Michael Pollan Should Be the Next Secretary of Agriculture

America's food system is broken. This champion of sustainable agriculture has the best ideas for fixing it

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) deals with a lot more than just safely growing plants and raising animals for food. It rules over the Forest Service (which manages almost 300,000 square miles of national land), the Food Stamp Program (which provides food for low-income citizens) and the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (which gives advice to farmers).

The USDA is run by the United States Secretary of Agriculture -- currently Ed Schafer, who assumed office in January, just days before a scandal broke following an investigation by the Humane Society into downed cows from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company entering the food supply.

And now, President-elect Obama has a powerful decision in his hands: Who should be the new agriculture secretary?

It's a very big job. In addition to establishing farm policies, enforcing agriculture laws and ensuring a safe food supply, this person is responsible for national nutrition standards, food in school lunchrooms, crop subsidies, organic labeling, disaster relief food distribution, cropland conservation and fighting hunger.

The Democratic governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, is on Obama's short list. But he supports ethanol subsidies. As the Economist notes, "America's use of corn to make ethanol biofuel, which can then be blended with petrol to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil, has already driven up the price of corn. As more land is used to grow corn rather than other food crops, such as soy, their prices also rise. And since corn is used as animal feed, the price of meat goes up, too. The food supply, in other words, is being diverted to feed America's hungry cars."

The use of corn-based ethanol pleases the oil companies, as it's an additive to gasoline. Ultimately, corn-based ethanol does not help America get off its oil addiction. And it's not actually a green technology: Producing it consumes as much energy as it emits when burned.

Tom Buis, the president of the National Farms Union, is another top contender. But his focus on family farming (he said that Obama has "a rural vision"), while quite admirable, does not translate easily into desperately needed regulations on big agribusiness -- where the majority of country's current food problems lie.

Also being considered is Charles Stenholm, a 13-term House Democrat from Texas, who helped usher in the damaging Farm Bill, which gave huge subsidies to the nation's wealthiest factory farmers, awarding a whopping $2.8 million which helped corn farmers fuel American obesity through the production of corn syrup.

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a Democratic South Dakota congresswoman, is also in the running. But she's an agribusiness insider who, as a member of the House Agriculture Committee, has sent fat federal checks back to her home state and will likely be extremely cautious before championing serious farm policy reform.

Mr Obama should look outside of the political sphere for this critical position and give serious consideration to sustainable-food advocate Michael Pollan, the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," a book that traces the journey of four separate meals -- each produced through a different food-production system -- from their origins to the dinner table. A central text of the "locavore" movement, it was named by the New York Times as one of the best non-fiction books of 2006.

Mr Pollan has the correct view of America's food system: Too dependent on the burning of fossil fuels, it can't last much longer the way it is.

More importantly, Mr Pollan, who is also the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, is aware that food exists at the nexus of three of the nation's most important issues: health care, energy independence and climate change.

In fact, Mr Pollan was approached by an Obama staffer about his insightful open letter to the President-elect about food policy, "Farmer in Chief," published last month in the New York Times.

In the letter, Mr Pollan cites that four of the top ten killers in America are caused by diseases linked to diet: heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. He also reminds us that "every calorie we eat is ultimately the product of photosynthesis — a process based on making food energy from sunshine. There is hope and possibility in that simple fact." The production and distribution of food does not necessarily have to spew millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And our food doesn't have to make us fat.

Considering President-elect Obama's mandate of change, Michael Pollan is the right choice for the next United States Secretary of Agriculture.

Warning that "the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close," Mr Pollan advocates a "sun-food agenda" that involves an entire overhaul of the food system and the development of local-based food production.

Now that's change we can believe in.

photo of Michael Pollan by Ragesoss

The Final Frontier According to Ptolemy, Kennedy, Hubble and Obama

Barack Obama has threatened NASA funding cuts. He should see this picture taken by the Hubble first

Of the dozens of constellations recorded by the ancient Roman astrologer Ptolemy, there is one shaped like a fish, tucked away deep in the Southern sky. He called it Piscis Austrinus, and the star that represents this fish's mouth is also the fish's brightest light. In fact, it's one of the brightest stars in the sky.

