Looking for a 'secretary of food'

In all of the appointments to cabinet that the president-elect has been making lately, his pick for secretary of agriculture has been put off. In fact, the discussion about the post has been sort of lost in the shuffle of economic crisis that as taken over the country in recent months. A New York Times columnist has returned to the discussion, outlining an argument for the renaming of the post as "Secretary of Food." His point is that agriculture is no longer what it was when the governmental department was created. Since then, "fewer than 2 percent (of Americans) are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat." Citing the affect of agribusiness on the environment and the economy, Nicholas D. Kristof argues that something must be done and that the perfect message of "change" that Obama can send is to refocus on that sector of our country. As Kristof says Michael Pollan (author of the "Ominivore's Dilemma") told him: " 'Even if you don’t think agriculture is a high priority, given all the other problems we face, we’re not going to make progress on the issues Obama campaigned on — health care, climate change and energy independence — unless we reform agriculture.' "

Read the complete article on the NY Times Web site. It even links you to a handy little petition to Obama asking him to focus on reforming the decripit state of agribusiness in the U.S., if you agree with that statement, anyway.