OCF Candidate Survey 2006

Candidate: Jean de Smet
Party: Green Party
Running For: Lieutenant Governor
State: Connecticut

1

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

A Yes

Comment: It should receive much more than that. We need to be working towards a better, more sustainable future which is as independent as possible from oil. Small farms and organic farming are the only way we can survive. We should be investing in our future, not in shoring up bad policies and huge agribusinesses. Our subsidies also promote genetic engineering and other bizarre farming/animal/fish mutations and experiments. Government should not subsidize this research at the University level or for businesses.
2

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

A Yes

Comment: The organic standards must be strict. I recognize that in some ways the standards themselves have hurt small farmers and businesses who cannot afford expensive regulatory agencies. Those producers are organic, but may not say the word. We will find another, better word. Since the regulators are involved, standards must be kept very strict, and enforcement must be funded.
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: Babies are weaned on pesticide ridden breast milk. What a cruel reality. Most people have no idea of how contaminated their bodies are. Pesticide use is needed because of the failed model of agribusiness' monoculture. We need to move away from this model.
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: Consumers have rights. To make an informed decision, they need information. Frankly, the businesses should welcome labeling--it may be their only defense in future law suits which will prove that they are deliberately contaminating the food supply without telling us.
5a

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

A Yes

Comment: Besides the waste of fuel, we also have no idea what chemicals were applied in other countries.
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 Yes

Comment: After a local mushroom farm closed, our legislators thought it would have been a good idea to help save energy costs by installing fuel cells. After it closed. Now they will waste fuel trucking mushrooms here.
6a

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

A Yes

Comment:
6b

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

A Yes

Comment: It's amazing that they do not have to prove safety before they sell these products, yet they can claim that they are safe, somehow? Isn't that false advertising?
7

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

A Yes

Comment: Cattle factories are inhumane.
8

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

A Yes

Comment: The money we spend often results in overproduction, which we then dump into other countries. That, in turn, puts their farmers out of business, forcing them to immigrate to the US or face starvation. Then we use them as slave labor. Our government resources should not be supporting any of this! Milk prices are capped, on the other hand, at prices that make it unaffordable for dairy farmers to survive.
9

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

A Yes

Comment: True costs are also hidden because we clean up their messes without charging them, or we allow them to pollute without regulation. Using labor instead of fuel-based farming methods is healthful for people and for the economy. Governement subsidies must be used to promote our healthful, sustainable future.
10

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

A Yes

Comment:
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 Yes

Comment:
12

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

A Yes

Comment: The Green Party platform is the only one to support Single Payer Universal Health Care. It is a basic human right that all other industrialized, and most other non-industrialized, countries offer to their citizens. Health care should emphasize prevention and alternative treatments.
13

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

A Yes

Comment: We'd better do it faster than that. Simple changes in landscaping and construction can make an enormous difference. Trees in and around a parking lot can clean and cool the air. No lawns=no lawn mowers=no emissions. Cars and factory emissions are only part of the problem.
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 Yes

Comment: I can find so many productive ways to use those funds.
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: We worked hard and got Connecticut's Secretary of State to change the RFP after it was released. They are now purchasing opticalscanners, which provide for the paper ballot AND cost less than 1/2 as much as electronic machines.
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 Yes

Comment: I can find a lot of more productive ways to use that money, too!
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: They are also lobbying to get rid of public access requirements on Cable TV networks.

 

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