Oops! He Did It Again!

Blair Brooks went to Harvard -- strike one. He's a physician -- strike two. And he lives in Norwich -- strike three.

Sorry for belaboring the baseball metaphor, but it seems appropriate given the gratuitous reference to David Ortiz in the latest mean-spirited, eat-the-rich diatribe the Local Daily Newspaper (LDN) has published under the byline of our Notorious Norwich Neighbor (NNN).

Actually, we loyal LDN readers have been eagerly anticipating this particular dispatch, weary as we are about column after column villifying Norwich as a town full of self-absorbed, nitwit aristocrats. Reading the daily coverage of the controversy in Hanover over whether the high school's crew team should get to build a new boat dock at Wilson's Landing, it seemed high time for an NNN column likewise villifying our sibling municipality across the Connecticut as a town full of self-absorbed, nitwit aristocrats.

Our friend the NNN did not disappoint, but neither could he avoid a few snide asides about Norwich in its capacity as the town that shares Hanover High School, and thus the Hanover High School crew team, with our companions in the bistate Dresden School District. And who better to personify Norwich's contribution to this latest chapter in the NNN rich-get-richer saga than Blair Brooks, in his capacity as president of Friends of Hanover Crew. In this instance, the misdeed involves presiding over an organization that accomplished the remarkable feat of raising $500,000 in just a few weeks, earning the NNN nickname of "Friends of Donald Trump."

The NNN column quotes lots of folks, for and against the dock project, but the only person identified by profession and alma mater is Dr. Brooks. In fact, as the column reports, this lanky DHMC doc was once on the Harvard crew team -- which, the column goes on to imply, just makes him part of a multigenerational effort to perpetuate notions of Ivy League privilege and elitism through athletes getting up before dawn to row their arms off in really narrow (but expensive, and privately donated) boats. [Full disclosure: I know Blair is lanky because I am one of his patients. I didn't know he went to Harvard.]

I know nothing about crew (beyond hearing stories from my next-door neighbor about how early his high school son has to rise to make his crew practices). I've never been to Wilson's landing, although the complaints about the crew team's dock-building plans seem a bit overblown. But I do know questionable journalism ethics when I see them, as in this snippet from the NNN column: "No doubt rowing is a wholesome activity. But knowing a thing or two about Hanover and its Dresden School District partner, Norwich, I suspect that parents and teenagers in those communities also have figured out that when the time comes for college, rowing looks good on a student's application."

Well, knowing a thing or two about the LDN columnist's history with Hanover High School, it is surprising, to say the least, that the LDN sees nothing wrong with allowing our NNN to perpetuate his well-documented grudge against this particular institution of secondary education. Those who don't know what I am talking about are advised to consult the relevant back issues of the LDN. Hanover High is entitled to be covered by journalists who are sufficiently objective to treat the school, and its record of student achievement, fairly -- anything else ought to be characterized, in journalistic terms, as cheating.

Except it isn't cheating, because the basic ethical principle that journalist apply to themselves is this: They reserve the right to write anything, about anyone, at any time, as long as they reach the subjective conclusion that what they are doing is okay. If anyone questions their judgments, they raise the bloody flag of the First Amendment and/or whine about how the internet is driving them out of business. That's not ethics -- it's omphaloskepsis.

The recent offer of a $1,000 reward to the LDN in exchange for firing the NNN has gone unanswered. But it prompted a delightful conversation at Dan & Whit's the other day. A former local elected official (I will let this person decide whether to disclose her or his identity) mentioned an even better idea than a reward: auctioning off a promise by the LDN not to mention a particular municipality in an NNN column for an entire year, with proceeds to the virtuous charity of the LDN's choosing.

It's a great idea, though one is hard-pressed to come up with a charity that would meet the LDN standard for virtuousness. Even the admittedly noble nonprofits that NNN columns sometimes promote don't meet the standard because, should a student happen to volunteer for one of them, that fact would likely be disclosed on college admissions applications.

So the reward still stands -- divorced, as it is, from Harvard, its lvy League counterparts, or anyone's aspirations to pursue higher education at any of those institutions.

Read This Now

Judith Levine is the most courageous writer I know -- she's the woman who wrote the terrific book Harmful to Minors a few years ago, defending the right of kids to their sexuality. Here is her take on the health care crisis, from the excellent newsweekly Seven Days. After laying out her bona fides as a chronic disrespecter of presidents, she makes a compelling case for moving forward with whatever reform bill emerges from Congress for the president's signature. It's a must-read for progressives of goodwill.

