Christmas Eve!
The latest issue of Acres USA arrived today, and one of the first things I read (being lamented by the Acres writers) was the appointment of two big agribusiness men to top posts in the USDA and the new National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA): Islam Siddiqui will be the chief agriculture negotiator for the US Trade Representative’s office, and Roger Beachy will be the head of the NIFA.
Siddiqui “was a paid lobbyist for three years” for a chemical pesticide consortium made up of Monsanto and DuPont, and he was involved in trying to get GMOs to be accepted as certified organic food. Beachy ran a science center funded by Monsanto.
Those working for change for the better in agriculture and government have now realized that Obama and his cohorts are not their allies because they are not bringing any change to the “revolving door” between big government and agribusiness but instead just reinforcing it.
