Think brussels sprouts and cauliflower are agricultural commodities? Think again.
While the financial bailouts tossed to automakers, banks and other groups during the recent economic crisis left a funny taste in the mouth of some Americans, one former U.S. regulator hopes efforts to prevent another panic doesn’t go rotten.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is immersed in drafting dozens of rules to assist it in increasing oversight of the once opaque over-the-counter derivatives market, widely blamed for exacerbating the recent financial crisis.
Among the rules it must craft is what the definition of an agricultural commodity is? Of course, corn, cotton, soybeans and livestock, among other items, fall into this realm.
But what about those “other foods” such as brussels sprouts, artichokes, cauliflower, or anything with curry? A former CFTC chairman says they are “abhorrent to American sensibilities” and should be banned.
“Like every U.S. citizen, there are certain agricultural commodities that are abhorrent to me,” said Philip McBride Johnson, who is now with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
In a comment letter to his former agency, he said there is a “natural link” between defining an agricultural commodity and a provision in a law that requires the regulator to protect the public by forbidding the listing of certain products that “are abhorrent to American sensibilities.”
Clearly banned under this act are financial products based on wars, terrorism, and assassinations. If Johnson has his way, regulators will be able to protect consumers from a dozen foods that don’t mesh with his palate.
from Commodity Corner:
Obamamania missing in farm country
Many U.S. farmers don't have confidence in President-elect Barack Obama, with many fearing the new administration will not be receptive to the needs of American farmers and ranchers.
A Reuters straw poll of more than 800 farmers at the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting in San Antonio found 72 percent of the respondents did not believe Obama would have the best interest of the farmer in mind.
Instead of helping U.S. sectors that produce goods for the country, such as farmers, several mentioned Obama would focus on programs that work to even out income and help those that are seeking something from the government.
U.S. farmers, who tend to be social and fiscal conservatives, have traditionally supported Republicans. One Illinois farmer said he was "not necessarily a Republican beating a drum here but... I just don't have the confidence in him that I probably should have."
The Farm Bureau, the nation's largest farm group, representing growers and ranchers, has adopted a more optimistic tone. Bob Stallman, president of the group, said Obama made several positive comments toward agriculture during the campaign and has expressed a need to have a healthy farm economy.
-- Christopher Doering
Photo: President-elect Barack Obama tastes some peaches during a campaign stop at a farmers market in Greensboro, North Carolina, on August 20, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Young
from Commodity Corner:
First in, first out in the USDA hunt
One of the great rules of inventory management -- first in, first out -- could apply to the process of deducing who will be agriculture secretary in the Obama administration with a wry renaming. In this iteration, it is "first named, first discarded."
The list of potential nominees deemed as front-runners or consensus choices to run USDA has churned continuously since Barack Obama won the presidential election. And it is unclear when a nominee will be named. Most of the front-runners have faded from attention like flowers at the approach of winter.
In early November, the list of potential nominees was filled with Washington heavyweights, like National Farmers Union president Tom Buis or former Texas Rep. Charles Stenholm, along with former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.
They were superseded by a series of state officials, such as Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff. Still more potential names surfaced, including first-tem Montana Sen. John Tester and John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association.
One agricultural commentator listed more than a dozen possible candidates at a conference last week, ranging from Patty Judge, the Iowa lieutenant govenor, to Jill Long Thompson, a former USDA official who ran for Indiana governor this year.
Speculation now centers on Colorado Rep. John Salazar, a farmer-rancher and Army veteran. "It's a real long shot," Salazar told Reuters. All the same, members of the House Agriculture Committee greeted Salazar like a returning hero when he arrived at a hearing on Monday.
In the Washington parlor game of "Who Gets the Job?" some of the people mentioned for secretary are deemed better candidates for other slots -- Dallas Tonsager of the Farm Credit Administration as undersecretary for rural development and lawyer Marshall Matz as undersecretary for nutrition. Matz and Tonsager were prominent in seeking rural votes for Obama. And Californians have been consistent in backing Karen Ross for deputy secretary, the No. 2 post.
