Don't Let Obama Put Monsanto Cheerleaders in Charge of Food Safety

[Sadsack]

From the Organic Consumers Association:

Don't Let Obama Put Monsanto Cheerleaders in Charge of Food Safety

The Obama Administration is putting two notorious biotech bullies in charge of food safety. Former Monsanto lobbyist Michael Taylor has been appointed as a senior advisor to the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner on food safety. And, rBGH-using dairy farmer and Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff, is rumored to be President Obama's choice for Under-Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety. Wolfe spearheaded anti-consumer legislation in Pennsylvania that would have taken away the rights of consumers to know whether their milk and dairy products were contaminated with Monsanto's (now Eli Lilly's) genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH).

SS

[tcmgpt13]

Got rBST? The Wolff in the Obama USDA Henhouse
by shirah

Sat Nov 15, 2008 at 07:17:21 AM PDT

So who would be about the worst person the Obama administration could be talking to about heading the U.S. Department of Agriculture? Besides the CEO of Monsanto? How about PA Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff? The Dennis Wolff otherwise known as the Monsanto shill who approved a stealth milk labeling ban last year to help out his buddies at Monsanto?

"Couldn’t be!" You say? Think again!!

Yes, PA Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff - the Monsanto shill who approved a stealth milk labeling ban last year - says he is in talks with the Obama Administration for a post at the USDA. That news comes as part of a Friday night news dump - so Bush Administration.

For those who are new to this sordid phase in the career Dennis Wolff, you can find a compendium of past posts that lay out Wolff’s role in trying to take away the right of Pennsylvanians to know whether their milk was produced using rBST / rBGH (recombinant bovine somatrophin / recombinant bovine growth hormone) here.

Whether or not you care about ingesting genetically modified foods, you should care about not being able to choose whether to ingest them.

That is exactly what Wolff did last year about this time. He issued a stealth regulation that forbade labeling milk so people could choose to avoid milk produced with genetically engineered rBST / rBGH.

When the news of the regulation was made public Wolff showed his true colors by claiming that the decision had been made by a Food Label Advisory Committee (FLAC), supposedly made up of representatives of the public and industry.

The well-named FLAC, as it turned out, was stacked with lobbyists and underlings from the PA Department of Agriculture. The lobbyists had set up fake consumer organizations - a/k/a astroturf groups - to mask who they were. A phone call to the group’s phone number rang directly in the lobbyist’s office.

There were two consumer advocates. One real and the other so-called consumer representativemakes it her life’s mission to sue grocery stores who charge tax on toilet paper.

And, as it turned out, the FLAC made no recommendations but did spend a meeting looking at an array of milk labels.

Further investigation into Wolff’s record showed that he has a long record of spewing bile at anyone who is interested in organic food and concerned about the impact of untested products in our food. He also has a love affair with Monsanto front groups, such as Voices for Choices.

Here is a transcript of Wolff's message (link opens video) link appears to be dead now:

Hello, my name is Dennis Wolff, and I'm Secretary of Agriculture for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and also owner of Pen-Col Farms.

Today I wanted to talk to you about a new trend I find alarming. It's called "extra labeling" or some call it "fear marketing."

Non-artificial hormone, antibiotic free, and pesticide free are all labels we see on milk cartons today. And they confuse the consumers. It seems to create a good milk, bad milk scenario. And it puts the image of milk at risk.

Typical labels may include "no artifical growth hormone" in large print and a small disclaimer in the back saying there is no significance in the milk whether it is from cows treated or not treated with rBST.

Many cases will force producers to sign a statements saying they will not use rBST on their herd. They will at the same time charge a premium for this extra labeled product that may include 50 cents per gallon. That's $6 per hundredweight. In many cases, none of that $6 finds its way back to the farmer's milk check.

Advances in improved and new technology are very important for agriculture., very important for the dairy farmers, and very important for producing healthy food produces, and very important to the environment.

What will be next? Will it be – penicillin, ivermec, practices like artificial insemination or embryo transfer?

We don't know, but we're very concerned.

We applaud Voices for Choices and suggest that you get involved in this timely and important issue. Our dairy farmers need new technology. They need all the opportunities that they have available to them to run profitable operations today.

They are critical. They are important and they are the reason the next generation will come back to the farm - profitability.

So there is the open minded Ag Secretary on a fact-finding mission among milk producers, finding the facts he wanted to find. And he responded:

Today rbST—What's Next? A Monthly Column by Dennis Wolff, Secretary of Agriculture, PA Farm News November 1, 2006.

Recently, several dairy processors began labeling and marketing milk as produced on farms not using synthetic hormones, attempting to gain more of the market share of milk sales. These marketing techniques are guiding consumers to purchase this milk, and allowing processors and retailers to charge more per gallon than for unlabeled milk. If consumers have preferences about the way food is produced such as "grass-fed," "organic," or "natural," that’s their choice. However, in this situation, consumers are not basing their decisions on sound science but rather on manipulative marketing.

Actually, as a news story about this same time explained, consumer demand was for labeling, not against labeling.

Wolff also has a long record of supporting Monsanto astroturf organizations.

And of belittling members of the public who just want to know what they and their families are ingesting. His record shows that he regards them as the enemy, to be fought, not members of the public he is sworn to protect.

So this is the man that the Obama administration would put at the head of this critically important agency, an agency that has suffered immensely under the Bush Administration.

You can read the news story announcing Wolff's potential role in the new Obama administration here.

Pa. agriculture chief in talks about USDA job
11/14/2008, 5:21 p.m. ET
By MARC LEVY The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's agriculture secretary said Friday that he is talking with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team about the possibility of joining the administration.

Dennis Wolff said the talks have covered him perhaps heading the U.S. Department of Agriculture or serving as an undersecretary.

"For me, it's just a great honor to even be on the list of people being considered, so I'm thrilled to be on the list," Wolff said. "I don't think anyone knows how this will unfold or how the process works, but it will be an interesting month or two."

Perhaps we should show Wolff just how interesting the next couple months will be.

Wolff has a history that shows he is completely unfit for this job. You can find more on that unseemly past at this compendium of blog posts and the links therein.

UPDATE: Thanks for friends. BobB has provided some critical information I left out. I.e. whom to contact:

Please, please contact the Obama transition team at http://www.change.gov/... and tell them not to hire Wolff!

You could also include this link to an article in the New York Times:
The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia...

Mr. Wolff would be an embarrassment to the new administration. Wolff is the classic example of a bureaucrat who would defend special interests over the public interest.

UPDATE: thanks to Halcyon for pointing out that Gov. Vilsack - another Monsanto friend - also has his name in the running for USDA head. link


Daily Kos: Got rBST? The Wolff in the Obama USDA Henhouse