Despite having said it’s “dumb” to pay a premium price for organic produce, Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, will be honored with the Organic Trade Association’s “2010 Public Servant Award.”
Our colleagues at the Iowa Independent hail Gov. Tom Vilsack, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for agriculture secretary, as a “consummate pragmatist” who has “endeared himself to both the left and the right.” But one group that’s not so fond of Obama’s selection is the Finland, Minn.–based Organic Consumers’ Association. It reacted to today’s announcement with a petition calling for organic producers and consumers to urge Obama to block the nomination, highlighting Vilsack’s support for factory farming and biotechnology. A tamer response came from Minneapolis’ Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy which contrasted Vilsack’s “fairly conventional perspective on agriculture” with the “unconventional times” we live in.
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