Where does Obama really stand on ag policy?

November 12th, 2009

Photo via Flickr: Divemasterking

It was great to see First Lady Michelle Obama on Sesame Street this week, encouraging kids to plant gardens and eat their veggies, but I’ve got to be honest: I’m a bit confused as to where the president really stands when it comes to agricultural policy. A lot of wonderful changes are happening on the surface — the first White House vegetable garden since World War II, a farmers market just north of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — but the green community was left scratching their heads last month after the president’s nominations of Islam Siddiqui, a former lobbyist for the chemical pesticide industry, and Roger Beachy, former head of the Danforth Plant Science Center (a nonprofit with some serious ties to Monsatan), to two high-level agricultural posts.

Beachy may already be installed at his job as director of the new National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), but Siddiqui, CropLife’s current vice president of science and regulatory affairs, isn’t sliding through his Senate confirmation as smoothly as first anticipated. (CropLife is the company that sent letters to Michelle Obama urging her to use pesticides in the White House vegetable garden.)

Writes consumer watchdog group Food & Water Watch in an email to its supporters:

These are two textbook cases of the “revolving door” between industry and the agencies meant to keep watch; Siddiqui’s and Beachy’s industry ties demonstrate that both men are too beholden to corporate agriculture to serve the public interest.

The group is calling for the replacement of both nominees; and while I think it’s a long shot for Obama to pull Beachy now that he’s already at work, there may be a real chance to derail Siddiqui — the Senate is planning a full floor vote sometime in the next couple weeks.

–Jennifer Grayson