Not for nothing do I have an RSS feed for the blog Obama Foodarama. In addition to telling me about the latest collectible Obama cookies, the sometimes-groan-inducing site ("a daily diary of the Obama foodscape, one byte at a time") keeps me up-to-date on the O Administration's food policy choices. Yesterday, they noted that USDA secretary Tom Vilsack—already under suspicion by enviros and sustainability advocates because of his previous support for industrial hog farms, corn-based ethanol, and Monsanto—is considering a lobbyist to head the USDA's Food and Safety Inspection Service, which oversees national standards and inspections for meat, poultry, and eggs (the folks responsible for meat recalls, among other things.) And not just any lobbyist, but Barbara J. Masters, a senior policy advisor for Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Bode Matz PC, the biggest Big Ag lobbying firm in Washington. According to Olsson Frank's web site, their aim in working with agricultural producers is to limit "the costs associated with regulatory actions, such as plant closures, and provide the legal expertise to ... get plants back up and running as soon as possible." In other words, they work with companies that commit health and safety violations and lobby against more stringent standards for food safety. As OF notes, "It's appalling, and reprehensible, that a lobbyist is being considered for a top position in an agency that's already fraught with accusations of being 'in the pocket' of Big Ag." Why Vilsack would consider Masters at all—when, as OF notes, there are other qualified candidates, like Seattle food-safety crusader Bill Marler, who aren't similarly compromised—is a troubling msytery.