I’m heading to Vermont and Wisconsin this summer for a bunch of food and climate change events as well as lots of conversations with farmers. Should be fun… and if you happen to find yourself in South Royalton, Vermont, come on by.

A really great interview with Rodale Institute’s Timothy LaSalle on OnPoint about carbon sequestration and organic farming. A great follow up to our Q&A with him. I’m headed down to Rodale next week. Looking forward to seeing this for myself.

The food crisis continues and so do the conversations about what we should do about and what are the root causes. My mother adds her voice to the conversation on the Canadian CBC. You can watch it here. (It starts at minute 32:00).

Eric Schlosser continues to remind us what good journalism looks like (and what good titles sound like).

In “Burger With a Side of Spies,” his recent explosive op-ed in The New York Times, Schlosser reveals Burger King’s hiring of undercover agents in a battle against the coalition working to improve wages for the farmworkers providing the fast food chain its produce.

An AP story reports today that Burger King has now fired two employees after it was disclosed that an executive was secretly posting blogs condemning the farmworker coalition.

The company also said it was going to discontinue the use of the private investigation firm Schlosser exposed. And, Burger King also said it plans to meet with the coalition to “find ways to ensure decent wages and working conditions for the region’s harvesters.” Workers-1, Burger King-0.

Makes you wonder what would have happened had Schlosser’s journalistic integrity not revealed the shenanigans of the company. (Read the op-ed and you’ll get a sense of just how creepy their secret spying was).

Newsday’s Sylvia Carter chimes in on the messages of Take a Bite and the Cool Foods Campaign and includes a tasty recipe from our friend Peter Hoffman. Yum.

Newsday’s Sylvia Carter chimes in on the messages of Take a Bite and the Cool Foods Campaign and includes a tasty recipe from our friend Peter Hoffman. Yum.

Check out our friend Tom Philpott’s lively discussion about whether the sustainable agriculture community should have encouraged a veto of this Farm Bill.

Check out our friend Tom Philpott’s lively discussion about whether the sustainable agriculture community should have encouraged a veto of this Farm Bill.

Carmelo Ruiz Marrero | May 1, 2008

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)

Using trees for fuel as part of the agrofuels boom means cultivation of massive monoculture tree plantations. They are already present in Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil to supply lumber as well as paper pulp, and due to the destruction of biodiversity this model has encountered opposition by civil society groups and indigenous peoples whose rural livelihoods are at stake.

Since 1995, a federal law has required that lobbyists must disclose any activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches. Thanks to that law, we now know that Tyson Foods, the world’s largest meat producer, spent nearly half a million dollars in the first quarter of this year alone to lobby on agricultural, trade, immigration, tax, and other issues. (From Jan 1 to end of June last year, the company spent an additional $550,000 of lobbying dough).

The focus of their big-bucks lobbying? Well, the Farm Bill, of course.

As you probably know, the nearly $300 billion hunk of legislation will set the stage for the next five years of food and farming policy and government subsidies. And it’s looking like thanks to the muscle of industry, this legislation (and our tax dollars) will still ensure big windfalls for companies like…drum roll please…Tyson.

Among the specific issues Tyson was going to the mat on: fighting against country of origin labeling that would require meat and other fresh foods be labeled with their source country. To me, Country of Origin Labeling is a no-brainer. To companies like Tyson, expanding quickly into Eastern Europe and China, the measure could be a big hit to biz.

(Tyson and other meat companies have been fighting COOL labeling, as its known, for years, including setting up organizations like the “Meat Promotion Coalition” to fight against the policy.)

Tyson was also actively engaged with lobbying the USDA and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to improve access for U.S. beef to markets in China, Japan, South Korea, and Mexico.

Tyson’s foray into aggressive lobbying is not new, nor has it always been entirely legal.

In 1997, the company pleaded guilty to charges of giving illegal gifts to USDA Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, including tickets to Dallas Cowboy football games and scholarship funds to his girlfriend.

Reading the lobbying reports disclosed, by law, at http://soprweb.senate.gov, reveals that Jack L. Williams of Little Rock, one of Tyson’s s lobbyists indicted during the 1990s Espy scandal, is still on company payroll today.

Now, who said politics was dirty?

by Miguel A. Altieri
President, Sociedad Cientifica LatinoAmericana de Agroecologia (SOCLA)

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