BIDEN PICK MONSANTO - Evil surrounding itself with evil Back to the Future with Tom ''Mr. Monsanto'' Vilsack - Part I December 22, 2020 - Organic Consumers Association by Alexis Baden-Mayer Environment & Climate, Genetic Engineering, Politics & Globalization President-Elect Joe Biden has nominated Tom Vilsack as Agriculture Secretary. For anyone who is familiar with our Millions Against Monsanto campaign or who participated in March Against Monsanto during the Obama-Biden years, you know why this is bad news. For everyone else, this is the first installment in our series of articles that will recount this history to explain why we opposed Vilsack’s nomination in 2009 and why we still do in 2021. Tom Vilsack was “Mr. Monsanto” even before he started at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2009. As Iowa’s governor (1999–2007), he had been named Governor of the Year by the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Today, he continues to serve agribusiness as the head of the US Dairy Export Council, which is deeply invested in perpetuating the system of CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), the use of pesticide-drenched genetically modified feed, and the practice of keeping prices paid to farmers below the cost of production to drive the consolidation of ever-larger factory farms. As USDA Secretary from 2009-2017, Vilsack approved more new genetically modified organisms (GMOs) than any Secretary before him or since. His GMOs include: •Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beets. A judge ruled that innevitable contamination would cause the “potential elimination of farmer’s choice to grow non-genetically engineered crops, or a consumer’s choice to eat non-genetically engineered food.” •Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beets. A judge ruled that innevitable contamination would cause the “potential elimination of farmer’s choice to grow non-genetically engineered crops, or a consumer’s choice to eat non-genetically engineered food.” •Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa, the first genetically modified perennial crop. By the end of the Obama administration, it had gone wild, costing American alfalfa growers and exporters millions of dollars in lost revenue. •Monsanto’s DroughtGard corn, which claimed a 4 percent yield advantage in field tests against conventional corn. The GMO corn was eclipsed by conventional corn grown after cover crops, which demonstrated an 11 percent advantage--during the 2012 drought. •Monsanto’s dicamba-tolerant Xtend soy and cotton. Off-target drift of the volatile herbicide these crops are engineered to resist has destroyed millions of acres of non-resistant soy, as well as nurseries, vineyards, vegetables, trees, native plants and ornamentals, since Vilsack approved the new GMOs in 2015 and Obama-Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency cleared new versions of the weed killer in 2016. It’s been a nightmare for farmers and state pesticide regulators fielding complaints of crop destruction. Arkansas put a ban on using dicamba after May 25 and Illinois restricted dicamba use to June 30-July 15, but that hasn’t stopped the damage in those states or across the country. •Scotts Miracle-Gro Roundup Ready lawn grass. Vilsack told the company it didn’t need federal approval or permits to conduct field trials or sell the seed commercially, even though a different type of genetically engineered grass had already escaped from company test plots. •Syngenta's Agrisure corn. Vilsack stood idly by as this seed that contained genetically engineered traits--that were illegal in China--was sold to U.S. farmers. The corn crop was rejected, costing farmers, including those who didn't grow the new GMO, at least $1.51 billion. Seven years later, Syngenta (now owned by ChemChina) will soon be mailing settlement checks to impacted farmers. •Syngenta’s ethanol-only corn, containing an engineered enzyme that makes the corn unsuitable for processing and consumption. Vilsack’s approval was over the opposition of the Corn Refiners Association, the National Grain and Feed Association, the North American Millers’ Association, the Pet Food Institute and the Snack Food Institute. •read on.. https://www.organicconsumers.org/blog/back-future-tom-mr-monsanto-vilsack-part-i