Posted by Jennifer Heigl
New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote on Wednesday about President-elect Barack Obama’s upcoming staff pick for Secretary of Agriculture. Kristof, an advocate of smaller family farms vs. industrial, waste-producing farms, chimes in on the importance of picking the right ‘secretary of food’ for the country’s future, noting the need for change in our agricultural activities.
The need for change is increasingly obvious, for health, climate and even humanitarian reasons. California voters last month passed a landmark referendum (over the farm lobby’s furious protests) that will require factory farms to give minimum amounts of space to poultry and livestock.
He also quotes author Michael Pollan’s outlook on the US’s agricultural priorities as well.
“We’re subsidizing the least healthy calories in the supermarket — high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soy oil, and we’re doing very little for farmers trying to grow real food,” notes Michael Pollan, author of such books as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food.”
Help support family farms, reduce the exorbitant amount of money funneled into industrial farms (and the timber industry), and demand a greener, healthier, sustainable farm system in the United States by voicing your opinion about the new Secretary of Agriculture. Kristof suggests visiting Food Democracy Now, where you can sign a petition supporting change in the US’s agricultural plan.
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