white house farmer

Last fall Michael Pollan wrote a fantastic article titled Farmer in Chief, calling for the White House to lead by example and nominate a White House 'Farmer' in addition to White House 'Chef'. You may have read it already. The White House Farmer nomination process was not started by the Obama administration (started privately, read the AP release here) but is definitely gaining traction.

My vote happens to be for Shepherd Ogden (more here); a gardener/entrepreneur/tough and tough to describe character from Landgrove Vermont (now living in the DC area), who started the Cook's Garden mail order seed company in 1983, forging a path/choice for homesteaders. Further achievements as long as your arm (sidenote: also turned the lawn on the Mall in DC into an organic lawn).

"Shep Ogden was the founder and President of Cooks Garden seed company, he is a very experienced Market Gardener, a top speaker on gardening and organic subjects and the author of Straight Ahead Organic among other titles. He has the gardening ability, the people and management skills to carry a position of this importance. Shep has approved this nomination and also supplied references: USDA Ext Agent for DC, Sandy Farber Dir US Botanic Garden, Holly Schimizu Chief Hort Guy for Nat’l Park Service NW, Rob DeFeo Chef (organic) Nora Poullion." Taken from his nomination profile.

Anyway, if you like the idea, please visit WhiteHouseFarmer.com and read around. And you must vote before January 31st.

burns night -in the books

Our Burns celebration this year was centered round an excellent church service in Dorset, VT. Homemade haggis. That is a first for me. Not at all bad. We just ate it spread on oatcakes, with a cup of coffee, no booze in the church basement before noon... The rev' did a fantastic "Address to a Haggis" from memory though. Great stuff.

Interesting sidenote to the Lincoln bible in use on Tuesday.
"The Bible upon which Barack Obama swore his oath on Tuesday was that of Abraham Lincoln. That Bible lay on the bedside table every night that Lincoln spent in the White House, but it was not alone. Beside it lay his copy of the collected works Robert Burns, many of which Lincoln knew by heart..."

Robert Burns Park, Boston, MA.

why physical libraries needed -1

See that book. You can't download that.

Many are right in saying today echoed Lincoln. And that the times may call for an echo of FDR.

FDR argued that a "Nation must believe in three things. It must believe in the past. It must believe in the future. It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future."

All that was true today.

this land is your land

Going back to Sunday's Inauguration Concert. Genius idea to have Pete Seeger on at the end. (There is a recent American Masters series on him that I need to see.) Don't have cable so missed the HBO aired concert, but was alerted by a tweet (right?) on twitter. Anyway, Pete included all the lesser heard verses... Goosebumps time.

A great high wall there, tried to stop me
A great big sign there, private property
On the other side it didn't say nothing
That side was made for you and me.

secretary of agricuture -appointment

An interview this morning via NPR of Michael Pollan on the appointment of Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as the new Secretary of Agriculture.

A secretary for food, could put the focus on diversifying America's farms and using local food sources around the nation. But those topics weren't in the spotlight when Obama chose Vilsack to be agriculture secretary, said Pollan. Listen.

obama's secretary of food

"The problem isn’t farmers. It’s the farm lobby —hijacked by industrial operators —and a bipartisan tradition of kowtowing to it."

Article in the Op-Ed section of the NYT today. Further reading.

transformational change

Found the above at Callie Shell's site via Draplin. This is a man that knows the value of a dollar.
Hard to stop reading the news...

that voting look

Gum boots, ancient Bean camo chamois, Johnson wool pants and Lee chore jacket. All perfect for a cool evening, standing in line, exercising my fifteenth amendment right to vote. It may be a long wait...so a little chew to pass the time. Feeling like that post 9/11 moment, remember when people for about 2 weeks after actually looked each other in the eye, and we said hello to our neighbours for a change...
[Update 9pm: WTF with D&C this morning, perpetuating a (GOP?) hoax that voting wont be till tomorrow? First time, long time, last time. Beyond the pale.]

farmer in chief

An article in the NYT 2 weeks ago titled "Farmer in Chief" was crafted as an open letter to the next president by Michael Pollen. I didn't mention it then, but should have... it is worth reading. Barack read it, as noted by Treehugger here. Good stuff.

Snippet from the candidate; "...our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs."

[update courtesy of Kristin, listen to Michael Pollen break it down here.]

whassup -change

Full article in tomorrow's WSJ. Read and learn how to license your intellectual rights, filmmakers. Whassup lives.

farming and rural issues in election

Where do John McCain and Barack Obama stand on agricultural issues? Farm Aid has done some digging and produced a table to look at here. There is further reading on Obama's site under Rural Issues, which includes rural health challenges e.g. meth' use. I had trouble finding the area on McCain's site that dealt with rural and farm issues, if someone sees it please send the link.

see your tax cut

obama logo

Above graphic by Felix Sockwell.

Fantastic update on the origins of the Obama logo, who/how the website is produced, some recent news items and more, more, more, quality design links via Draplin Design Company.

Design, as art, is a matter of life and death to some. In that sense they are not just discussing logos here folks... or red states, blue states. The financial meltdown is affecting the rest of the world (and if our friends in the UK lose their retirements because an Icelandic bank just failed, you could argue that is subprime USA lending at fault as well), so when Bernanke says the downside risks to growth have increased... it's a little too cute. [Disclaimer: i went to the London School of Economics, and one thing i have found with economists and especially brokers; they are great at telling you what just happened.]
Another design site i've been lurking is Kitsune Noir who made this banner below.

vp debate

Palin's writers did a good job for her innaguration; really got some shots off. The Dem's prepped Biden well last night though; i caught this snippet on the radio.

PALIN: Barack had 94 opportunities to side on the people's side and reduce taxes and 94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction, 94 times.

BIDEN: The vote she's referring to, John McCain voted the exact same way. It was a budget procedural vote. John McCain voted the same way. It did not raise taxes. Number two, using the standard that the governor uses, John McCain voted 477 times to raise taxes.

Right between the eyes...

you want plans?? he has a plan.

Good shit.

obama

This is a jump to 10minutes in. Good stuff. Shout out to Vermont.