Judicial Watch » USDA

USDA and “Culture of Transformation”

doligee@judicialwatch.org — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:59:36 +0000

On May 16, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) employee tipped off Judicial Watch to compulsory training underway nationwide that entails requiring staffers to bang on tables while chanting in unison that America’s founding fathers were illegal immigrants. In response, Judicial Watch on May 18 filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all records since January 2010 of USDA’s dealings with Souder, Betances & Associates, a Chicago-based consultancy focused on cultural sensitivity training. According to usaspending.gov, USDA has paid Mr. Samuel Betances and his firm nearly $200,000 in the past two years to institute a “cultural transformation” of the agency following Secretary Tom Vilsack’s knee-jerk firing of Shirley Sherrod.

Today, Judicial Watch received 46 pages of responsive documents from one small division of USDA called the Food & Nutrition Service (FNS). The records released today show that FNS spent $2,350.97 to send Vincent Loran, the division’s Training Administrator, to Skokie, Ill., for Betances’ three-day course. Additionally, the records show:

a January 17, 2012 email in which Loran seeks Betances’ blessing, referring to him as father, and professing his love.
an October 10, 2011 email in which Loran promises Betances he will keep secret a video of a training session shot on USDA premises which the agency to date refuses to release.

Today’s disclosure came in response to Judicial Watch’s July 10 administrative appeal, which challenged that agency’s initial release of only six heavily-redacted pages. A response to Judicial Watch’s initial FOIA was due on June 18. A response to Judicial Watch’s appeal was due on August 10.

USDA Farmers Market Sells Contaminated Food

akajas — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:57:35 +0000

In an amusing twist, food contaminated with deadly bacteria is being sold at a Washington D.C. farmers market right outside the headquarters of the government agency in charge of enforcing the nation’s food safety rules.It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. An open-air market sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) features goods contaminated with two of the most common causes of food poisoning, salmonella and campylobacter. Both are deadly bacteria found in poultry, which ironically, is inspected by the USDA.The shameful discovery was made by a group of college student journalists researching food safety for an impressive investigative project that’s been posted on the internet. Their work has exposed the government’s perpetual failure to adequately secure the nation’s food supply, from domestic poultry, eggs and produce to imported seafood which is notoriously “filthy or tainted.”One of the probes focuses on the USDA’s weekly farmers market, a popular destination for government employees and tourists to shop for fresh produce, poultry and baked goods. The agency sponsors the event adjacent to its headquarters. It’s part of a government-wide effort, led by Michelle Obama, to promote healthy eating. In fact, thanks to the First Lady’s obsession with inner city obesity, the USDA has spent millions of dollars to bring farmers markets to urban neighborhoods across the U.S.It’s unclear if the other USDA-sponsored farmers markets sell infected food as well. In the one outside its D.C. headquarters some of the raw chicken for sale has salmonella, according to laboratory tests conducted as part of the journalists’ investigation. At a farmers market a few blocks away, near the White House, chicken was found to be tainted with campylobacter bacteria. Of interesting note is that it’s the same farmers market where Michelle Obama launched her heavily promoted, healthy eating campaign a few years ago.This may seem unbelievable considering the Obama Administration is obsessed with food safety and, in fact the president signed a sweeping law (Food Safety Modernization Act—FSMA) this year creating the first-ever mandatory national safety standards for produce. The administration says the measure will keep the U.S. food supply safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to contamination to preventing it.When Obama signed FSMA, his Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner pointed out that the idea of prevention was not new. As an example she said her agency had established prevention-oriented standardsand rules for seafood, juice and eggs and that the USDA had done the same for meat and poultry. That was back in January.

