Stop Big Ag in the White House - Say no to Monsanto - CropLife

[TERRI LARSEN]

A serious breach of trust has occurred.

During his campaign, President Obama spoke routinely about closing the revolving door between powerful corporate interests and government service. And now we are finding he hasn't lived up to his word.

Click here to keep to Big Ag out of the White House: http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/65?akid=.40351.cHSwz9&t=1&refer...

Last month, Obama nominated two “Big Ag” power brokers--Roger Beachy and Islam Siddiqui--to key government positions, putting agribusiness executives in charge of our country's agricultural research and trade policy.

As the former head of the Donald Danforth Plant Research Center in St. Louis, MO, Beachy has led a long career of promoting failed GMO technologies and working closely Monsanto. Now the head of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Beachy controls where research funds are spent in the U.S. This is not good news for proponents of sustainable and organic agriculture.

For his part, Siddiqui, who last month was nominated to be the Chief Agricultural Negotiator at the Office of the US Trade Representative, has been a registered pesticide lobbyist and most recently the Vice President of Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife America. In a previous stint at the USDA, Siddiqui was responsible for trying to set the national organic standards to allow irradiation, sewage sludge and GMOs to be considered "organic." Fortunately, over 230,000 outraged Americans rose up and stopped this.

Most recently, Siddiqui's CropLife MidAmerica sent First Lady Michelle Obama a letter saying that her "organic" garden made the pesticide lobby group "shudder". Who would have thought months later that President Obama would be trying to give a lobbyist like Siddiqui a job?

While Beachy is already at work at the USDA, Siddiqui must be confirmed by the Senate. We have until Nov. 4th, (when the Senate Finance committee will vote) to make a difference.

Please join us in telling the President that this isn't the change we were hoping for: we don't want Big Ag running the show any more.

Click here to add your voice. http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/65?akid=.40351.cHSwz9&t=1&refer...

Please sign up at Food Democracy Now!. Let's keep Obama honest about who he puts in positions of power.

Thank you.

From the folks at Food Democracy Now! Please support these people, they are our watchdogs.

[Patrick Bend]

That is because Obama has a bunch of thugs called the czar working for him and he has lied about just about everything. Just more Chicago politics in place now.

[Dana]

Obama lied about just about everything??

Does this make him different than all the rest...or just like all the rest??

[TERRI LARSEN]

Just like all the rest, just another puppet...

[Chris Byers]

Amen, Terri.