Obama selects former Monsanto lobbyist to be his TPP chief agriculture negotiator

[brentspeak]

And as the article below reveals, Monsanto looks to do pretty well with the TPP deal.

Trans Pacific Partnership Might Include International Ban On GMO Labeling

Monsanto stands to win big from the latest free-trade deal currently being negotiated.

By Trisha Marczak | September 12, 2013

A burgeoning global trade agreement with nations such as Japan, Vietnam and Australia is leaving GMO-labeling advocates concerned that it could result in a ban on GMO labeling not only in the U.S., but in all countries taking part in negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.

Negotiations for the TPP have been occurring over the last few years, although under a veil of secrecy that left even America’s lawmakers out of the process. Leaked documents have revealed some specifics, leaving consumer watchdog groups suspicious over a process intended to streamline labor policies and food labeling guidelines that would align the U.S. with partnering countries..

Individuals connected to some of the nation’s largest corporate interests have been involved in the process, including former Monsanto lobbyist Islam Siddiqui: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/26/islam-siddiqui-obama-nomi_n_333972.html, who is the head agricultural negotiator for the TPP on behalf of the U.S. Prior to his work as a GMO lobbyist with CropLife, he worked as the head agricultural trade advisor for the Clinton administration.

[msongs]

1. hey it's what obama does so get over it :-) nt

[Octafish]

26. Yeah. Obama won.

Yay teem.

[Berlum]

2. Beware. This is an uber ugly thang, INC.

Corporations are the new Empires, and they have the planet and its proles by the short hairs.
TPP makes it 100 X worse.

[williesgirl]

3. that's the final straw. FUCK OBAMA.

[woo me with science]

4. Well, it *is* his second term.

He has more flexibility!

[KoKo]

6. When we were told he would wouldn't be hampered by those Nasty Repugs...

That he would be the Democratic President we voted for twice.

[KoKo]

5. Two hits today...Ziet's Appointment and this....

And first reactions are it's from the "Onion" because it's so OTT it defies understanding.

[RandiFan1290]

7. OMG! No one could have predicted this!!

[SidDithers]

8. And another outrage widget hits the shop floor...

*thunk*

Sid

[Harmony Blue]

9. That is just wrong...

[pnwmom]

10. Well, that should thrill all the GMO fans here.

But not people in countries all over the world that already require labeling..

Here's a map showing where labeling is now required.

http://yeson522.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Yes-on-522-Map-of-64-countries-that-label.pdf

[forestpath]

11. Making it even more blatantly obvious whose side he's really on.

[pa28]

12. The TPP is going to supersede hard won progressive legislation in one stroke.

If you can't dismantle environmental, labor or patent laws you don't like through public debate and elections just circumvent the whole thing with a trade treaty legally enforceable from the outside.

Brilliant!

[woo me with science]

13. +1

[KoKo]

15. Agree...this needs to be stopped and we need to work hard to expose what it is

and do all we can to make this a dead deal...

This could be the Trade Agreement that finishes off the American Worker and our Food Safety labeling and Standards, plus JOBS. We don't want 3rd World Wage Parity and a Super Trade Agreement having precedent over our own USA LAWS that citizens worked so hard to implement for DECADES!

TPP needs to go down. He should not get "FAST TRACK AUTHORIZATION!"

[NRaleighLiberal]

14. .

[PowerToThePeople]

16. Obama (R) - working for you America! *

*you - any corporation, bank, insurance co., or other industry whose actions will lead to worsening conditions for the American citizen.

[bvar22]

17. The White House LOVES them some MONSANTO.

There is a revolving door between the USDA and the FDA to let in all the old Monsanto lobbyists, lawyers, and employees.

Michelle Obama planted an "organic" garden on the lawn,
but her husband appointed Tom "Mr Monsanto" Vilsack to head up the US Department of Agriculture,
and Monsanto Lawyer and Lobbyist Micheal Taylor to head up the Food and Drug Administration.
And that is only the Tip of the Monsanto Iceberg.




You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS.[/font]

[NCarolinawoman]

32. Michelle even has a Bee Hive near her organic garden!

I wonder if she knows what he's up to.

[woo me with science]

18. kick

[liberal_at_heart]

19. Has this man ever had a good appointment?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

20. I am sorry to say I am not surprised by this.

I am sick at heart...

[Enthusiast]

21. K&R! This is deeply disturbing.

It should be disturbing enough to get recommendations from nearly every DUer. Where are the recommendations?

[Scuba]

22. Hope(less). I want a change.

[Safetykitten]

23. Is there a Summers/Monsanto mouthpiece combo? I mean it could save money. Sequester and all...

[Catherina]

24. Who better to herd millions of indy farmers all over the world into factories than Monsanto? n/t

[woo me with science]

25. kick

[AzDar]

27. K & R

[RC]

28. How does this fit in with Obama's umpteenth dimensional chess?

Anyone want to defend Obama on this? Maybe justify Larry Summers in the process?
Some people here already rewrote history from Obama wanting to and getting ready to bomb Syria to single handily forcing Assad to give up his poison gas through negotiations, so lets see what you can do with this.