A Modest Proposal to Reform Governance at Public Radio Stations Like VPR and NHPR

Vermont Public Radio's board of directors is meeting tommorow in Waitsfield and if you would like to attend the meeting it's open to the public. Just give the station a jingle to let them know you're coming -- they apparently don't like surprises.

How laudable! But, like many laudable ideas, this one doesn't go far enough.

Accountabililty and transparency are good things, particularly for an organization that is owned by the community (as are all nonprofits, held in trust for their communities by the organizations' boards of trustees). They're super good things for vital sources of news, information and culture -- which public radio stations manifestly are, as one of the few successful types of news outlets in a time when the journalism business as we once knew it is inexorably going extinct.

But inviting the public to VPR's board meetings doesn't really accomplish much. For one thing, the seemingly innocuous "call us first" instructions inevitably have a chilling effect. For another, conspicuously missing from the announcement is any indication that the public has the right to do anything at such meetings but observe quietly. And, finally, I'll bet my satellite radio that if anything truly important and controversial were to be discussed, the board would declare an executive session and any visitors would promptly be banished.

So much for transparency. As for accountability, there really isn't much there unless and until VPR, and other public radio stations, allow their members to elect the organizations' boards of directors.

The case for such reform is compelling. For many, many weeks of the year, loyal public radio listeners are forced to endure on-air pledge drives in which the "membership" mantra is repated so often it is imprinted indelibly on the subconscious. But membership implies rights. Here, the implication is false and misleading, because at a public radio station "member" is merely a euphemism for "donor."

There's nothing wrong with raising money. But it is disrespectful to organizations that really are democratically run -- i.e., really do have members -- to usurp the term here.

Even more importantly, as public radio becomes more and more essential in promoting the public good -- indeed, in preserving democracy itself -- it becomes less and less appropriate to people the governing boards of public radio stations exclusively, or even predominantly, with the rich. The chair of VPR's board of directors happens to be the former chair of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Vermont. And the vice chair? Here's a bio that pops up via Google:

"Nordahl (Nord) Brue is the Chairman of PKC Corporation, the producer of medical software for the diagnosis and management of complex and chronic disease states. In addition he is the Chairman of Franklin Foods and former Chair of Green Mountain Power Corporation and The Trustees of Grinnell College. He is a Board member of Vermont Public Radio, Nueva Cocina Foods, Via Cheese, and was an early investor in Kadoo, Inc and Myxer."

Also on the VPR Board is a president emeritus of Middlebury College, the well-to-do husband of the finance chair of the Democratic National Committee, and one of the nameplate partners from the powerful Burlington law firm of Dinsey, Knapp & McAndrew -- which has detailed him to serve fulltime as general counsel to Fletcher Allen Health Care.

These people are great Vermonters and their mention here is not intended as anything but an expression of gratitude for their service to VPR. Moreover, there is no reason to assume that every member of the VPR board is a card-carrying member of Vermont's power elite. The point is that it is simply unfair, and inconsistent with the public accountability values implicit in VPR's invitation to attend board meetings, to populate that board in whole or in part based on the ability to make or to attract donations to the organization.

Dare we point out, in addition, that generosity starts to look like something other than generosity if it buys voting power on this vital organization's governing board? If VPR deems it important for fundraising purposes to make its major donors feel as if they have special influence, why not create a donors' advisory board? Instead, VPR and every other public radio station, turns this idea on its head -- the wealthy donors are the board and the regular folks populate the Citizen's Advisory Board (CAB), a group that has no power whatsoever (but which federal law requires each public radio station to create, in exchange for federal funding).

Full disclosure time: I happen to serve on the CAB of New Hampshire Public Radio (even though I live in Vermont). NHPR is the region's best public radio service, an early adopter of the notion that if such an organization is really interested in serving the public then maybe it shouldn't alienate most of that public by focussing on la-de-dah classical music broadcasts. VPR has followed suit, but only took that step when it was part of a stampede that stations like NHPR courageously began. Still, even at NHPR, where the CAB gets to meet regularly with that station's cool and innovative program director, Abby Goldstein, you can't escape the notion that the board has all the power and the CAB is just the kids' club.

