Meet Monsanto’s number one lobbyist: Barack Obama
by
Jon Rappoport
September 24, 2012
www.nomorefakenews.com
During his 2008 campaign for president, Barack Obama transmitted signals that he
understood the GMO issue. Several key anti-GMO activists were impressed. They
thought Obama, once in the White House, would listen to their concerns and act
on them.
These activists weren’t just reading tea leaves. On the campaign trail, Obama
said: “Let folks know when their food is genetically modified, because Americans
have a right to know what they’re buying.”
Making the distinction between GMO and non-GMO was certainly an indication that
Obama, unlike the FDA and USDA, saw there was an important line to draw in the
sand.
Beyond that, Obama was promising a new era of transparency in government. He was
adamant in promising that, if elected, his administration wouldn’t do business
in “the old way.” He would be “responsive to people’s needs.”
Then came the reality.
After the election, and during Obama’s term as president, people who had been
working to label GMO food and warn the public of its huge dangers were shocked
to the core. They saw Obama had been pulling a bait and switch.
The new president filled key posts with Monsanto people, in federal agencies
that wield tremendous force in food issues, the USDA and the FDA:
At the USDA, as the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture,
Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center.
As deputy commissioner of the FDA, the new food-safety-issues czar, the infamous
Michael Taylor, former vice-president for public policy for Monsanto. Taylor had
been instrumental in getting approval for Monsanto’s genetically engineered
bovine growth hormone.
As commissioner of the USDA, Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack. Vilsack had set up a
national group, the Governors’ Biotechnology Partnership, and had been given a
Governor of the Year Award by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, whose
members include Monsanto.
As the new Agriculture Trade Representative, who would push GMOs for export,
Islam Siddiqui, a former Monsanto lobbyist.
As the new counsel for the USDA, Ramona Romero, who had been corporate counsel
for another biotech giant, DuPont.
As the new head of the USAID, Rajiv Shah, who had preciously worked in key
positions for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major funder of GMO
agriculture research.
We should also remember that Obama’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, once
worked for the Rose law firm. That firm was counsel to Monsanto.
Obama nominated Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court. Kagan, as federal solicitor
general, had previously argued for Monsanto in the Monsanto v. Geertson seed
case before the Supreme Court.
The deck was stacked. Obama hadn’t simply made honest mistakes. Obama hadn’t
just failed to exercise proper oversight in selecting appointees. He wasn’t just
experiencing a failure of short-term memory. He was staking out territory on
behalf of Monsanto and other GMO corporate giants.
And now let us look at what key Obama appointees have wrought for their true
bosses. Let’s see what GMO crops have walked through the open door of the Obama
presidency.
Monsanto GMO alfalfa.
Monsanto GMO sugar beets.
Monsanto GMO Bt soybean.
Coming soon: Monsanto’s GMO sweet corn.
Syngenta GMO corn for ethanol.
Syngenta GMO stacked corn.
Pioneer GMO soybean.
Syngenta GMO Bt cotton.
Bayer GMO cotton.
ATryn, an anti-clotting agent from the milk of transgenic goats.
A GMO papaya strain.
And perhaps, soon, genetically engineered salmon and apples.
This is an extraordinary parade. It, in fact, makes Barack Obama the most GMO-dedicated
politician in America.
You don’t attain that position through errors or oversights. Obama was, all
along, a stealth operative on behalf of Monsanto, biotech, GMOs, and corporate
control of the future of agriculture.
From this perspective, Michelle Obama’s campaign for home gardens and clean
nutritious food suddenly looks like a diversion, a cover story floated to
obscure what her husband has actually been doing.
Nor does it seem coincidental that two of the Obama’s biggest supporters, Bill
Gates and George Soros, purchased 900,000 and 500,000 shares of Monsanto,
respectively, in 2010.
Because this is an election season, people will say, “But what about Romney? Is
he any better?” I see no indication that he is. The point, however, is that we
are talking about a sitting president here, a president who presented himself,
and was believed by many to be, an extraordinary departure from politics as
usual.
Not only was that a wrong assessment, Obama was lying all along. He was, and he
still is, Monsanto’s man in Washington.
To those people who fight for GMO labeling, and against the decimation of the
food supply and the destruction of human health, but still believe Obama is a
beacon in bleak times:
Wake up.
Sources:
http://redgreenandblue.org/2012/02/02/monsanto-employees-in-the-halls-of-government-part-2/
http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/02/09/monsanto-employees-in-the-halls-of-government/
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/10/fda-labeling-gmo-genetically-modified-foods
http://fooddemocracynow.org/blog/2011/feb/15/update-obama-goes-rogue-gmos-tell-him-say-no-monsa/
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/genetically-engineered-foods/
http://news.yahoo.com/not-altruistic-truth-behind-obamas-global-food-security-174700462.html
Jon Rappoport
The author of an explosive collection, THE MATRIX REVEALED, Jon was a candidate
for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing
articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin
Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon
has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and
creative power to audiences around the world.
www.nomorefakenews.com