New West Blog

Foodie News: Montana’s Local Food Ministry, a 50-year Farm Bill and Why Does Vilsack Need a Push?

By Courtney Lowery, 1-06-09

Three bites in food and ag news today:

Sustainable ag gurus Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry write in the New York Times about the nation’s need for a 50-year Farm Bill that “addresses forthrightly the problems of soil loss and degradation, toxic pollution, fossil-fuel dependency and the destruction of rural communities.”

Among others, the two offer this suggestion: “Any restorations will require, above all else, a substantial increase in the acreages of perennial plants. The most immediately practicable way of doing this is to go back to crop rotations that include hay, pasture and grazing animals.”

Meanwhile, Tom Vilsack, the guy who should be charged with reforming the nation’s food system, has a building fan club as he awaits his new gig as the Secretary of Agriculture. But, Tom Philpott at Gristmill wonders why he would need a push: “The effort strikes me as bizarre. Why band together to support someone who’s a shoo-in to be confirmed? Vilsack is no firebrand reformer; his nomination will generate little controversy in the Senate.”

And, the Christian Science Monitor profiles a Bozeman-area ranching family who is starting the food revolution at home. Writer Corrine Garcia tells a nice story about Jenny and Mark Sabo, who she calls, “extreme locavores.”

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