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Amid speculation that President-elect Joe Biden may select former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture despite her ties to agribusiness and fossil fuels, more than 50 progressive advocacy groups on Wednesday urged Biden to instead choose Democratic Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio.
"Now more than ever, we need a champion like Rep. Fudge to restore common-sense food safety standards in America," Food & Water Action executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement. "She has been an unsung hero of our food system workers, who are forced to deal with some of the most dangerous working conditions of any industry in the country."
Food & Water Action and Family Farm Action led the coalition of animal welfare, environment, farm, and food safety organizations that sent a letter (pdf) to Biden detailing why they want Fudge to run the USDA.
"Congresswoman Fudge is a skilled and compassionate leader of unparalleled reputation and integrity," the letter says. "She has long been an ally to farmers, food-chain workers, consumers, and rural communities. She is best positioned to help the department navigate today's unprecedented challenges--from the ongoing rural crisis, to climate change, to the pandemic's rupturing of our food system."
\u201cWe\u2019re proud to join @FarmActionUS & 50+ other groups in endorsing @RepMarciaFudge for Secretary of Agriculture in the Biden administration! Rep. Fudge is the ally we need for food & worker safety, especially after four years of Trump.\n\nRead the letter: https://t.co/E55ztm9Iop\u201d— Food & Water Action (@Food & Water Action) 1605720201
The letter highlights promising pieces of her political history, from urging federal agencies including the USDA "to strengthen workplace protections for slaughterhouse workers at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic" and fighting against industry-led attempts to speed up lines at processing plants to introducing bills "to increase local procurement for the National School Lunch Program and to increase scrutiny of foreign investment in U.S. farmland."
The groups praise Fudge as not only a supporter of working people, family-scale farms, and regional food systems, but also someone who "understands the central role farmers play in fighting climate change and protecting natural resources." Additionally, the letter notes, she is "an advocate for farmers and communities historically underserved by USDA."
While celebrating her "unparalleled track record of protecting and strengthening nutrition programs," the letter also says that "as the first Black woman to serve as agriculture secretary, Congresswoman Fudge would address the department's legacy of discrimination against Black and other historically-underserved farmers, and ensure these groups have full access to USDA programs and resources."
"Congresswoman Fudge has a vision for our food and agriculture system that is inclusive of America's farmers, food-chain workers, and local and regional businesses."
--Joe Maxwell, Family Farm Action
Family Farm Action president Joe Maxwell--whose group recently released a roadmap outlining how the incoming Biden administration can revitalize rural America--emphasized that "Congresswoman Fudge has a vision for our food and agriculture system that is inclusive of America's farmers, food-chain workers, and local and regional businesses."
"What we need in a USDA secretary is a leader who will root out the historical discrimination within the department's farm programs, who will lift up all farmers not with government handouts but with markets that work, who will work to restore food security for all families, and who will restore Abraham Lincoln's vision for the department as 'The People's Department,'" he added.
Other signatories include national groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, Mercy For Animals, Oil Change U.S., Open Markets Institute, People's Action, and 350.org, along with state and local organizations like Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.
"Independent family farmers in Iowa are calling for Rep. Fudge as the next secretary of agriculture," said Adam Mason, state policy organizing director at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. "Family farmers know we need a different direction, one in which USDA takes on seed and chemical mega-mergers and the lack of competition in livestock markets. Industrial agribusinesses have been writing the rules for too long, and we believe we can work with Rep. Fudge at USDA to change that."
Open Markets Institute executive director Barry Lynn concurred that "it is high time for a secretary of Agriculture who is not beholden to Big Ag."
"Rep. Fudge has a strong track record of fighting for those on the front lines of our monopolized food systems; including workers, independent farmers and ranchers, and Black, Latinx, indigenous, and other communities of color," Lynn said. "Fudge can help reverse years of Wall Street-backed exploitation and consolidation, address the systemic racism that has long warped American farm policy, and create a more equitable, competitive, and safe food system for all."
Lynn's group was among the more than 160 organizations--led by Friends of the Earth--that came together Tuesday for a letter to Biden's team opposing Heitkamp. They warned that the former senator from North Dakota "is the wrong choice for the USDA because she has aligned herself with corporate agribusiness at the expense of family farmers, supports fossil fuel interests, and holds views that are out of step with the Democratic Party and the majority of Americans."