Its name is Fomalhaut (in Arabic, Fom al-haut means "mouth of the southern whale"), a young star just 200 million years old, 25 light years away (a distance about six billion times the circumference of the Earth).

In the autumn sky, it's the only first-magnitude star seen from the mid-northern latitudes -- in cities like Shanghai, Baghdad and Casablanca. It's no wonder that Fomalhaut, appropriately known as "The Lonely Star of Autumn," has made its way into Chinese, Persian and Arabic culture.

Its mystical quality has also made its way into Western culture. One of Fomalhaut's many literary references is in "Radio Free Albemuth," a novel by American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, where it is the origin of an alien satellite.

But now, it's something entirely alien to Fomalhaut that is looking into its region of the universe -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Orbiting 360 miles above the Earth's surface, it's the first and only space telescope to view the universe using primarily visible light.

The Hubble has taken a snapshot of one of the Lonely Star's planets: Fomalhaut b, a planet three times the mass of Jupiter. The image is the first one taken of a planet circling another star other than our own, using only visible light. It is the result of eight years of NASA's research.

Speaking about America's space program in an interview with Cleveland's WKYC-TV in February, President-elect Barack Obama said, "I want to do a thorough review because some of these programs may not be moving in the right direction and I want to make sure that NASA spending is a little more coherent than it has been over the last several years."

He has said that he will fund his education plan in part by reducing NASA's budget. This seems counterintuitive.

As Mr Obama reviews NASA, he should consider Hubble's picture of Fomalhaut b and its other major -- and no doubt inspirational -- accomplishments, such as giving us the most precise age of the universe (13.73 billion years). He should give the government's full support to NASA's continued success with this extraordinary piece of modern technology.

With his famous 1961 "Race to the Moon" speech, President Kennedy inspired a generation to study science, saying, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will more impressive to mankind or more important for the long range exploration of space."

In his WKYC interview, Mr Obama mentioned that he grew up with "Star Trek," saying he believes in "the final frontier." He should recall Mr Kennedy's inspirational words -- and perhaps expand his knowledge of astronomy beyond sci-fi television -- before he makes a decision that could draw the frontier's border at Fomalhaut b.

Of that, Ptolemy would surely approve.

The above image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b, orbiting its parent star, Fomalhaut. (Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory))

Red States, Blue States, Green States

Obama's "New Energy for America"

As a senator, President-elect Barack Obama had a better-than-average voting record regarding the environment. But is his past record a good indicator of future performance as the Commander-in-chief?

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV), which rates Congress members' environmental records, gave Obama a score of 67% last year -- fourteen points above the average. His senatorial lifetime score was 86%. No wonder so many conservationists and environmentalists rallied behind his presidential campaign.

Mr Obama has a strong understanding of the environmental mess we're in. He co-sponsored the Senate's most forceful climate bill -- the Boxer-Sanders Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act. Its aim is to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050.

He also realizes that America's dependence on Middle East oil and the country's national security are intertwined. In an interview last year with Grist.org, he said, "our dependence on fossil fuels from the Middle East is distorting our foreign policies."

His "New Energy for America" plan is bold. It calls for, among other things, a $150 billion private-sector investment to create five million green jobs, saving more oil than is currently imported from Venezuela and the Middle East within ten years and the implementation of a cap-and-trade program to achieve the Boxer-Sanders goals.

Mr Obama's promise to require oil companies to use their windfall profits to give $500 back in immediate relief to individuals -- while an effective vote-enticer -- does not move the energy ball downfield towards independence. But his desire to create a "Green Jobs Corp" -- an organization that will give disadvantaged youths an opportunity to learn new work skills while helping their communities increase their energy efficiency -- is an inspired concept.

