Many of the fine-sounding laws and ideas promoted to 'protect' us from disease actually work to support corporate farming by adding bureaucratic processes designed to kill natural options/family farming and sell unproven and dangerous synthetic designs which have as their outstanding virtue the ability to copyright : not to work for human health or be sustainable.

Shorter version : they produce trash which kills us...until they fall under the weight of their dysfunction like the House of Cards they are. What happens to us then seems unimportant to the design.

 Obama nominates Monsanto rep for Agricultural Trade post

That post of mine at the Care 2 news board received the following comments from member Alba Nuova

Islam Siddiqui is currently a vice president at CropLife America, a coalition of the major industrial players in the pesticide industry, including Syngenta, Monsanto, and Dow Chemical. He was previously a lobbyist for CropLife and also served in the US Department of Agriculture under President Clinton and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. A coalition of over eighty environmental, family farm and consumer advocacy organizations have sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee urging them to reject his nomination. He also served in the US Department of Agriculture under President Clinton and the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

(My comment: In other words, these people have been fouling up our agriculture for a long time, playing the revolving doors game between business & government positions. We need to put an end to this collusion once & for all !!)

Amy Goodman introduces yesterday's Democracy Now! show :
"Over forty-six agribusiness groups signed a letter supporting his nomination, but a coalition of over eighty environmental, family farm and consumer groups sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee urging them to reject his nomination. The letter says Siddiqui’s record and statements, quote, "show his clear bias in favor of chemical-intensive and unproven biotechnology practices that imperil both our planet and human health while undermining food security and exacerbating climate change,” unquote. Siddiqui defended his record at a Senate committee hearing earlier this month, and a final vote is expected before the World Trade Organization ministerial conference November 30th."

She then introduces her guest: Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, a senior scientist at the Pesticide Action Network of North America and one of those leading the charge against Siddiqui’s nomination.

You can read the tapescript or better yet choose to view the show @ http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/17/obama_nominates_pesticide_executive_to_be 

There is a PETITION link in this post -- Please join the 38,000 people who have already signed to protest this nomination: http://action.panna.org/t/5185/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2150

They need 50,000 signatures! "To make this kind of impact, PAN is joining a broad coalition of partner groups from around the country in mobilizing to block Siddiqui's nomination. We join National Family Farm Coalition, Food & Water Watch, Farmworker's Association of Florida, Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, Food Democracy Now!, Greenpeace, and Center for Food Safety in calling on President Obama to live up to his promises."

The petition also protests another Obama nomination: Roger Beachy -- long-time head of Monsanto’s defacto nonprofit research arm -- has been installed as director of the USDA’s newly created National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). This office comes with a $500 million budget, and therein control over the U.S. ag research agenda for years to come.

Dear President Obama,

We urge you to withdraw the nomination of Islam Siddiqui as Chief Agriculture Negotiator and to reconsider your support of Roger Beachy as director of the new National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Siddiqui is CropLife’s current vice president of science and regulatory affairs, and until last month, Beachy was the head of Monsanto’s de facto nonprofit research arm. As two textbook cases of the “revolving door” between industry and the agencies meant to keep watch, Siddiqui and Beachy’s industry ties demonstrate that both men are too beholden to corporate agriculture to serve the public interest.

Appointing Siddiqui to this critical post within the U.S. Trade Representative’s office sends a clear signal to the rest of the world that the U.S. plans to continue down the worn and failed path of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture by pushing pesticides, inappropriate biotechnologies and unfair trade arrangements on nations that do not want and can least afford them. Siddiqui’s professional record is revealing on several points:

•Siddiqui was a paid lobbyist for 3 years for Croplife America, which represents the chemical pesticide industry. Members include Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta.
•CropLife America's regional partner notoriously “shuddered” at Michelle Obama's organic White House garden, and launched a letter-writing campaign urging the First Lady to use chemical pesticides.
•CropLife America has consistently lobbied the U.S government to weaken and thwart international treaties governing the use and export of toxic chemicals such as PCBs, DDT and dioxins.
•Siddiqui’s past service at the USDA included overseeing the initial development of national organic food standards that would have allowed GMOs and toxic sludge to be labeled “organic”— until over 230,000 consumers forced their revision.

As the global food crisis deepens and we head into the Doha round of trade talks at the WTO, the U.S. needs a lead negotiator who understands that current trade agreements work neither for farmers nor for the world’s hungry. All eyes are on the U.S. to demonstrate international leadership in this arena by withdrawing support for the current industrial model of agriculture, which imperils both people and the planet by undermining food security and worsening climate change.

In his capacity as director of NIFA, Roger Beachy will be in charge of the nation’s agricultural research agenda and purse strings for the next six years. Given Beachy’s previous career running the Danforth Plant Science Center, a nonprofit closely linked to and funded by Monsanto, we believe that billions more in government funding will be funneled into genetic engineering and chemical pesticide research. Meanwhile the real solutions to our growing agricultural problems, provided by sustainable and organic agriculture research, will suffer from a lack of federal funding and attention.

Despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, agricultural biotechnology—of the kind aggressively promoted and marketed by CropLife—has failed to deliver its promises of higher yields for U.S. farmers, or drought-resistance for developing country farmers. What Monsanto’s research agenda has yielded is skyrocketing herbicide use, resistant “super-weeds”, rising debt for farmers, polluted waterways, threats to the health of farmworkers and rural communities, and unparalleled corporate consolidation in the agrochemical and seed industries. The top 10 agribusinesses control 89% of the agrochemicals market, 66% of the modern biotech market and 67% of the global seed market.

With farmers here and abroad struggling to respond to water scarcity and increasingly volatile growing conditions, we need a resilient and restorative model of agriculture that adapts to and mitigates these effects of climate change. In the most comprehensive analysis of global agriculture to date, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) states unequivocally that “business as usual is not an option.” We need a new, sustainable model of agriculture that regenerates soil health, sequesters carbon, feeds communities, and puts profits back in the hands of farmers and rural communities. Industrial agriculture—and Roger Beachy, Islam Siddiqui and CropLife in particular—favor none of these solutions.

While we appreciate your Administration’s recent gestures in support of local food systems, we fear these initiatives will not fulfill their potential unless the monopolistic power and political influence of the agricultural input industry is addressed and curtailed. We therefore respectfully ask you to withdraw your appointments of Siddiqui and Beachy, and replace them with candidates who have a sustainable vision for U.S. agriculture and trade.

As parents, farmers, advocates, scientists and people who eat food, we remember your promise on the campaign trail: “We’ll tell ConAgra that it’s not the Department of Agribusiness. It’s the Department of Agriculture. We’re going to put the people’s interests ahead of the special interests.” We, the undersigned, are writing to hold you to that promise. 

That's not the end of ag action this morning. I posted this item at the same location 

"It Appears NAIS Enforcement Gets Underway in Wisconsin"
http://www.opednews.com/author/comments/author33524.html

That article shows how it works in practice : suppress vital biodiversity.