Full disclosure time, take two: Radio has long been an obsession of mine, and as a consequence I share with luminaries like Governor Douglas and media personality Christopher Graff the distinction of having served as the president of the Middlebury College radio station, WRMC. Douglas and Graff would be walk-ons for the VPR board; meatballs will bounce before I get the call. Am I peevish about that? Well, if you've read this far into such a long post, you deserve a straight answer: Yes.

In any event, VPR is headed in the right direction by inviting the public to board meetings. The next step? Maybe not turning the whole board over to the membership to elect -- but how about just a few seats on that 25 person body? That would make membership really mean something.

Letters We Wish We'd Written . . .

John Mackey, CEO
Whole Foods Market
Austin, Texas

Labor Day September 7, 2009


Dear John,

Thanks for your letter dated August 26, signed by one of your attorneys, threatening to sue the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), under the bizarre pretence that a petition we've been circulating violates your "intellectual property rights." Given all the bad publicity that you've gotten lately for admitting that Whole Foods Market (WFM) retail stores are purveyors of "junk food;" that WFM needs to sell a lot more certified organic products (rather than conventional items greenwashed as "natural"); that WFM's "365" private label products need to be thoroughly tested for GMO contamination; that you don't think all Americans deserve government subsidized access to health care; or need labor unions; perhaps you may want to reconsider suing the largest organic consumer watchdog organization in the United States.

A number of our members, as well as journalists, have asked me recently why OCA hasn't joined in the call for a boycott of Whole Foods Market, since we certainly have called for boycotts of other retail chains (Wal-Mart) and bogus organic dairy brands such as Horizon and Aurora (whose cheap factory farm milk is sold under private label to Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, Safeway, and others).

OCA hasn't yet called for a boycott of WFM because our experience over the past decade is that you will respond to organic consumer pressure, if enough of us raise our voices loudly enough to tarnish your brand image and threaten your bottom line. Obviously this has not been our experience with a number of OCA's other boycott targets such as Monsanto or Wal-Mart.

Back in 1998 when OCA joined Greenpeace and others to demand that WFM remove products contaminated with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from its stores, WFM publicly stated its opposition to GMOs and promised that its "365" house brand would be GMO-free. In the wake of this declaration, WFM gave financial support to the Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered foods, a coalition in which OCA was a prominent member. Earlier in 1998, OCA and WFM generated several hundred thousand petition signatures in a successful grassroots campaign demanding that the USDA maintain the ban on GMOs, sewage sludge, and food irradiation in organic production.

In 2006, when OCA called for a boycott of Aurora's factory farm milk, mislabeled as organic, WFM quietly stopped buying from Aurora. Similarly as the Cornucopia Institute and OCA exposed Dean Food's Horizon brand as sourcing a significant portion of its milk from intensive confinement feedlots, you left it to your regional managers to drop Horizon products or significantly reduce their shelf space. Most of them did.

In 2008 OCA exposed the fact that a number of WFM personal care products, as well as 48 out of 100 personal care products sold as "organic" or "natural" in your stores, were contaminated with the dangerous carcinogen 1,4 Dioxane. After OCA, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Company, and the State of California exposed WFM and other leading so-called organic brands such as Jason's, Nature's Gate, and Kiss My Face, and took legal action, WFM promised to reformulate all of its brand name personal care products.

Later in 2008, OCA, joined by the United Farmworkers and the Teamsters, launched a national petition campaign and picketed outside WFM supermarkets in 35 states, pressuring WFM to tell its largest natural beef supplier, Beef Northwest ("Country Natural Beef") to recognize the fact that 80% of its mostly immigrant feedlot workers had signed union cards with the United Farmworkers. After a two month campaign, WFM, along with Bon Appetit and Puget Community Coop, pressured Beef Northwest into recognizing the union.

So here we are in 2009. The big difference today in the organic community is our growing understanding that organics and Fair Trade are not just lifestyle or health options, or even matters of elemental human rights or justice; but rather questions of literal survival. Either we as a nation, and a global community, move rapidly away from a "conventional" (and so-called natural) food and farming system which is chemical and energy-intensive, low in nutrients and high in contaminants, or else we are headed straight for disaster. Either we move quickly to make organic production the norm, and green and relocalize our economy, or else we will destroy ourselves in what can only be described as a terminal public health, energy, and climate Crisis. Either we walk our talk and change our ways in regard to consumer, public policy, and business practices, or else we are headed over the cliff, dragging our children and the future generations with us. Either we move away from crazed notions of globalized "free trade," wars for oil and strategic resources, and unregulated laissez faire corporate greed, or else we are doomed.

