Agroecology | Occupy World Writes

“Unless he pledges to implement significant safeguards for scientists, Tom Vilsack should not be confirmed. The days in which federal agencies function as scientific gulags should be behind us.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-29-2021

Tom Vilsack during the 2008 transition. Photo: Obama Biden Transition Project/CC

On top of concerns about his close industry ties, corporate-friendly policy record, and alarming civil rights history, President Joe Biden’s Agriculture Secretary nominee Tom Vilsack is also facing scrutiny over what one watchdog organization on Friday characterized as “disturbing” evidence that he improperly meddled in and suppressed scientific research during his previous tenure as head of USDA.

Throughout his nearly eight years as former President Barack Obama’s USDA chief, Vilsack “routinely interfered with scientific work that big agriculture found bothersome,” the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) alleged in a statement Friday, pointing to the direct testimony and survey responses of department scientists. Continue reading →

Transitioning to organic regenerative agriculture practices ‘offers the best, and perhaps our only, hope for averting a global warming disaster.

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 12-24-2015

“Organic regenerative agriculture and land use is the other half of the climate solution,” says Katherine Paul of the Organic Consumers Association. (Photo: File)

A critical tool in the fight against global warming is right below our feet.

So where is this “shovel-ready solution” amid all the talk of climate fixes in the wake of the COP21 summit in Paris?

An Associated Press article published Thursday, for example, professes to outline “methods to achieve negative emissions,” wherein humans remove more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than they put in it. The AP quotes scientists who say “it’s clear” that the goals laid out in Paris “cannot be reached without negative emissions in the future, because the atmosphere is filling up with greenhouse gases so fast that it may already be too late to keep the temperature rise below 1.5 degrees C.” Continue reading →

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Tag Archives: Agroecology

Amid Broader Concerns Over Biden USDA Nominee, Watchdog Flags ‘Disturbing Suppression’ of Science by Vilsack

“Unless he pledges to implement significant safeguards for scientists, Tom Vilsack should not be confirmed. The days in which federal agencies function as scientific gulags should be behind us.”

There’s A Way to Save Our Future. So Why Aren’t More People Talking About It?

Transitioning to organic regenerative agriculture practices ‘offers the best, and perhaps our only, hope for averting a global warming disaster.