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Amid speculation that President-elect Joe Biden may select former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture despite her ties to agribusiness and fossil fuels, more than 50 progressive advocacy groups on Wednesday urged Biden to instead choose Democratic Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio.
"Now more than ever, we need a champion like Rep. Fudge to restore common-sense food safety standards in America," Food & Water Action executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement. "She has been an unsung hero of our food system workers, who are forced to deal with some of the most dangerous working conditions of any industry in the country."
Food & Water Action and Family Farm Action led the coalition of animal welfare, environment, farm, and food safety organizations that sent a letter (pdf) to Biden detailing why they want Fudge to run the USDA.
"Congresswoman Fudge is a skilled and compassionate leader of unparalleled reputation and integrity," the letter says. "She has long been an ally to farmers, food-chain workers, consumers, and rural communities. She is best positioned to help the department navigate today's unprecedented challenges--from the ongoing rural crisis, to climate change, to the pandemic's rupturing of our food system."
\u201cWe\u2019re proud to join @FarmActionUS & 50+ other groups in endorsing @RepMarciaFudge for Secretary of Agriculture in the Biden administration! Rep. Fudge is the ally we need for food & worker safety, especially after four years of Trump.\n\nRead the letter: https://t.co/E55ztm9Iop\u201d— Food & Water Action (@Food & Water Action) 1605720201
The letter highlights promising pieces of her political history, from urging federal agencies including the USDA "to strengthen workplace protections for slaughterhouse workers at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic" and fighting against industry-led attempts to speed up lines at processing plants to introducing bills "to increase local procurement for the National School Lunch Program and to increase scrutiny of foreign investment in U.S. farmland."
The groups praise Fudge as not only a supporter of working people, family-scale farms, and regional food systems, but also someone who "understands the central role farmers play in fighting climate change and protecting natural resources." Additionally, the letter notes, she is "an advocate for farmers and communities historically underserved by USDA."
While celebrating her "unparalleled track record of protecting and strengthening nutrition programs," the letter also says that "as the first Black woman to serve as agriculture secretary, Congresswoman Fudge would address the department's legacy of discrimination against Black and other historically-underserved farmers, and ensure these groups have full access to USDA programs and resources."
"Congresswoman Fudge has a vision for our food and agriculture system that is inclusive of America's farmers, food-chain workers, and local and regional businesses."
--Joe Maxwell, Family Farm Action
Family Farm Action president Joe Maxwell--whose group recently released a roadmap outlining how the incoming Biden administration can revitalize rural America--emphasized that "Congresswoman Fudge has a vision for our food and agriculture system that is inclusive of America's farmers, food-chain workers, and local and regional businesses."
"What we need in a USDA secretary is a leader who will root out the historical discrimination within the department's farm programs, who will lift up all farmers not with government handouts but with markets that work, who will work to restore food security for all families, and who will restore Abraham Lincoln's vision for the department as 'The People's Department,'" he added.
Other signatories include national groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, Mercy For Animals, Oil Change U.S., Open Markets Institute, People's Action, and 350.org, along with state and local organizations like Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.
"Independent family farmers in Iowa are calling for Rep. Fudge as the next secretary of agriculture," said Adam Mason, state policy organizing director at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. "Family farmers know we need a different direction, one in which USDA takes on seed and chemical mega-mergers and the lack of competition in livestock markets. Industrial agribusinesses have been writing the rules for too long, and we believe we can work with Rep. Fudge at USDA to change that."
Open Markets Institute executive director Barry Lynn concurred that "it is high time for a secretary of Agriculture who is not beholden to Big Ag."
"Rep. Fudge has a strong track record of fighting for those on the front lines of our monopolized food systems; including workers, independent farmers and ranchers, and Black, Latinx, indigenous, and other communities of color," Lynn said. "Fudge can help reverse years of Wall Street-backed exploitation and consolidation, address the systemic racism that has long warped American farm policy, and create a more equitable, competitive, and safe food system for all."