Another $12.2 Mil For Dubious Bioenergy Projects

akajas — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:31:13 +0000

In its ongoing effort to develop seemingly elusive renewable technology, the Obama Administration keeps pouring huge sums of taxpayer dollars into questionable “green energy” projects that, ironically, could infest the air with more pollutants.Already hundreds of millions of dollars have been steered to dubious adventures that claim to create environmentally friendly energy. In fact, in April Judicial Watch reported a $30 million allocation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) to a “Biomass Research and Development Initiative” that promises to help advance “biofuels, bioenergy and high-value biobased products.”A few months later an in-depth news report revealed that the government-backed projects actually infest the air with a “toxic brew of pollutants.” It turns out that the new power plants, promoted as innovative and environmentally-friendly generators of electricity, are polluting the earth with nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and particulate matter. They also release thick plumes and visible dust and fail to monitor equipment or file emissions reports.Regardless, these sorts of enterprises continue receiving a steady flow of cash from Uncle Sam. Just a few days ago, the DOE and USDA doled out an additional $12.2 million for research projects across the nation that “accelerate bioenergy crop production.” This will “spur economic impact,” according to the two agencies and will provide “a more secure future for America’s energy needs.”The “potential benefits” of this costly research range from decreasing oil imports to increasing options for American farmers, according to the government. That’s because crops will be optimized to tolerate conditions such as drought and poor soils and can be grown on marginal lands unsuitable for food crops, thereby avoiding competition with food production. Additionally, farmers will have the option to grow bioenergy crops in addition to other existing crop choices.The latest allocation was announced with great fanfare at a new bioenergy facility in Vero Beach Florida, which has received generous sums of cash from U.S. taxpayers to operate a “biorefinery” capable of producing millions of gallons of ethanol and electricity each year. Obama’s Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, refers to the plant, which is still under construction, as a “waste-to-energy bioprocessing facility.” The plant was chosen because one of the state’s largest public universities, the University of Florida, will get a chunk of money to “improve energy production from cane biomass.”Ironically, recession-hit Americans likely will get slapped with higher energy costs if Obama’s precious biofuel plan comes to fruition. For instance, a huge biofuel project under consideration by Hawaii’s Public Utilities Commission will likely stick residents with “significant” increases in energy costs, according to a local news report. The adventure has ignited a stormy public policy debate about whether biofuel is in the best interest of the state and its ratepayers.

Obama Gives Discriminated Hispanic, Women Farmers $1.3 Billion

akajas — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:59:58 +0000

A year after giving black farmers $1.25 billion to settle discrimination allegations against the government, the Obama Administration is promoting another huge minority cash giveaway for Hispanic and women farmers.It’s part of the president’s continued efforts to write a new chapter for civil rights and resolve all allegations of past discrimination in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), according to an agency announcement issued this week. Women and Hispanics who feel the government discriminated against them when seeking USDA farm loans are encouraged to apply for cash to make up for Uncle Sam’s wrongdoing.In all, the agency is allocating $1.33 billion in “compensation” for women and Hispanics in addition to $160 million in “farm debt relief.” Hispanic or women farmers who provide additional proof and meet other requirements can receive a $50,000 reward, according to the USDA announcement. The goal is to ensure that any Hispanic or woman farmer or rancher who alleges discrimination is aware of the money pot, says the USDA official in charge of the program.To get the word out the feds have launched an impressive bilingual advertising and public relations campaign that includes national outreach tours by top USDA officials as well as Justice Department bigwigs because that agency is sort of overseeing it. The cash giveaway tour was in South Florida this week assuring that there is no filing fee or other costs to claimants who apply for money.Those who can’t attend the USDA/DOJ outreach rallies can always register online or contact toll free a special Farmer and Rancher Call Center that will mail out a packet. The USDA has also createdvideos, in English and Spanish, to promote the program and it published a special flyeradvertising the administration’s latest civil rights reparation project.

Obama Creates White House Rural Council

akajas — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:52:44 +0000

In his never-ending expansion of government, President Barack Obama has created the first-ever White House Rural Council to promote economic prosperity and qualify of life for the poor.Created by executive order this month, the new council will help low-income residents in rural communities access public funds for “economic growth” and will “promote innovation” and improve access to health care and education.It will also focus on job creation in those areas, bringing access to credit, creating “digital and physical networks,” expanding “ecosystem markets” and developing “renewable energy projects.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will provide the taxpayer money and administrative support for the new committee.Obama’s Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, will chair the rural council and the heads of all major federal agencies will serve as members and key advisors. Among them are the secretaries of the Treasury, Defense, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Education and Energy. Attorney General Eric Holder will also serve on the new panel.Their job will be to coordinate programs across government and “increase the impact of federal dollars” to “improve the quality of life in rural America.” The entire country will benefit from this federal investment because “strong rural communities are key to a strongerAmerica,” according to the president.This new USDA venture comes on the heels of several other like-minded and costly Obama initiatives at the agency. In the last few months the USDA has doled out tens of millions of dollars to bring healthy foods to the inner city, recruit more food-stamp recipients and track what minority public school children eat for lunch.Just a few days ago the agency dropped $10 million on a Farmers Market Promotion Program that will bring fresh and healthy cuisine to low-income neighborhoods (“food deserts”) across the country. Last month the USDA launched a sophisticated internet-based mapping tool (Food Desert Locator) that identifies areas with “limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.”