[proverbialwisdom]

29. "As consumers, WE are at the top of the food chain. And WE are ushering in a non-GMO food supply..."

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_28299.cfm

The Tipping Point in the Fight Against GMOs: Moms

By Nancy Massotto, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director of the Holistic Moms Network
Posted by GMI Reporter
Green Med Info, September 9, 2013

<>

Nancy: I agree that more people are aware of the problem and food companies are responding to a degree, yet Monsanto's power and the spread of GMOs is also more pervasive than ever -- are we really making progress?

Jeffrey M Smith: We need to remember that we can win this battle without requiring policy change. Genetically engineered foods were banned in Europe, not by the European commission, but by Nestlé's and Unilever and McDonald's, etc. that's where we have our greatest leverage.

We may continue to see the Obama administration and Congress bend to the will of Monsanto, as they have for two decades. But we should not judge our success on that basis. The increased efforts by the biotech industry to defend its turf and promote its products are in reality a frantic effort to stem the tide of the inevitable. As consumers, we are at the top of the food chain. And we are ushering in a non-GMO food supply through our healthier choices.

MORE AT LINK.

[LWolf]

30. Of course he does.

It's not the first time he's appointed one of Monsanto's toadies.

[proverbialwisdom]

31. "Make some noise" to quote Amnesty International.

http://www.citizen.org/tppaction


Sign Our Petition to Release the TPP Draft Text to the Public

Senator Elizabeth Warren stated, "If transparency would lead to widespread public opposition to a trade agreement, then that trade agreement should not be the policy of the United States." Stand with Senator Warren and demand that the public be able to see what's in the TPP.

PLUS 2 OTHER RELATED PETITIONS BY PUBLIC CITIZEN.

[img][/img]

[bvar22]

33. And another kick....

...because is anything more important than our food?

My Wife & I feel so strongly about the corruption and contamination of our Factory FOOD production, handling, packaging, transportation, and distribution system that we moved to the Woods and started growing our own in 2006.
So far, so good.

Naturally, ALL GM Crops and ALL non-naturally occurring pesticides, fertilizers,
and herbicides are forever banned from our little hilltop in The Woods.


Actually, we would have done this for the Taste only.
Factory Food tastes like cardboard.

[proverbialwisdom]

35. Sidestepping "about 10,000 chemicals allowed in food products ~ 43% of which have been deemed GRAS."

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_28286.cfm

NRDC to Launch Attack on Food Ingredient Approvals

By Helena Bottemiller Evich
Politico, September 10, 2013

The Natural Resources Defense Council is best known for climate activism and celebrity fundraisers, but now the environmental powerhouse is escalating its work in another area: food policy.

By hiring two top food additive researchers - Tom Neltner and Maricel Maffini - NRDC is positioning itself to launch an aggressive campaign for much stronger regulation around the way the Food and Drug Administration approves the use of those food ingredients you can't pronounce.

<>

Both Neltner and Maffini are coming from the Pew Charitable Trusts, where they delivered a series of groundbreaking reports following a three-year study of the food additive approval process that wraps up this month. The Pew reports suggest the food industry has too much control over the way such ingredients as xanthan gum, maltodextrin and polyglutamic acid have been granted FDA's generally recognized as safe, or GRAS, status, which allows them to be used in the food supply without agency approval.

Overall, there are about 10,000 chemicals allowed in food products, about 43 percent of which have been deemed generally recognized as safe, according to Pew.

The group's most recent report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found "ubiquitous" conflicts of interest in GRAS determinations. Researchers looked at the 451 GRAS notifications that companies voluntarily submitted to FDA between 1997 and 2012 and found that nearly two-thirds of those safety assessments were made by an expert panel selected by the manufacturer or a consulting firm. About a fifth of those assessments were made by an employee of an additive manufacturer.

One of the issues highlighted by Pew is that companies are not required to notify FDA about their decision, and oftentimes they don't. FDA does not have a list or database of all the chemicals that can be used in food.

Pew has published two other peer-reviewed studies in recent months: one that found gaps in toxicology data for food additives and another that found FDA has not acted on a significant portion of the recommendations made by its own expert panel in 1983.

MORE.

[proverbialwisdom]

34. Check it out.

http://www.citizen.org/documents/tpp-brunei-ministerial-press-release.pdf

[fascisthunter]

36. It's that multi-dimensional Chess another OP was so Proud of

I'm sure. Fucking sad.

[Vanje]

37. God damn it!

No!

No TPP!

No damned lobbiest from fucking Monsanto.
There are already enough corporate assholes working in the Obama Administration.

This is getting old.

I am disgusted.

[proverbialwisdom]

38. TPP related.

http://www.lavidalocavore.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=5156

Defend Food Sovereignty and Justice for Farmers! Ditch the TPP!
by: AndreaNoelani
Fri May 11, 2012 at 03:05:12 AM PDT

Link to blog from https://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/15-4

[solarhydrocan]

39. ^