OCF Candidate Survey 2006

Candidate: Wendy Barth
Party: Green Party
Running For: Governor
State: Iowa

1

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

A Yes

Comment: The market for organics is clearly growing, it would be wise to spend more resources to support the growth of this segment of the economy so that more producers can take advantage of new and expanding markets
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 reason organics fetch a premium price is that consumers trust that the organic label guarantees the high standards have been met. Producers are not prohibited from growing, making or selling products with synthetic substances, they are only prohibited from claiming their product is something that it is not. To me it is a truth in labeling issue.
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: We cannot rely on the chemical companies to provide us with honest research in this area. It needs to be done by an independent party, not necessarily the government, but the government would be most likely to sponsor such research.
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: Absolutely. I expect to see widespread disregard for the national food uniformity law, as food producers voluntarily continue to provide the information that their customers rely on. Consumers should demand it. Even though it may not be required, it is a best practice for the food industry
5a

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

A Yes

Comment: Absolutely. Locally produced fresh fruits and vegetables are fresher, and therefore more nutritious and have better flavor than those which have been trucked thousands of miles. Buying local keeps the money circulating in our local economy. As a conscientious consumer, I want to know where things come from.
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: As Governor I will encourage local and regional markets by promotional campaign Help your Community Thrive - Buy Local and provide assistance in establishing retail space and relationships between customers and producers. Many of our farmers are already making their own bio-diesel fuel, and I will encourage and expand this practice.
6a

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

A Yes

Comment: This is a market niche between stringently organic and standard commercial products. Items labeled as GMO-free will fetch a higher price than the competing products that cannot claim the label. For example you can get Swiss Valleys Purely Yours milk, which has no rBGH, is much less expensive than organic milk, and only slightly higher in price than other brands of non-organic milk. There are other products where the reassurance is worth the extra price.
6b

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

A Yes

Comment: The precautionary principle certainly applies to genetic modification. I sincerely hope that we do not go down in history as the generation that cavalierly released some horrible disaster into the world in the form of a mutant plant or animal with unexpectedly disastrous side effects. Some diseases take a long time to express themselves (cancer and AIDS come to mind). How do we know that eating these new life forms wont cause us problems ten years from now?
7

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

A Yes

Comment: The USDA is extremely short-sighted in this decision. Markets are drying up. Who is served with this decision? At best it can only lull the US shoppers into a false sense of security. It is infuriating (and perhaps unconstitutional?) that they would stand in the way of voluntary testing. More research into the development and spread of Mad Cow Disease is also in order, to determine how big the danger is, how reliable the tests are, and to develop preventative measures and cures. Iowas universities, with emphasis in Medicine and Agriculture, are ideally suited to performing such research.
8

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

A Yes

Comment: Absolutely. There should be a limit on how much subsidy any one farm can take in, regardless of the size of their operation. Since we dont have such limits, farm subsidies have turned into a form of corporate welfare that we as a nation can no longer afford. To be true to the ideals of free and fair trade we should eliminate subsidies for products being shipped to foreign markets. In order to provide tax cuts, we need to cut government spending, and this is one place where there is a lot of bloat that can be reduced.
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: Not only is the system rigged in favor of Big Ag by externalized costs, but large operations do not spend the time to understand and care for their land  their practices deplete the soil and excessive use of toxins poison the land. Unless we turn things around, the soil will be less productive even as the population of the world increases. I believe that each plot of farmland needs a steward that will care for it and maintain it so that it can continue to be productive forever.
10

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

A Yes

Comment: Certainly we should put stipulations that must be met in order to qualify for subsidies. It should be a requirement that you must use conservation tillage where applicable in order to receive subsidies. Unsustainable practices should not be subsidized.
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: All farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) must be able to accept WIC payments. We need a program that will establish and encourage CSA in low-income neighborhoods, so that the poor get better nutrition.
12

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

A Yes

Comment: Health care is a right, not a privilege. Good nutrition is part of a healthy lifestyle, and we should be encouraging healthy lifestyles, but our current healthcare system does not. Some candidates talk about providing health insurance, but I would rather talk about health maintenance. Insurance is a mechanism by which we share the risk of an unexpected catastrophe. Routine maintenance is usually not covered by insurance. Your auto insurance does not pay when you get new brake shoes installed on your car, yet your health insurance is expected to pay for a routine check-up. Yearly check-ups are not the kind of catastrophic event that insurance handles best. It is no wonder that the insurance industry is doing such a poor job of delivering health maintenance. Let's separate the routine health maintenance from the catastrophic health situations, and let's let the insurance industry handle the catastrophes. In the meantime, lets set up a system whereby routine healthcare is free.
13

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

A Yes

Comment: While I think it is a worthy goal, I am pessimistic about achieving it, unless "peak oil" drives the price of fuel up so high that casual driving becomes unaffordable, and transporting goods becomes the most expensive component of the price of consumer items. The way things have been going, we are in a race. Which will happen first: the polar icecaps melt, or we use up all the fossil fuels? We need to make it fashionable, somehow, to create less carbon dioxide. We could ration it - each citizen would be allotted a certain amount of CO2 they could create. With every tank of gasoline you purchase, your CO2 account would be debited by the amount of CO2 that will be created by burning the gasoline (and the same for other fuels.) Exceeding your quota should have stiff penalties. We can allow citizens to sell their rations at market prices (on eBay?) thus encouraging people to conserve in order to cash in.
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 have been adamantly and outspokenly opposed to the war in Iraq since before it started. The US spends more on our military than most of the rest of the world combined. If we still dont feel safe, maybe we should put our minds to the problems and look for solutions other than bullying our neighbors. So much more could have been done with $500 billion/year that was squandered blowing things up.
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: In addition, the source code for the electronic voting machines needs to be reviewed by independent qualified software engineers. We voters cannot accept the code being proprietary. It must be open source. We have stricter rules on the mechanisms for slot machines than we do for voting 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: Americans should feel disgusted and embarrassed that pay to play is trumpeted in Washington, that our elected officials are not only corrupt, but they have institutionalized and publicized their corruption  have they no shame? Every candidate should get equal time on all media outlets, and this should be provided as a public service at no cost. Limits should be put on the number of mailings that a particular candidate can send to any one address  during the last caucus season, Iowans were deluged with junk mail from presidential hopefuls, most of which went into the recycle bin unread. What a waste of resources! We need to provide a better forum for the candidates to present themselves, so that having lots of money is not such an advantage.
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: Access to the Internet has become as essential a utility, like fresh water and electricity. Any attempt at restricting that access is likely to result in a full-scale revolution, with the Web Surfers rising up against the Corporate Greed Heads. It will not be pretty, and the CGH will lose. After the revolution, communication utilities will be run by the government (i.e. socialized) so that no one can try to take away our Internet access again. Im serious.

 

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