Lynn's group was among the more than 160 organizations--led by Friends of the Earth--that came together Tuesday for a letter to Biden's team opposing Heitkamp. They warned that the former senator from North Dakota "is the wrong choice for the USDA because she has aligned herself with corporate agribusiness at the expense of family farmers, supports fossil fuel interests, and holds views that are out of step with the Democratic Party and the majority of Americans."
Amid speculation that President-elect Joe Biden may select former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture despite her ties to agribusiness and fossil fuels, more than 50 progressive advocacy groups on Wednesday urged Biden to instead choose Democratic Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio.
"Now more than ever, we need a champion like Rep. Fudge to restore common-sense food safety standards in America," Food & Water Action executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement. "She has been an unsung hero of our food system workers, who are forced to deal with some of the most dangerous working conditions of any industry in the country."
Food & Water Action and Family Farm Action led the coalition of animal welfare, environment, farm, and food safety organizations that sent a letter (pdf) to Biden detailing why they want Fudge to run the USDA.
"Congresswoman Fudge is a skilled and compassionate leader of unparalleled reputation and integrity," the letter says. "She has long been an ally to farmers, food-chain workers, consumers, and rural communities. She is best positioned to help the department navigate today's unprecedented challenges--from the ongoing rural crisis, to climate change, to the pandemic's rupturing of our food system."
\u201cWe\u2019re proud to join @FarmActionUS & 50+ other groups in endorsing @RepMarciaFudge for Secretary of Agriculture in the Biden administration! Rep. Fudge is the ally we need for food & worker safety, especially after four years of Trump.\n\nRead the letter: https://t.co/E55ztm9Iop\u201d— Food & Water Action (@Food & Water Action) 1605720201
The letter highlights promising pieces of her political history, from urging federal agencies including the USDA "to strengthen workplace protections for slaughterhouse workers at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic" and fighting against industry-led attempts to speed up lines at processing plants to introducing bills "to increase local procurement for the National School Lunch Program and to increase scrutiny of foreign investment in U.S. farmland."
The groups praise Fudge as not only a supporter of working people, family-scale farms, and regional food systems, but also someone who "understands the central role farmers play in fighting climate change and protecting natural resources." Additionally, the letter notes, she is "an advocate for farmers and communities historically underserved by USDA."
While celebrating her "unparalleled track record of protecting and strengthening nutrition programs," the letter also says that "as the first Black woman to serve as agriculture secretary, Congresswoman Fudge would address the department's legacy of discrimination against Black and other historically-underserved farmers, and ensure these groups have full access to USDA programs and resources."
"Congresswoman Fudge has a vision for our food and agriculture system that is inclusive of America's farmers, food-chain workers, and local and regional businesses."
--Joe Maxwell, Family Farm Action
Family Farm Action president Joe Maxwell--whose group recently released a roadmap outlining how the incoming Biden administration can revitalize rural America--emphasized that "Congresswoman Fudge has a vision for our food and agriculture system that is inclusive of America's farmers, food-chain workers, and local and regional businesses."
"What we need in a USDA secretary is a leader who will root out the historical discrimination within the department's farm programs, who will lift up all farmers not with government handouts but with markets that work, who will work to restore food security for all families, and who will restore Abraham Lincoln's vision for the department as 'The People's Department,'" he added.
Other signatories include national groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, Mercy For Animals, Oil Change U.S., Open Markets Institute, People's Action, and 350.org, along with state and local organizations like Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.
"Independent family farmers in Iowa are calling for Rep. Fudge as the next secretary of agriculture," said Adam Mason, state policy organizing director at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. "Family farmers know we need a different direction, one in which USDA takes on seed and chemical mega-mergers and the lack of competition in livestock markets. Industrial agribusinesses have been writing the rules for too long, and we believe we can work with Rep. Fudge at USDA to change that."
Open Markets Institute executive director Barry Lynn concurred that "it is high time for a secretary of Agriculture who is not beholden to Big Ag."
"Rep. Fudge has a strong track record of fighting for those on the front lines of our monopolized food systems; including workers, independent farmers and ranchers, and Black, Latinx, indigenous, and other communities of color," Lynn said. "Fudge can help reverse years of Wall Street-backed exploitation and consolidation, address the systemic racism that has long warped American farm policy, and create a more equitable, competitive, and safe food system for all."