Organic food and farming is the only way to drastically reduce fossil fuel use, slash climate-destabilizing greenhouse gas pollution, sequester enormous amounts of carbon in the soil, produce adequate crops under unpredictable weather conditions, preserve small farms, and improve public health. We can no longer tolerate a business model on the part of organic retail market leaders, such as WFM, or your major wholesale supplier, United Natural Foods (UNFI) which amounts to selling 2/3 conventional foods and products (greenwashed as "natural") and only 1/3 certified organic. There is no such thing as a "natural" chemical fertilizer, a natural toxic pesticide such as Monsanto's Roundup or Syngenta's Atrazine, a natural petrochemical-derived, carcinogenic ingredient in a personal care or cleaning product, or a natural genetically modified organism. Your "bait and switch" greenwashing of conventional products, disguised as natural or almost organic, is morally bankrupt.

Fair trade and economic justice (including health care justice), as part of an overall green and organic economy, are the only way we are going to reduce poverty and conflict. Whole Foods Market and United Natural Foods like to brag about how your workers are part of your family, and how well you treat them (some of them tell us otherwise). But our question on this Labor Day 2009 is what about the workers throughout your mostly conventional/so-called natural supply chain? What about the thousands of non-unionized and exploited farm workers in California, Texas, Florida, Mexico, and Asia who supply most of your produce? What about the immigrant feedlot and slaughterhouse workers in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska? What about the truck drivers, food processing workers, and warehouse staff across the country? Aren't we all one family?

We are asking no more from Whole Foods Market and your suppliers than what we demand of ourselves--walk your talk, prioritize organic food and products, practice Fair Trade and social justice, and wake up to the fact that "business as usual" is a recipe for disaster. It's time for an organic and Fair Trade revolution, before it's too late.

To save your lawyers the trouble of faxing or emailing you this petition, here is what OCA is asking Whole Foods and your major supplier, UNFI to do. We know you're not going to listen to us until a critical mass of organic consumers, farmers, and workers raise their voices together, potentially threatening your bottom line. But here's OCA's moral and ethical bottom line for health, justice, and sustainability:

1) We want a public commitment on the part of WFM (and your major wholesale supplier UNFI) to double your sales of organics from 1/3 of sales to 2/3 of total sales within three years. This will boost U.S organic revenues by approximately three billion dollars annually, or 15%, and move us closer to the essential "tipping point" where organics will become the norm, not just the alternative. Part of this commitment must be a pledge to pressure your so-called "natural" product suppliers to sign a contract with a USDA-accredited certifier to make the transition to organic production. WFM and UNFI should form an independent advisory board of organic producers and suppliers which is representative, both in terms of geography and scale (small to large), to make proposals for WFM and UNFI to meet this goal.

(2) We want WFM to obtain a public commitment by your major supplier, UNFI, to give retail members of the National Cooperative Grocers Association--who are doing a qualitatively better job of promoting and selling organics--to receive the same preferential discounts that WFM are receiving. Otherwise UNFI is in fact subsidizing WFM's mainly conventional (i.e. greenwashed as "natural") sales rather than giving a "fair deal" to small and medium-sized stores and coops who are working diligently to sell genuine organic products.

(3) We want WFM and UNFI to publicly acknowledge that Fair Trade principles and practices need to be implemented as part of your entire US/North American/global supply chain for food and organic/natural products, not just for the minority of products produced overseas and certified as Fair Trade. And of course supporting domestic Fair Trade means that WFM and UNFI must stop speaking out against the Employee Free Choice Act and health care reform, and recognize workers' rights, especially in large for-profit corporations, to freely organize themselves into unions for collective bargaining. We call on WFM and UNFI to take leadership in this area by publicly asserting that they will be neutral, and not interfere, in any situation in which their employees undertake to organize themselves into a union.

Venceremos/We Shall Overcome,
Ronnie Cummins
Co-Founder and Director
Organic Consumers Association

Van Jones

"Dr. King didn't get famous for giving a speech that said "I have a complaint.'"

From Robert Shetterly's Americans Who Tell the Truth series.