In the Thick of It

A friend pointed me to this small tempest over the USDA's "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" program. Susan Schneider, the blog's author, does a good job picking apart the language used by Senators in their complaint. For the record, the Senators are: Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia, Ranking Minority member of the Senate Agriculture Committee), John McCain (R-Arizona) and Pat Roberts (R-Kansas). Their complaint sets up two damaging stereotypes of the people involved in producing and consuming local food. They are, "small, hobbyist and organic producers whose customers generally consist of affluent patrons at urban farmers markets." It's interesting to read the comments following both the YouTube video of Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack introducing the program and the original post on the Agricultural Law blog. You can watch the video here, but you'll have to go to YouTube to read the comments. It's worth a browse.