(Ag Sec Tom) Vilsack: Inner City ‘Minority’ Child ‘Doesn’t Even Know What a Tomato Is’

Cybercast News Service ^ | February 21, 2014 - 4:03 PM | Penny Starr

[Olog-hai]

At the USDA’s annual Agricultural Outlook Forum on Thursday during a panel discussion about attracting young people to the farming industry, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked a panelist how she would convince an inner city “minority” child who “doesn’t even know what a tomato is.”

“Emily, I want you to envision an inner city child,” Vilsack said to Emily Oakley, interim director of the National Young Farmer Coalition. “Could be African American, could be Hispanic, could be Native American, Asian, whatever, a minority. You’re talking to that child. That child doesn’t even know what a tomato is much less what you are talking about,” Vilsack said. “I want you to convince that kid that he ought to think about farming.” …

[Olog-hai]

Well . . . that’s what they helped cause through their left-wing philosophy, so they should be made to face it in person.

[MamaB]

When one of my older brothers was on a train going back to base, one of his friends on there was from NYC. This guy asked my brother what a cow was. They were in the country somewhere and there were cows in a pasture. I still find that amazing.

[GeronL]

Leftists think minorities are too stupid to survive without them.

[Nifster]

what an idiot

[mikrofon]

Maybe next, Vilsack can teach 'Minority' kids about wildlife ...

[piroque]

When one of my older brothers was on a train going back to base, one of his friends on there was from NYC. This guy asked my brother what a cow was. They were in the country somewhere and there were cows in a pasture. I still find that amazing.

Had one I was in the army'69 with ,thought all pigs were pink,

[okie01]

“Could be African American, could be Hispanic, could be Native American, Asian, whatever, a minority. You’re talking to that child. That child doesn’t even know what a tomato is much less what you are talking about,” Vilsack said.

Composed and spoken by a true liberal.

The man assumes that no white kid could possibly be so ignorant. If he's never seen a tomato, it just has to be a minority!

[a fool in paradise]

You say tomato/tomatoe, I can’t read cursives, sir...

[bgill]

This guy asked my brother what a cow was. They were in the country somewhere and there were cows in a pasture. I still find that amazing.

When I was in kindergarten (way back in the 60s), my nun teacher called mother in because I didn't know what a farm was. Mother set her straight because I'd lived on a farm the first 5 years of my life and went back there every weekend during school. It wasn't that I didn't know what one was but that I was bored out of my mind and didn't express the excitement over cows and chickens that Sister did.

As for Vilsack, this little story of his is totally made from whole cloth. A little liar like his boss.

[Viking2002]

Nutsack has been eating them funny mushrooms, methinks........

[bravo whiskey]

probably doesn’t know who the sperm donor was either

[Tupelo]

I think Vllsack is dead on the money. How would you go about convincing a young guy from the “inner city” to become a farmer? Most of them think tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables and meats comes from a big factory owned by Kroger or Safeway or maybe even Walmart.
Vilsack is talking about minorities because that is what politicians ,especially Democrat politicians do but if you went as far back as the 1930s and 1940s kids from the “inner cities” knew nothing about farms and farming. Of course back then they called the “inner city” the slums.

[DeFault User]

Attract people to farming? Sure you could teach them to grow tomatoes in a small inner city plot or planter, but buying farm land is out of the reach of most folks. Become a farm laborer? —Right! Share cropper with no experience? — Sure!

Seems like I heard this one before: bulldoze and clear Detroit slums for farming. Whole sections of land could be plowed and used to grow some terrific weed.

[gaijin]

First:

They say, “Trader Joe’s, get the hell out —we want NONE of your honky gentrification...!”

Then:

They say, “Isn’t it horrible urban kids have little contact with fresh food..??!!”

[gaijin]

First:

“The cops oppress us —we want them GONE..!”

Then:

“When there’s trouble, we call the cops and they NEVER COME..!”

[Nea Wood]

Endless weeping and hand-wringing over “minorities.” I wonder how it feels to move to a country and be nothing but a concern, a worry, a problem, a continual challenge to the citizens of that country.

[thecodont]

I’ve seen some especially lush volunteer tomato plants growing out of sewers and gutters (where the water supply was consistent and plentiful). They ended up getting hacked off because I suppose the ripe fruit made the plant an attractive nuisance (one of these was in a high-traffic area).

[thecodont]

I just stumbled across this, but in 2012 USDA offered seed for the “Abraham Lincoln Tomato” in celebration of its 150th anniversary.

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=lincoln_tomato.html

[Olog-hai]

You think a liberal Democrat is “dead on the money” with his obviously-bigoted comments. That’s interesting.

[Nepeta]

It will never happen, but in the case of children whose parents cannot be bothered to teach them numbers, letters, names of commonplace items like tomatoes, colors, etc., perhaps the best this that could be done would be to take the kiddies away from their parental units and plunk them down into adoptive families who will do a proper job of raising a human. If I could wave a wand, and make that happen...I would...