Resigning Secretary of Agriculture Walt Bones sums up his two-year tenure in state government with a single telling sentence at the bottom of Peter Harriman's report:
"I didn’t get into this to be a career," Bones said of being Agriculture secretary. "I just had a great opportunity to serve the industry for a couple of years" [Peter Harriman, "Next Leader Selected for South Dakota Agriculture," that Sioux Falls paper, 2013.04.03].
Serve the industry. Not serve government. Not serve the state. Not serve the people. Serve the industry.
As someone involved in agriculture, I always felt he tried to do what he thought was right, but was frustrated by the politics of his decisions.
I don't doubt he thought he was doing the right thing. Unfortunately, as a big dairy man himself, he thinks "Get Big or Get Out" is the only way to go. He brought a rather narrow perspective to the job, as evidenced by his final comment in that interview. The Ag Secretary doesn't just serve an industry. A state official serves the entire state, producers and consumers.
As someone who has tried to work with him the past few years, his ears were closed to any forward-thinking animal welfare legislation despite what every other state in the nation has done. I am optimistic that we will be able to work with Lentsch and get animal cruelty legislation on the books.
His editorial in the Rapid City Journal explaining that we shouldn't try to legislate behavior and that's why animal protection legislation shouldn't pass was an absolute embarrassment. When I heard that he is resigning I wondered if the obvious silliness of his reasoning didn't lead to behind-the-scene suggestions that maybe it is time to go. Domestic animals in South Dakota certainly won't miss him.
Exactly, Shari. You weren't part of the industry, so he didn't think he had a duty to listen to you.
Wayne, you and D get me thinking that this replacement is very much about politics. Bones may not have liked politics because he's no good at it. Stace Nelson tripped him up all too easily on the stand at the water board hearing in 2011. Bones writing also shows his weakness at effective communication. By selecting Lentsch, Daugaard is hiring a guy who apparently relishes political battles and will thus more vigorously and eloquently promulgate the Governor's big-ag agenda.
Serve big ag? What is our state thinking. There is a glut of milk. The dairy farmer is worried about it. Lentsch will be pushing mega dairies. What this is doing is running out the small farm. Watch them go away and the small towns will lose more population!! And more milk will just be shipped into other states like they do now!! Wonder who is benefiting from this??? Cheese and butter is storage is huge and we need 169,000 more cows in South Dakota. Just like we need ring worm or warts!!!
Anybody notice any news of an immigration raid on Bones operation for employing illegal aliens? It is either just a good rumor or a bit of news that has been well covered up.
Gail time for you ol foggies to wake up, bigger is the way things are going all over the world, time adapt or be run over. Like it or not, its the truth, you and ms mill3 sit on facebook and Madville times and b*tch and moan but it does nothing, so i hope you 2 feel good about yourselve but nothing you do or say changes big ag and big business.
Gail you need to get over your rift with Valley Queen
Hey guys quit picking on the women!! Go out and search what is in storage in the US for cheese and butter? Nuf said.
Its obvious to me, that the boys in the back room, are running around setting up for small farmers to fail, or small anything for that matter, to fail! Bigger is not always better! But the less people in an industry,(farming, township boards, small business on main street are headed on their way out."The boys in the back room" are wanting people to BE dependent on Government and Government programs, this is obvious!! Its must easier to lead a few than it is to drive a crowd! I realise that change keeps the money wheel spinning! Timing is important when you jump in to make it in the world! Some of us see what direction this country is headed and we don't like. So we're speaking up, and the rest of you can follow the crowd, and then wonder "How the hell you got here"! What is sad is, "we the people" put up with the lies the politics allow! We're so far down that slippery slope, it will be hard to climb back up!
Mark Schuler, all we can do is what is right and be responsible for our own behavior. There is getting to be more and more people interested in their food sources and that gives me heart. I am thrilled that there are people around the area making their living selling their products to people. I am thrilled to see people waking up. I am thrilled when I peruse a 'women's' magazine and discover that there is yet another article on the dangers of industrial food, because that is reaching a whole sector of people that would otherwise have no idea what is in their food, or why they and their children have all sorts of health problems. I love doing my small part by serving organic popcorn and real butter at my business and I love helping young families find out how easy it is to provide good, wholesome food for their families. One of the most interesting things to me is how the cafo situation is making people question where their food comes from. Suddenly more people in Grant County are aware of healthy and unhealthy. Even the Avera Health people are pushing organic and locally grown food now. Organic Valley Co-op is doing amazingly well and they support small farmers all over the U.S. That is why my butter and cheese comes from them. Why would I eat crap from animals fed GMOs? As you say, we won't follow the crowd. We are not sheep.
I won't miss Walt Bones who made no effort to connect with farmers in the area, at least not the average farmers in the area. It will be interesting to see what Lucas Lentsch will do but i am not optimistic.
If anyone is interested in this article, it's wonderful and shows the sides can coexist.
http://ow.ly/jLbPR
We get this magazine and I read the article. He has the right idea, when states pass laws making it illegal to expose mis-treatment and veggie-libel type laws, it just makes it looks as though there is something to hide.
As far as mega-size cafos and regular farmers co-existing, that is more difficult, but it would take a lot of space to explain it.
Now that a majority of Americans support legal cannabis expect Lucas Lentsch to support the "industry:"
http://www.people-press.org/2013/04/04/majority-now-supports-legalizing-marijuana/
Douglas! Get me a link on that story!
Ms. Kosel, if you only include as "companion animals" dogs, horses and _cats_ and then have the HSUS on your side, you are as doomed as if you had the Laughtensloggers supporting your bill.
Grudznick....thanks, yes, I realize that. I have no idea what HSUS is doing, yet saw the story and posted it because I felt it relavent.
My personal opinion is that the penalty fit the crime when it refers to all non-violent and violent crimes. In the cases I'm focusing on, it's the violent, criminal activity against pets that can, and most often does, lead to crimes against humans.
Good luck next year. Ms. Kosel. I hope I can see you be with success on your project.
Thank you! However, this isn't a "project".
Tom W, I reject your inevitability. We can change big business and big dairies. We can get folks to read Wendell Berry, look at the water quality reports, and realize that we have more sustainable alternatives for producing food. I can't guarantee Gail and friends will win, but they have a valid story to tell, one that could nudge the market and the state toward better food policy.
Grudz, HSUS is a part of this narrative only because Steve Dick and the Ag United propagandists wanted it to be, not because it has any connection with the good work Shari Kosel and other South Dakotans who care about animals and humans are trying to do.
Cory, as far as I know there is no link to this recent story. As I indicated it may just be gossip, or it may be something swept under a rug. There is an old link indicating that Bones employs many Hispanic workers.
http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/59646/
Great Mercer piece on "industry" effects on watersheds:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/news/aan-notebook-sd-watershed-task-force-has-a-twisting-history-20130405,0,3346115,full.story