Organic Consumers Association

2008 was a big year for the Minnesota-based band Cloud Cult. They released a new album and landed a spot on Rolling Stone’s Breaking Artists page — all while expanding on their reputation as one of the greenest touring bands around. As we peek around the corner of 2009, I caught up with Cloud Cult frontman, Craig Minowa, an environmental scientist at the Organic Consumers Association by day, to see what the year has in store — musically, environmentally and personally.

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.