Obama Puts Pesticide Pusher in Charge of Agricultural Trade Relations

he makes me happy and sad and happy and sad, its a roller coaster

i am so sad, since i turned 18 i can say i told you so 3 times with a president. i said 2 years ago he will finish what bush started and people called me "uncle tom". Maybe we should start voting middle road and not far left and far right.

Thanks for the heads up. Obama also put health unsurers in charge of decisions between us and our doctors, refuses to negotiate on our behalf for lower pharmaceutical prices, is keeping war and military spending going up and up as far as our eyes can see, supports and is going to build "clean" coal and nuclear power plants, bailed out the wealthiest banking and Wall Street crooks who go us into this economic mess in the first place, and generally is asking all of our problems to become the solutions. Oye. We (the people) are SO screwed. I used to say our choice was between Republican and Republican Lite. Now I say it was between Republican and Republican Dark. When corporatists rule so does Fascism.

Is he retarded? Is America retarded? This kind of misrepresentation on pretty much the most ctritical staple of your life should cause an outcry deep from the bowels of your genetically modified gut. This is atrocious, rally up now. Obama is feeding you poison despite the overwhelming evidence of caustic effect.

Is he retarded? Is America retarded? This kind of misrepresentation on pretty much the most ctritical staple of your life should cause an outcry deep from the bowels of your genetically modified gut. This is atrocious, rally up now. Obama is feeding you poison despite the overwhelming evidence of caustic effect.

mmmm....maybe he'll put a little DDT back in our diets! Thanks Barack!

Seriously though, this was an awful choice for such an important position. Obama is NOT helping his credibility by choosing this guy.

Another broken promise. He's getting run over.

"CropLife’s record includes pushing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow testing of pesticides on children"

HOW IS THIS DEFENDABLE?

http://www.panna.org/node/2536

Statement from Pesticide Action Network North America

Excerpt:
'Dr. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, Senior Scientist at Pesticide Action Network, explains, “Our concern remains that Siddiqui’s aggressive promotion of transgenic crops around the world and his rejection of other countries’ use of the precautionary principle in restricting GMO imports make him a singularly poor choice for this important post. We join much of the American public in believing that his position at Crop Life should flatly disqualify him for public service in this sector. CropLife’s record includes pushing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow testing of pesticides on children, lobbying to weaken the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act and doing everything in its power to undermine international treaties governing the use and export of toxic chemicals. They are not good corporate citizens.”

Ben Burkett, president of the National Family Farm Coalition and a Mississippi farmer comments, “Both Dr. Siddiqui and Congress now face a well-informed and concerned public. We will be closely monitoring Siddiqui at his new job, and evaluating whether his actions will truly benefit small-scale family farmers in the U.S. and abroad, workers, consumers and the environment or whether they will benefit large corporations such as Monsanto and Cargill and U.S. commodity group interests who have so actively supported his nomination.”

Siddiqui’s nomination comes at a moment of heated global debate about the best way to feed the world’s 1 billion hungry people. Companies like Monsanto, which CropLife represents, claim that genetically engineered seeds will boost yields. However, decades of scientific research show that those promises have yet to materialize, while international experts involved in the World Bank and UN-sponsored International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) warn against genetic engineering as a solution to world hunger.

A lead author on the IAASTD report, Ishii-Eiteman adds, “The IAASTD highlights the need for better access to land, a focus on ecological techniques, building local economies, local control of seeds, and farmer-led participatory research. We hope that Siddiqui will soon adopt a new set of priorities to serve the public interest and support the food and livelihood security of farmers here and around the world.”

Please Please, someone needs to get dirt on this guy. He is a poison pusher; he must have nasty skeletons in the closet.

I actually really enjoy the taste of pesticides on my food, so I'm OK with this.

In all seriousness... How about doing a little research on the appointee first, before just blindly dismissing him because of his employment at CropLife:

Dr. Siddiqui served in various capacities in the Clinton Administration at U.S. Department of Agriculture as Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Senior Trade Advisor to Secretary Dan Glickman and Deputy Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. As a result, he worked closely with the USTR and represented USDA in bilateral, regional and multi-lateral agricultural trade negotiations. Since 2004, Dr. Siddiqui has also served on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, and Health/Science Products & Services, which advises the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and USTR on international trade issues related to these sectors. Between 2001 and 2003, Dr. Siddiqui was appointed as Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he focused on agricultural biotechnology and food security issues. Before joining USDA, Dr. Siddiqui spent 28 years with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He received a B.S. degree in plant protection from Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University in Pantnagar, India, as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in plant pathology, both from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

So he gets credit with the DLC banner carriers for having balls and supposedly showing those republicans by making recess appointments, but in reality, makes another pro-corporate decision while hiding from those on the left who fought to get him elected. The change we're getting is chump change, and we're the chumps.

This is a travesty. This also shows that Obama is no better than Bush with his recess appointments to circumvent Congress and the voice of the people. Had this appointment been allowed to go through the proper channels and our voices heard, this appointment might not have happened and that would have been GOOD for the environment, and GOOD for the health of our people. I really don't think those who put him first truly understand how HARD SOME OF US WORK TO SEE THE RIGHT THING DONE. And once again, he just slaps us in the face. Well, to the Obama supporters who do nothing but support him even above this Earth, enjoy your GMOs and poisoned pesticide ridden food. You are truly clueless and your political partisanship on all sides is killing us.