USDA Watch

TAKE ACTIOn to stop
Obama's Monsanto Men

Stop Siddiqui!

Islam Siddiqui, Chief Agricultural Negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

There is still time to block Siddiqui's Senate confirmation! Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY), for reasons of his own that have to do with protecting the US tobacco industry, has put a hold on Siddiqui's confirmation! Please write your Senators today!

Islam Siddiqui, nominated by President Obama to be the US Trade Representative's Chief Agriculture Negotiator, is currently Vice President of CropLife America, the notorious lobbying group that represents pesticide and genetic engineering companies, including the six multinational corporations that control 75% of the global agrichemical market: Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, Dow and DuPont.

CropLife is the group that infamously chided the First Lady for planting a pesticide-free organic garden at the White House.

Before CropLife, Siddiqui was a chemical farming and biotech booster in Clinton's USDA. It was his bright idea in 1997-98 -- rejected by the organic community -- to allow GMOs, sewage sludge and irradiation in organic production. (The Organic Consumers Association spearheaded this successful campaign to save organic standards.)

And oh yes, we should also mention that Siddiqui was an Obama campaign donor and fundraiser.

TAKE ACTION: Stop Siddiqui!

WHICH SIDE IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ON?

Organic agriculture can feed the world, turn back climate change and make food production more resilient to droughts and floods.

Organic agriculture can do it with biodiversity instead of biotech, greenhouse gas sequestration instead of emissions, natural pest management instead of toxic pesticides, humus-rich compost instead of fossil fuel fertilizers and sewage sludge, and family farms instead of factory farms.

The question of which agriculture model will dominate food production is a question we only have one opportunity to answer. Once a seed or animal variety is extinct or contaminated with foreign genes, we will never get it back. In an age when a billion people are stuffed while a billion people are starved, most people on the planet suffer from either poor nutrition, exposure to toxic ingredients, diet-related diseases, or all three. Agriculture is a life and death issue for all of us.

So, which side is the Obama Administration on?

Well, who's in the Obama Administration?
Tom Vilsack, USDA Secretary

Organic Consumers Association network members sent 100,000 emails to President-Elect Obama opposing Tom Vilsack's appointment as USDA Secretary, because the former Iowa Governor was a leading advocate for Monsanto, genetic engineering, and factory farming.

Unfortunately, Obama was not moved by our protest. The reasons we opposed Vilsack were the reasons Obama appointed him. Obama lauded Vilsack for "promoting biotech."

Michael Taylor, Senior Adviser to the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner on Food Safety

We generated nearly 40,000 letters opposing former Monsanto lobbyist Michael Taylor's appointment as a senior adviser to the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner on food safety.

Michael Taylor should not be a senior FDA food safety adviser. The Vice President for Public Policy at Monsanto Corp. from 1998 until 2001, Taylor exemplifies the revolving door between the food industry and the government agencies that regulate it.

Dennis Wolff, the Next Food Safety and Inspection Service Chief?

So far, we've been able to keep former Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff (notorious for his support of Monsanto's controversial gene-altered Bovine Growth Hormone) out of the Administration, but he has been rumored to be in the running for Food Safety and Inspection Service chief.

Dennis Wolff would be a poor choice to direct the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Wolff has no previous food safety experience and is best known for siding with Monsanto in support of its controversial gene-altered Bovine Growth Hormone.

Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest would be a much better choice.

Now, President Obama has nominated two high-profile biotech advocates, closely connected to Monsanto and corporate agribusiness, to key USDA and trade positions.

Roger Beachy, Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture

On October 5, 2009, Roger Beachy, long-time president of the Danforth Plant Science Center (Monsanto's nonprofit arm), became the chief of the USDA's newly created National Institute of Food and Agriculture (a nomination that doesn't require congressional approval).

Roger Beachy should not be steering the direction of US agricultural research. Beachy is a long time Monsanto collaborator who heads an institute which was established by Monsanto and academic partners with a $70-million pledge from the corporation. It's effectively a Monsanto front.

Rajiv Shah, USAID Director

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one of Monsanto's key non-profit partners, forcing hazardous Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) on farmers and consumers worldwide.

The multi-billion dollar Gates Foundation is helping Monsanto infiltrate markets in poor African countries by fraudulently claiming that GMOs can feed the world and reduce rural poverty with high-priced GM seed varieties that supposedly, but in fact do not, increase yields, resist drought, and improve nutrition.

President Obama appointed biotech cheerleader Rajiv Shah, who worked as the Gates Foundation's agriculture programs director, to be the USDA's Under Secretary for Research.

Now Shah, with only six months of government experience, has been appointed by Obama and confirmed by the Senate to lead the US Agency for International Development (USAID), where he will no doubt help to funnel billions of dollars in taxpayer money to Food Inc., Monsanto, and the biotech bullies.

THE STOP VIlsack Campaign

Despite a massive public outcry, including over 100,000 emails from the Organic Consumers Association, Barack Obama chose former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to be the Secretary of Agriculture and he was confirmed by the Senate on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009.

We weren't able to stop Vilsack from becoming Agriculture Secretary, but the impact of the campaign should not be underestimated.

The Stop Vilsack campaign put the Obama administration on notice that millions of organic and green-minded Americans want "real change" not small change.

Industrial agriculture and GMOs represent a mortal threat to public health, climate stability, and family farms. Without an organic future, we must tell Obama and the Congress, there is no future.

Massive grassroots pressure from the OCA and our allies were the decisive factor prodding Obama to appoint organic advocate Kathleen Merrigan as Deputy Secretary or second in command at the USDA.

Our network's efforts also provided the grassroots impetus for unprecedented pro-organic programs such as the USDA People's Garden and the White House Kitchen Garden and Farmers' Market, and the USDA's Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food program.

The news coverage of our Stop Vilsack campaign shows how OCA shaped the debate:
  • OCA Executive Director Ronnie Cummins Explains the Case Against Vilsack on Democracy Now!
  • NPR Interviews Ronnie Cummins: "Obama's choice for secretary of agriculture points to the continuation of agribusiness as usual, and the failed policies of chemical and energy-intensive, genetically engineered industrial agriculture."
  • Omaha World-Herald Quotes Ronnie Cummins: "This is going to amount to small change in the USDA, not the far-reaching change required by the national emergency on climate change, energy and public health."
  • New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof on Vilsack:"Unfortunately, Mr. Obama on Wednesday chose Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa who has longstanding ties to agribusiness interests, as agriculture secretary - his weakest selection so far."
  • Author Michael Pollan on Vilsack: "The food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gases," Pollan told NPR's Renee Montagne. "It is responsible for the catastrophic American diet that is leading 50 percent of us to suffer from chronic disease, and that drives up health care costs."
    "A secretary for food could put the focus on diversifying America's farms and using local food sources around the nation."
    "But those topics weren't in the spotlight when Obama selected Vilsack to be agriculture secretary", said Pollan, who also wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire.
    "I was very disappointed in that news conference," he said, "not to hear Vilsack use the word 'food' - or 'eaters.' And the interests of everybody except eaters was discussed: farmers, ranchers, people concerned about the land."
    And so, he said, it's difficult not to see the choice of Vilsack as "agribusiness as usual."
    As for the possibility that a change in America's agriculture priorities could raise the cost of food, Pollan said that other factors can also lead to higher prices.
    "It's the embrace of corn-based ethanol that has driven up all food prices," Pollan said. "It's not making agriculture more sustainable."