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WORD COUNT
599
OCTOBER 7, 2009
OBAMA
CAVES IN TO AGRIBUSINESS – by Kathy Ozer and Marcia Ishii-Eiteman
“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.
It’s
crucial that the Senate Finance Committee hears from public witnesses
while investigating his past roles. At CropLife International, Siddiqui
led an initiative to weaken restrictions against fertilizers and
pesticides, as part of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of
negotiations. He also served as the senior agricultural trade advisor
during the Clinton administration, and pressed for getting genetically
modified crops and seeds approved for commercial use in the United
States.
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.
The Obama
administration has made tremendous strides towards encouraging the
growth of the local food movement, and its connections to human health
and ecological impacts. The White House organic garden and the farmers
market spearheaded by Michelle Obama are important symbolic gestures, as
is the USDA’s new “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative.
However, these latest appointments of industry insiders to two of the
most influential offices that will shape U.S. food and agricultural
policy at home and abroad call into question just how committed the
Obama administration is to promoting sustainable agriculture and
reducing hunger in the developing world.
We must
also question how prepared the president is to break with past
administrations’ track record of coddling special interests.
--
Kathy Ozer
is the executive director of the National Family Farm Coalition, and
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, PhD, is the senior scientist at the Pesticide
Action Network North America
and a lead
author on the UN-sponsored International Assessment of Agricultural
Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD).
The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) is a national link for
grassroots organizations working on family farm issues.
www.nffc.net. Pesticide
Action Network North America works to replace the use of hazardous
pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives.
http://www.panna.org
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