A blogger over at DailyKos, OrangeClouds115, has long written about what is happening in agriculture in this country and, as part of that, has taken it upon him/herself to monitor what our new Secretary of Agriculture does.  Here's the latest.

1.  COOL - Country of Origin Labeling:  After much lobbying from consumer protection folks, the Bush Administration and Congress passed a bill requiring labeling on some fresh produce and products but not all and none on processed foods.  Fresh peas in the produce section must be labeled but not frozen peas in the freezer section.

The bill is scheduled to go into effect on March 16th.  The Obama Administration has been supportive of the original idea, the non-loophole idea, and a couple weeks ago, Vilsack wrote a letter to industry asking them to voluntarily observe a more comprehensive set of rules that would close some the largest COOL standard loopholes.  If not, he will begin starting the process to close those loopholes.  Nice work!

2.  U.S. Farm Program Direct Payments:  Vilsack has been out talking to wheat growers, rice growers and cotton growers, and will likely also speak to corn, soy and hay growers, all of whom together account for 90% of American agriculture.  He has been telling them that he will seek a) a single food safety agency and b) to lessen U.S. farm program direct payments.  Citing the political reality of belt tightening, Vilsack has been saying that farmers need to establish a more diversified income base for themselves, perhaps including windmills and biofuels as part of their income mix.  Again, thumbs up!

3.  Organic Farming:  In his talks with large agriculture producers, Vilsack has also been suggesting that organic agriculture will play an increasing role. Yeah!

Not a bad start for someone who had only mixed reviews when he was selected.  OrangeClouds115 also pointed out a very compelling Q&A article on Vilsack in the Washington Post.  Among other hopeful things, he responded to a question about local foods with this:

"In a perfect world, everything that was sold, everything that was purchased and consumed would be local, so the economy would receive the benefit of that. But sometimes that stresses the capacity: the production capacity or the distribution capacity. Especially since we don't have yet a very sophisticated distribution system for locally grown food. One thing we can do is work on strategies to make that happen. It can be grant programs, loan programs, it can be technical assistance."

As an organization that works to support the production of locally grown food on sustainable farms, IWF cheers this response.