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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.
[Next to
Romney, as you can read
HERE. -CR]
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
Note from CR:
Jon Rappoport is 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 |