Vilsack Is From Big Ag
With all due respect to the Western Mass Food Bank and their director Andrew Morehouse (Letters, Feb. 12, 2009), I beg to differ on January 20th being "an historic day for the future of food and anti-hunger programs" with Obama's choice of former Governor Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. I quote here from Alex Cockburn in The Nation: "The progressives looked for comfort to the Agriculture and Interior Departments, which supervise vast slabs of the homeland. At Ag they got the former governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, who'd opposed Obama in the primaries and who is best known as a fanatical lobbyist for genetically engineered biocrops and ethanol. He's Monsanto's pinup boy and comes factory-guaranteed as a will-do guy for the agrochemical complex."
Big Ag, like Big Pharma, is not about taking care of our fellow citizens. It's about taking care of corporados, their minions, and the bottom line. Genetically engineered crops are more likely to turn around and bite us than they are to feed the starving (or under-fed) masses. Food crop-based ethanol is an ecological disaster in the making. The valley we live in has some of the best bottomland in the nation, yet it continues to be paved over for what? Big box stores and parking lots that may soon become ghost malls. During the oncoming Bush Depression we will have to take care of our own right here at home. It may be a long while before any real help comes from Washington.
Don Ogden, co-host
The Enviro Show, WXOJ-LP
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What About Gentrification?
Mary Serreze's January 29 article "The BID-ding Opens" was disappointing. It seemed the writer's intention was to showcase a business owners v. business owners conflict a la the New York Post rather than to present a balanced perspective on what may or may not occur with a BID in Northampton.
I have lived here or in the area for nearly 27 years. As someone who has worked in public health, human services and public service, I came to the meeting to voice my concerns.?I listened to the BID proponents and then I was the first citizen to refute the stated virtues of a BID for Northampton. I prepared a statement as a downtown resident and as someone deeply concerned about gentrification, both from an ethical standpoint and from the perspective of what makes good business sense. I received much applause (to my surprise).
It would be far more creative for the Valley Advocate to examine gentrification—who benefits, who loses, the merits, the price. BIDs are not universally successful. People do not come to Northampton because they want a Stepford experience. The quirkiness and diversity of its people are great strengths.
J.M. Sorrell
Northampton