Lynn's group was among the more than 160 organizations--led by Friends of the Earth--that came together Tuesday for a letter to Biden's team opposing Heitkamp. They warned that the former senator from North Dakota "is the wrong choice for the USDA because she has aligned herself with corporate agribusiness at the expense of family farmers, supports fossil fuel interests, and holds views that are out of step with the Democratic Party and the majority of Americans."
"While this temporary cessation of fighting and bombing must be both respected and long-term, this is only the beginning of addressing the immense humanitarian, psychological, and medical needs in Gaza."
As Israel's military continued its 15-month assault that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and decimated the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed that early Saturday the full Cabinet approved a recently announced cease-fire and hostage-release deal that is set to take effect at 8:30 am local time Sunday.
The 24-8 vote on the three-phase deal negotiated by Egypt, Qatar, and the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administrations came after the Security Cabinet endorsed it on Friday. Since negotiators announced the agreement on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed over 100 more Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health's figures.
Gaza health officials said Saturday that the Israeli assault has killed at least 46,899, with another 110,725 wounded since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. More than 10,000 people remain missing in the Palestinian region reduced to rubble, and experts warn the official death toll is likely a significant undercount.
"The temporary cease-fire agreement in Gaza is a relief, but it arrives more than 465 days and 46,000 lives too late," Doctors Without Borders said in a Saturday statement. "While this temporary cessation of fighting and bombing must be both respected and long-term, this is only the beginning of addressing the immense humanitarian, psychological, and medical needs in Gaza."
"Israel must immediately end its blockade of Gaza and ensure a massive scale-up of humanitarian aid into and across Gaza so that the hundreds of thousands of people in desperate conditions can begin their long road to recovery," added the group, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières. "The toll of this hideous war includes the obliteration of homes, hospitals, and infrastructure; the displacement of millions of people that are now in desperate need of water, food, and shelter in the cold winter."
After reaching a cease-fire deal to stop Israel's assault on Lebanon late last year, the IDF was accused of violating it with continued strikes allegedly targeting the political and militant group Hezbollah.
According to Drop Site News: "Egyptian media reported the formation of a joint operations room in Cairo, with representatives from Egypt, Palestine, Qatar, the United States, and Israel, to oversee the Gaza cease-fire and 'ensure effective coordination and follow up on compliance with the terms of the agreement.'"
Israel—whose troops have been armed by the United States—faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on Gaza and the International Criminal Court in November issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
After the Israeli Security Cabinet's Friday decision, Kenneth Roth, the former director of Human Rights Watch, said: "Keep in mind that a cease-fire is NOT an amnesty. Senior Israeli officials must still be prosecuted for genocide and war crimes. Otherwise, governments could commit atrocities with impunity by simply agreeing to a ceasefire at the end."
"When comparing natural gas and renewables for energy security, renewables generally offer greater long-term energy security due to their local availability, reduced dependence on imports, and lower vulnerability to geopolitical disruptions."
As Republican President-elect Donald Trump prepares to further accelerate already near-record liquefied natural gas exports after taking office next week, a report published Friday details how soaring U.S. foreign LNG sales are "causing price volatility and environmental and safety risks for American families in addition to granting geopolitical advantages to the Chinese government."
The report, Strategic Implications of U.S. LNG Exports, was published by the American Security Project, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, and offers a "comprehensive analysis of the impact of the natural gas export boom from the advent of fracking through the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and provides insight into how the tidal wave of U.S. exports in the global market is altering regional and domestic security environments."
According to a summary of the publication:
The United States is the world's leading producer of natural gas and largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Over the past decade, affordable U.S. LNG exports have facilitated a global shift from coal and mitigated the geopolitical risks of fossil fuel imports from Russia and the Middle East. Today, U.S. LNG plays a critical role in diversifying global energy supplies and reducing reliance on adversarial energy suppliers. However, rising global dependence on natural gas is creating new vulnerabilities, including pricing fluctuations, shipping route bottlenecks, and inherent health, safety, and environmental hazards. The U.S. also faces geopolitical challenges related to the LNG trade, including China's stockpiling and resale of cheap U.S. LNG exports to advance its renewable energy industry and expand its global influence.
