OCF Candidate Survey 2006

Candidate: Eric Schansberg
Party: Libertarian
District: 9
Running For: US House
State: Indiana

1

QDo you think organic agriculture should receive a fair share (at least 2.5%) of government resources spent on agriculture?

A Yes

Comment: yes, 2.5% of $0...
2

QDo you support strict standards for processed foods, dairy, and body care products that are labeled or marketed as organic?

A Undecided

Comment: Fraud should be punished, but I'm not sure what you mean by "strict standards"
3

QDo you support more aggressive government action to assess the harms of pesticides, take harmful pesticides off the market, and hold companies responsible for diseases and environmental damage caused by pesticides?

A Yes

Comment:
4

QShould people have the right to pass consumer safety laws at the state or local level that require food labels to include information on dangerous ingredients?

A Yes

Comment: I agree with you here. But should the same logic extend to govt financing as in question 1 (state/local but not federal)?
5a

QDo you support Country of Origin and labeling that helps consumers choose local products?

A Yes

Comment: What does "support" mean? Producers can do that already, right? We see "buy american" on other things; why not food products as well?
5b

QDo you support government action to help US farmers develop local and regional markets and to reduce non-renewable energy use on their farms?

A No

Comment: action from the Federal level to help local/regional markets? no... (see: question 4)
6a

QDo you support mandatory labeling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients?

A No

Comment: If 80% want it, then there should be a tremendous incentive to advertise one's product as *not* genetically engineered...
6b

QDo you support mandatory pre-market safety testing for all genetically modified foods and crops?

A No

Comment:
7

QDo you support universal testing for Mad Cow disease and a ban on feeding slaughterhouse waste to farm animals?

A No

Comment: Consumers would pay much higher prices if all were tested. The nature of surveys is testing a representative sample for a much lower cost...
8

QDo you support a restructuring of trade-distorting US farm subsidies?

A Yes

Comment: Absolutely! Have you seen ewg.org/farm? It's awesome! That's one of the ways that subsidies have been sold to the general public; but they were never *meant* to do those things-- at least as a primary goal! ;-)
9

QDo you support a significant shift in US farm subsidies to help family farmers and ranchers make the transition to organic?

A No

Comment: Govt has a role in taxing pollution and punishing polluters, but why subsidize a substitute? The direct (and far more practical) answer is to penalize the undesirable behavior.
10

QDo you support a significant shift in subsidies to help US farmers adopt conservation and renewable energy practices on farms?

A No

Comment: Again, punish pollution-- but farmers already have incentives to preserve the quality of their soil (implicit in the value of their land as an asset).
11

QDo you support increases for WIC (Women, Infant and Children), the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, and other programs to help low-income Americans buy organic food?

A No

Comment: There are so many better ways to help the poor. See my two policy books on how govt policies work to increase the price of food, clothing and shelter. See those books and my website (ericforcongress.com) for how govt fails the poor with respect to payroll taxes, Social Security, and education.
12

QDo you support universal health care with a preventive focus and a major emphasis on better nutrition?

A No

Comment:
13

QDo you support 80%-by-2050 reduction in climate destabilizing greenhouse gas pollution?

A No

Comment: Temps have not gone up nearly that much-- and it is still not crystal clear that we even have a long-term global warming problem (for example, in 1975, we were worried about "the next Ice Age"). There's no way that we should sacrifice that much in terms of standards of living for the working poor and middle class to achieve debatable environmental goals.
14

QDo you support ending the Iraq war and redirecting funds from the $500 billion annual military spending in the U.S. toward greening the U.S. economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and converting U.S. agriculture to organic practices?

A No

Comment: What a question! End the Iraq effort ASAP and drop military spending dramatically (elsewhere, now-- and in Iraq, soon). But don't redirect the monies anywhere except avoiding more debt (and perhaps tax cuts for the working poor and middle class)!
15

Q Do you support requiring electronic voting machines to produce voter-verified paper records and election officials to use these records to conduct mandatory audits of election results?

A Yes

Comment: Again, what is "support"? And again, this is a state/local decision (albeit with federal implications).
16

QDo you support eliminating the distorting effect of special interest money on our elections and politicians by requiring full public funding for all federal, state, and local elections?

A No

Comment: Good luck getting Congress to harm itself through campaign finance reform. It never works that way! The only way you'll EVER reduce special interest efforts is to vastly reduce how much the govt does! Full public funding is unconstitutional-- both in how it would be funded and how it would prohibit funding, so no...
17

QDo you support legislation to prevent internet companies from rigging the system to serve only the highest-paying users and discriminate against users they don’t like?

A Yes

Comment: A surprising question...

 

Return to Top of Page