Obama Caves in to Agribusiness :(

[Triana]

“Lobbyists won’t find a job in my White House.” President Obama assured us with this claim upon inauguration. And yet he just nominated to two key posts “Big Ag” industry power brokers, who come straight from the chemical pesticide and biotechnology sectors. While they may not be registered as lobbyists, both men come from organizations representing powerful agribusiness interests, which every year spend millions of dollars in lobbying to advance their companies’ chemical and transgenic products.

Obama has tapped Roger Beachy, long-time president of the Danforth Plant Science Center (Monsanto’s nonprofit arm) as chief of the USDA’s newly created National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Created by the 2008 Farm Bill, NIFA is the new means of awarding the USDA’s external research dollars. As the director of NIFA (a nomination that doesn’t require congressional approval), Beachy will oversee the distribution of nearly $500 million in grants and other research funding. Sustainable agriculture initiatives are likely to suffer, as research dollars are awarded to projects that promote Beachy’s vested interests in biotechnology.

Islam Siddiqui, currently the VP of Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife USA, was nominated to the post of Chief Agricultural Negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. Why the president would nominate someone from the group that infamously chided the First Lady for refusing to use pesticides on the White House garden is a bit of a mystery, but perhaps it has something to do with all the money and work as a fundraiser that Siddiqui put into Obama’s campaign. This critical position is designed to use free trade agreements to open up foreign markets for U.S. agriculture goods—mostly to promote chemical-intensive, genetically modified products that undermine local food cultures in developing countries.

...

Now the United States will continue its efforts to export the worst aspects of U.S. agriculture to other countries, many of which are deeply wary of genetically modified seeds and the impacts of toxic pesticides on their communities. Mirroring those concerns, a landmark comprehensive United Nations and World Bank- sponsored International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD) has said that one of the best ways to feed the world is to increase investments in agro-ecological science and farming.

We don’t need more genetically modified seeds. What we need is enforcement of antitrust laws to break up monopoly control of the global food system, and fairer—not “freer”—trade arrangements to overcome poverty and hunger around the world.

MORE...
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19325.cfm

[niyad]

1. and, according to DN this morning, kyoto should be scrapped. this is disgusting.

[Recursion]

2. God damn it. Agriculture was a reason I started supporting him back in the primaries

His campaign platform on agriculture was even better than Edwards's. Damn it.

[debbierlus]

3. Obama is a corporatist.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. +1

:thumbsup:

[Triana]

5. I'm feeling the same whiplash...

...from this apparent 180. And I am none too pleased. :mad:

[Overseas]

4. Sad K&R.

I am so tired of the administration giving important positions to friends of Republican friends like Danforth, just to demonstrate its bipartisanship.

Enough already. The GOP wouldn't do that. They wouldn't be saying lookie here-- we're appointing another liberal to show the Dems we're bipartisan.

I agree with the Organic Consumers Association. We need enforcement of antitrust laws to break up global food monopolies. Not Republican friends in power to push more "free" (aka free for Big Money dominance) trade.

[Captain Hilts]

6. ...and the trucking industry, and GE's polluters of the Hudson....nt

[mopinko]

7. really? he is giving them the keys to the white house? did he also

give them his sceptre and crown? the sky must be falling.

[jgraz]

9. More apologist crap

Can't you guys once stand up for something besides your presidential binky?

[jgraz]

8. It's not "caving in" if you never intended to honor your promise in the first place.

My friends, I think we've been had.

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. Yep, We've Been Had, BIG TIME!

x( Pity so many refuse too see that. :shrug:

[SpiralHawk]

10. Take matters into your own hands

Because Big Mutant Ag obviously gots the Dems & the Repubs by the short hairs.

This book just out shows many positive ways forward... http://thecalloftheland.wordpress.com/

[Triana]

22. you're the second person who's recommended that book...

...it must be good

bytheway Monsanto was advertising on NPR this afternoon. :puke:

[Desertrose]

29. I just ordered my copy.

I think it will be VERY good.:)


I'm so disappointed in Obama...but I should have known.

[Triana]

30. you....

...are not alone in your disappointment.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Centrist politician caves to lobbyists. Water is wet.

[katandmoon]

12. Taking up a collection for new kneepads for Obama....

The ones he started 2009 out with are worn out now.

[polichick]

13. Is there any corporate sector he hasn't caved to?? nt

[Triana]

23. ...

...
...
...

:shrug:

[democracy1st]

14. more bs from the Goldman Sachs admin

[Cant trust em]

15. Disappointing, but not the polemic that people here are making it out to be.

Just my opinion.

[Taverner]

17. Stupid me, I took Vilsack at his word that he'd go after Monsanto

And shit...:grr:

[Greyhound]

19. Yet another, "We told you so" moment. n/t

[GodDamLiberal]

20. Obama is like the Dem's "Trophy Wife"

Looks good, talks well, expensive to keep around, but the problems are Deja Vu all over again.

[jgraz]

21. Ouch.

Setting aside the gender-specific language (for which I'm sure you'll be pilloried), this is the most apt -- and depressing -- analogy I've seen for the party faithful's infatuation with Obama.

[Triana]

24. I don't see any pillorying yet...

...but if the designer shoe fits...Obama should wear it.

[Cha]

25. We need a petition and I was hoping there was one on the

site..to send to the White House with the concerns listed in this notice.

Not just complain about it on an internet board.

I just sent them the link to this article..thank you.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Dear President Obama, I am a strong supporter of your's and I'm begging you not to let Genetically modified seeds take over. Why do you have to appoint people like Roger Beachy to positions of power in the Ag Business? I know you know that pesticides are not the way to go.

Sincerely, Cha ***** New York

"We don’t need more genetically modified seeds. What we need is enforcement of antitrust laws to break up monopoly control of the global food system, and fairer—not “freer”—trade arrangements to overcome poverty and hunger around the world."
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19325.cfm

[Triana]

31. YES! I send stuff like this to whitehouse.gov all the time. Never get a damn answer...

...even when I ask for one but it doesn't hurt to send it!

[Cha]

33. You bet it doesn't hurt and thank you, again. Next

time I would write in the message dept..that I haven't gotten a response to my previous Messages.:)

[TexasObserver]

26. Recommend

[Hannah Bell]

27. The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center/CropLife: funded by Bill Gates, thanks BILL!!

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Jul 28, 2009 ... With support from the Gates Foundation's Global Challenges Program, ... Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a ...
www.danforthcenter.org/newsmedia/NewsDetail.asp?nid... - Cached - Similar

January 2009 - The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER RECEIVES GRANT FROM THE GATES ...
www.danforthcenter.org/newsmedia/NewsDetail.asp?nid=158

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is ...
www.danforthcenter.org/newsmedia/NewsDetail.asp?nid=176

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center was recently awarded a $5.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the Grand Challenges ...
www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-192219843.html

CropLife International: Director of Stakeholder Relations | The ...East Coast USA The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) .... London and East Africa The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ...
www.the-economist.com/.../view_classified.cfm?sitd... - Cached

Mid America CropLife Association... (NIFA) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture by President Barack Obama. ... and two grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation totaling $12 million ...
www.maca.org/news/index.php?article=1 - Cached - Similar
Anatole Krattiger - LinkedIn


not coincidentally, BILL also funded Obama!!!

Isn't it nice we have these rich do-gooders looking out for us?

[roody]

28. very sad

[CrispyQ]

32. Color me surprised.

Not. :eyes:

k&r