$2 Mil To Track What Minority Kids Eat For Lunch

akajas — Fri, 13 May 2011 11:06:46 +0000

The government agency that’s wasting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to study how global warming effects crops, recruit more food-stamp recipients and bring healthy cuisine to the inner city has dropped a couple million on a device that tracks what minority public school children eat for lunch.It marks the latest outrageous expenditure of public funds at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is supposed to provide leadership on food, agriculture and natural resources based on “sound public policy” and science. Instead, under the Obama Administration, the bloated agency is spending huge sums to control matters unrelated to its mission.As the federal deficit creeps towards $15 trillion, the USDA has launched a costly project to calculate how many lunchtime calories poor and minority kids consume at five Texaselementary schools. High-tech cameras have already been installed in the cafeteria of oneSan Antonio campus to photograph the foods students put on their trays. The digital imaging later determines how many calories were consumed. The cost to U.S. taxpayers; $2 million.The local official overseeing the absurd minority food monitoring project for the feds assures that taxpayers are getting their money’s worth because it’s “very sophisticated.” After software calculates calories—by analyzing before and after food photos—parents will receive reports showing what their kids are eating at lunch. The goal is to motivate the adults to change their children’s eating habits at home.This is all part of Michelle Obama’s multi billion-dollar effort to bring healthy foods to low-income neighborhoods and combat childhood obesity, which she claims is most prevalent among the poor and ethnic minorities. Last year the First Lady got her husband to sign a $4.5 billion measure (The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act) that’s expected to revolutionize the inner-city diet by providing fresh produce and grilled lean meats as alternatives to greasy, fried foods that tend to be more popular in the so-called “food deserts.”Under the law poor and “at-risk” children around the country will get free nutritious meals from U.S. taxpayers and the government will have the power to decide what exactly constitutes healthy cuisine. The law will also help communities establish local farm to school networks, create school gardens, and ensure that more local foods are used in the school setting. The idea is to slash greasy foods and extra calories by letting the government regulate what can be consumed on school grounds, including vending machines and at fundraisers.The First Lady’s primary tool in this mission to improve the inner city diet has been the USDA, which now controls school bake sales under the new law. Earlier this month, the agency announced that it launched a “Food Desert Locator,” an internet-based mapping tool that identifies areas with “limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.”Under the Obama Administration the USDA has also dropped substantial chunks of money—$60 million—to study the effects of climate change on crops and forests and to boost the food stamp rolls, even though they are at an all-time high. The goal behind that $5 million campaign is to eradicate “food insecure households.”

USDA Spends $5 Mil To Recruit Food-Stamp Recipients

akajas — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:03:39 +0000

The number of food-stamp recipients has skyrocketed in the last few years yet the Obama Administration keeps wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to recruit more participants in the name of eradicating “food insecure households.”The latest publicly-financed campaign to boost the food-stamp rolls—officially known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP—was announced this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency that administers it. The USDA is dedicating $5 millionthis year to “improve access to and increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.”The money will go to state and local governments as well as “private non-profit organizations” so they can develop projects that “simplify SNAP application and eligibility systems.” Officially, the USDA is referring to the multi million-dollar plan as “process improvement efforts” that can simplify the application process and raise the amount of beneficiaries from the current 44 million who already get the handouts.Those who may oppose this sort of government expenditure amid a record $14 trillion deficit should first consider the words of Obama’s Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack. He claims that increasing the number of food-stamp recipients actually helps the economy, strengthens communities and creates jobs. The USDA even cites some unknown “research” that shows every $5 in new food-stamp benefits actually generates as much as $9 in economic activity. The source of the research was not cited in the USDA press release announcing the $5 million investment to expand the program.Last fall the government financed a separate campaign to reduce the “stigma” associated with food stamps by “rebranding” the name of the decades-old welfare benefit to encourage more people to apply. Colorful brochures sporting a new logo (Better Food For Better Living) were printed and distributed amid government figures that the number of food-stamp recipients had increased by 50% in three years.