And he has found a good partner in Senator and Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who said at his debate with Governor Sarah Palin, "There are real changes going on in our climate...the cause is man-made...that's why the polar icecap is melting." He co-sponsored a bill to end the illegal trade in whale meat and another one to strengthen prohibitions on animal fighting. The LCV gave the senator a score of 95%.

The stage seems to be set for change, especially considering the Democratic majority in Congress. And no matter what Mr Obama accomplishes on the environmental front, he will most surely do better than America's outgoing chief. When President Bush makes his Oval Office exit in January, he will not only go down as the most unpopular American president in modern times, but also as the one with the worst environmental record in our lifetime. Change, indeed.

photo: Justin Sloan

It's (Not Just) the Economy, Stupid

Temps, They Are a-Changin'

The world is getting very hot. Polar ice is melting. Surface water is drying up. Deserts are expanding. Species are going extinct. The environment is in tatters. Since the middle of the last century, mankind's behavior has affected the planet deeply and quickly.

To make matters worse, things continue to look bleak for the world's biggest economy. Last month, a major US manufacturing index fell to its lowest level in 26 years, while General Motors -- which was the world's largest automaker from 1930 to 2007 (after which it was surpassed by Toyota) -- is down 47% in October, the lowest level seen since World War II.

As Bob Dylan sang in 1964, "Times, they are a-changin'." Almost half-a-century later, his words ring truer than ever.

As Americans head to the polls today, the world looks on with an intensity that hasn't been seen in recent history. And if the possibility of a black man becoming the leader of the free world isn't enough to create an international media bottleneck, the future of the global economy largely rests on what happens in America during the next four years.

Because if there's one thing that Wall Street's meltdown proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, it's that everything and everyone in this world is connected...somehow.

Crises in Context

Our coffee comes from Brazil. Our computer memory chips are made in South Korea. Our retirement funds are invested in Canadian natural gas development. And the global trade in oil is done in US dollars.

Whatever happens in America -- whether it be a credit crunch, a mortgage crisis or a slump in consumer confidence -- definitely does not stay in America.

There is no shortage of crises. But there is one crisis that we probably can't just "ride out" like a bad storm: our contribution to the decline of our known environment.

In what has been called the "Sixth Extinction," a fourth of all mammals are dying out -- a rate of extinction not seen since the time of the dinosaurs.

One-third of the 6,000 species of frogs face extinction. So too, one-third of the planet's coral reefs. Almost 50 percent of forests and temperate grasslands are gone. Fisheries around the globe are on the edge of collapse.

The planet will survive these changes, which are relatively small compared to the changes that it has undergone during its 4.5-billion-year history. But these staggering numbers should still help keep other numbers like the Dow Jones, the jobless rate and the Consumer Confidence Index in perspective.

Our place on Earth is less secure than it was in the past. Our decisions have, taken as a whole, negatively affected the state of life on the planet.

The Other Meltdown

The next American president faces huge challenges on multiple fronts. Voters in this historic election would do well to cast their ballot for the man who they believe will not only provide a steady hand in guiding the nation through the financial crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a broken health care system, but who will also consider the environment -- and specifically, global warming -- a top priority.

Voters have been pummeled with numbers and percentages for two years of presidential campaigning. And in the numbers game, there are two that matter a great deal when it comes to deciding on a candidate based on their environmental record.

The League of Conservation Voters, a group that monitors the environmental records of the members of Congress, gave Senator McCain a score of zero percent last year. Senator Obama scored a 67%. And the average score was 53%. For voters who consider the environment to be the big issue, this election is about doing the math.

The economy is experiencing a meltdown. But the economy won't really matter too much if the environment melts down too.


photo: Image shows the instrumental record of global average temperatures as compiled by the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia and the Hadley Centre of the UK Meteorological Office. Data set TaveGL2v was used. The most recent documentation for this data set is Jones, P.D. and Moberg, A. (2003) "Hemispheric and large-scale surface air temperature variations: An extensive revision and an update to 2001". Journal of Climate, 16, 206-223. This figure was originally prepared by Robert A. Rohde from publicly available data and is incoporated into the Global Warming Art project.