My Page: Courtney Lowery
Horse, near Greybull, Wyoming by Ken Williams. See more of Ken’s work on his Flickr page.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer is No. 1 on the Washington Independent’s list of five politicians who could boost Obama’s populist appeal. The list, out today, also includes Iowa Gov. Chet Culver as well as Sens. Jim Webb, Sherrod Brown and Dick Durbin.
The reasons for Schweitzer as the No. 1 choice among “rising stars” that Obama could hitch himself to? For starters, he’s a “‘pickup-driving, gun-loving’ Democrat,” who “possesses the appealing centrist profile that could strengthen Obama’s efforts to court moderate Democrats and independents. Additionally, as head of the Democratic Governors Association, giving speeches in bolo ties, jeans, and cowboy boots, Schweitzer has created a national profile for himself.”
(Note: At least they didn’t mention the cattle dog. Now, I know that all of this is partly the fault of Schweitzer himself, but good golly (as he might say), can’t anyone see anything in Schweitzer other than his guns and his bolo tie? Does it register to anyone in the beltway that he might actually have an actual record to look at?)
In any case, the Independent suggests that come 2012, Schweitzer could have strong appeal as a running mate for President Obama and while they haven’t seen eye to eye on everything, they could be odd, but good bedfellows.
And, although Schweitzer has on numerous occasions insisted Washington was not his next move (last time I asked, he said he might find himself running cattle in Patagonia after his Governorship), we did wonder a few weeks ago why he was at the last minute part of a national press conference on a new national advisory board on sportsmen and conservation. He was in town anyway for a Governors’ meeting on energy, and maybe the press staff just figured they needed a bolo tie to counter the suits. Who knows.
The Lower John Day River, by Russell Schnitzer. For more of Russell’s work, visit: www.schnitzerphoto.com
News Bite
Critics Abound for New Animal Tracking Proposal
When word first spread that the Department of Agriculture was scrapping the National Animal Identification System, a voluntary program meant to help track diseased animals, cheers went up across farm country.
Last week, Lee Swenson, of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union put it this way in the Denver Post: “We feel the tools are already in place on the state and local level to prevent an outbreak without creating another bureaucracy,” Swenson said. “Agriculture varies throughout the country, and this was simply a one-size-fits-all approach.”
When Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack took the helm of the department he said the NAIS should be mandatory, which did not sit well with people like Swenson and others in the business of looking out for small producers.
But, critics of the new proposal, including the meatpakers and large meat and dairy producers who first supported NAIS, are now coming out in strong opposition.
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“Tumbleweed” by Patia Stephens. See more of Patia’s work on Flickr here.
News Nuggets
New Rules Put Organic Dairy Cows Out to Pasture
The USDA this last week, after years of controversy, tightened up organic regulations for organic dairy and meat producers, mandating that their animals have at least 120 days out on pasture.
Previous rules were vague only mandating that the animals have “access” to pasture. Critics said that loophole meant huge dairies could go organic while maintaining factory-farm like conditions for their animals and thus, going against the whole spirit of organic and fooling consumers by doing so.
Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst at the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute, which has advocated for the change for at least a decade, said this in a press release:
“The organic community has been calling for strong regulations and its enforcement for much of the past decade. Cheap organic milk flowing from the illegitimate factory farms has created a surplus that is crushing ethical family farm producers.”
Colorado’s Aurora Organic Dairy, one of those large operations with limited pasture, became the poster child for the push to change the rule and the New York Times described Aurora this way on Friday: “For many it has come to represent the contradictions embodied in large-scale organic farming. The dairy has about 15,000 cows on five farms in Colorado and Texas, with a total of about 4,400 acres of pasture, said Sally Keefe, Aurora’s vice president for government affairs.”
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News Nugget
Utah Lawmakers Propose Taking Federal Land by Eminent Domain
Two Utah legislators are asking the state to pursue using eminent domain to take and then develop or sell off federal lands—including coal and amenity-rich pieces in places like the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument and the Cache National Forest.
As Robert Gehrke reports in today’s Salt Lake Tribune, the whole point, in these legislators’ minds, is to use the profits to boost school coffers, which they say have been anemic because of how much property tax is lost by having so much land in the hands of the federal government.
The two lawmakers, Rep. Ken Sumsion of American Fork and Rep. Chris Herrod of Provo are proposing legislation that they hope would then take the issue to the Supreme Court, which they think would side with them in using eminent domain to take the federal parcels.
And, according to Gehrke’s report: Legislation would direct the attorney general’s office to pursue the litigation and the lawmakers want $3 million from the school trust fund to bankroll the lawsuit.
Talk about a land grab. Read the whole piece here.
[more]Planning
Report: Local Planners Key to The Intermountain West Coping With Climate Change
Local planners in the Intermountain West are the ones who could ultimately shape the way climate change effects the region, say the authors of a new report released this week by the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy and the Sonoran Institute.
State, regional and federal policies can still make an impact, yes, but the real impact happens on the ground, particularly in how our communities grow, say the report’s authors.
“While policies at the federal, regional, and state levels serve as important guideposts for reaching sustainability, they require local implementation to be successful. In most communities, land use and transportation policies potentially reap the greatest rewards,” the authors write in the executive summary.
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“But When the Sun Hits Your Eyes Through Your Window” by Marc Gutierrez. See more of Marc’s work here.