"When comparing natural gas and renewables for energy security, renewables generally offer greater long-term energy security due to their local availability, reduced dependence on imports, and lower vulnerability to geopolitical disruptions," the report states.
American Security Project CEO Matthew Wallin said in a statement that "action needs to be taken to ensure Americans are insulated from global price shocks, the impacts of climate change, and new health and safety risks."
"Our country must also do more to protect its interests from geopolitical rivals like China that subsidize their growth and influence by reselling cheap U.S. LNG at higher spot prices," Wallin asserted. "U.S. LNG has often been depicted as a transition fuel, and our country must ensure that it continues working towards that transition to clean sources instead of becoming dependent on yet another vulnerable fuel source."
Critics have
warned that LNG actually hampers the transition to a green economy. LNG is mostly composed of methane, which has more than 80 times the planetary heating power of carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere.
Despite President Joe Biden's 2024 pause on LNG export permit applications, his administration has presided over what climate campaigners have called a "staggering" LNG expansion, including Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass 2 export terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana and more than a dozen other projects. Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy acknowledged that approving more LNG exports would raise domestic energy prices, increase pollution, and exacerbate the climate crisis.
In addition to promising to roll back Biden's recent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling across more than 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory, Trump—who has nominated a bevy of fossil fuel proponents for his Cabinet—is expected to further increase LNG production and exports.
A separate report published Friday by Friends of the Earth and Public Citizen examined 14 proposed LNG export terminals that the Trump administration is expected to fast-track, creating 510 million metric tons of climate pollution–"equivalent to the annual emissions of 135 new coal plants."
While campaigning for president, Trump vowed to "frack, frack, frack; and drill, baby, drill." This, as fossil fuel interests poured $75 million into his campaign coffers, according to The New York Times.
"This research reveals the disturbing reality of an LNG export boom under a second Trump term," Friends of the Earth senior energy campaigner Raena Garcia said in a statement referring to her group's new report. "This reality will cement higher energy prices for Americans and push the world into even more devastating climate disasters. The incoming administration is poised to haphazardly greenlight LNG exports that are clearly intended to put profit over people."
"Academics will make careers out of writing about past atrocities while ignoring the ones happening in real time," said one critic.
In what one observer decried as an "absolutely shameful" rebuff of American Historical Association members' overwhelming approval of a resolution condemning Israel's annihilation of education infrastructure in Gaza, the elected council of the nation's oldest learned society on Thursday vetoed the measure over a claimed technicality.
AHA members voted 428-88 earlier this month in favor of a resolution opposing Israeli scholasticide—defined by United Nations experts as the "systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention, or killing of teachers, students, and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure"—during the 15-month assault on the Gaza Strip.
However, the AHA's 16-member elected council voted 11-4 with one abstention to reject the measure, according to Inside Higher Ed, which noted that the panel "could have accepted the resolution or sent it to the organization's roughly 10,450 members for a vote."
While the council said in a statement that it "deplores any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities, and archives in Gaza," it determined that the resolution does not comply with the AHA's constitution and bylaws "because it lies outside the scope of the association's mission and purpose."
Council member and University of Oklahoma history professor Anne Hyde told Inside Higher Ed that she voted to veto the resolution "to protect the AHA's reputation as an unbiased historical actor," adding that the Gaza war "is not settled history, so we're not clear what happened or who to blame or when it began even, so it isn't something that a professional organization should be commenting on yet."
However, Van Gosse, a co-chair and founder of Historians for Peace and Democracy—the resolution's author—told the outlet that "we are extremely shocked by this decision," which "overturns the democratic decision" of members' "landslide vote."
Lake Forest College history professor Rudi Batzell said on social media: "Shame on the AHA leadership for vetoing the scholasticide in Gaza resolution. Members voted overwhelmingly to support, and the resolution was written so narrowly and so carefully to meet exactly this kind of procedural objection. Craven."
The AHA council's veto follows last week's move by the Modern Language Association executive council, as Common Dreams reported, to block members of the preeminent U.S. professional group for scholars of language and literature from voting on a resolution supporting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.