

7. Thanks for pointing that out; that is smart! nt

[Cha]

13. Coincidence or

not..it worked out. I love this appointee.

[Cha]

12. That would be people like me...I even

wrote whitehouse.gov about Vilsack's history not jiving with what we need in Ag Sec. I think it's good to let him know what we want our country to be.

This is really great news..thanks for posting, babylonsister. Real food needs an advocate like Kathleen Merrigan!