The largest agribusinesses and chemical giants are building support in the new administration, and beyond. Action Alert!
President-elect Joe Biden is reportedly considering former US senator and Big Ag ally Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) as the next Secretary of Agriculture. Separately, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations recently announced a pending partnership with CropLife, the trade association for the pesticide and biotech industry. We must oppose this blatant cronyism.
Sen. Heitkamp’s industry-friendly record as a senator is enough to disqualify her from serving as Secretary of the USDA. She opposed mandatory labeling of GMO foods, supporting voluntary labeling that was backed by industry. She also advocated on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, sponsoring legislation that would roll back environmental regulations. This shouldn’t have shocked anyone: before being elected as a senator, she worked for 12 years as the director of the Dakota Gasification Company’s Great Plains Synfuels Plant.
In addition, Heitkamp was financially supported by some of the world’s largest agribusinesses: Bayer-Monsanto gave her $13,000, Archer Daniels Midland gave her $12,500, she received $9,000 from Syngenta, and $4,000 from Cargill. All of this suggests that, if appointed, Sen. Heitkamp would stand up for industry rather than consumers.
Biden also appointed Michael McCabe to his EPA transition team; McCabe led DuPont’s defense of the toxic PFAS chemical PFOA—precisely the kinds of chemicals that put us more at risk from severe COVID-19 infection.
Big Ag has also made substantial inroads at the international level with CropLife’s partnership with the FAO. CropLife would surely not invest in such an alliance if its member companies did not stand to make huge gains selling their pesticides and herbicides to the world market. Seeing as the United States is the largest contributor to the FAO’s budget, US taxpayers are subsidizing this cash grab from Big Ag at the expense of some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
We are beset on all sides from rampant cronyism, and we must oppose it where we can. We’ve also been telling you about the federal government’s censorship of doctors who try to inform the public about natural ways of preventing and treating COVID-19 infection. We must fight back against the many ways in which government cronyism prevents us from using clean, organic foods and inexpensive natural medicines to stay healthy.
Action Alert! Oppose the appointment of Sen. Heitkamp to the USDA. Please send your message immediately. By sending this message, you will also be supporting our petition to ungag doctors so that they can share with patients the benefits of supplements and natural treatments for COVID.
Blatant conflict of interest. Cronyism at its worst.
The colossal collective ignorance of our government leaders is staggering. The crap that passes as food fit for human beings is an embarrassment to good nutrition, do you know anything about safety for the human body and true nutrition? And the idea that the chemical companies are joined at the hip with food companies is yet another pox to humanity.
You are all so easily bought off, so easily directed, so greedy, you are so foolish you don’t know enough to be ashamed of your choices.
I demand full disclosure and transparency on any and all COVID-19 vaccinations. Anything less than that, would be a crime.
Keep our air, water and soils clean. Sen. Heitkamp actions to promote pesticide-dependent GMO crops and her focus on fossil fuels clearly indicate she is the wrong candidate for USDA. Unlabeled GMO crops in the food supply are fooling consumers into buying unhealthy foods for their families, and contributing to escalating health care costs.
She is the wrong person for USDA, especially at this time!
Big Ag and Big Chem are both disastrous for everyone except CEOs and shareholders. Individuals with ties to these and any industry have no place in the new administration.
President elect Biden, Heitkamp is not the right person to be Sec. of Agriculture. She’s a shill for Big Ag in a quid pro quo relationship. I want to know what I eat, and she opposed GMO labeling. Why? What is Big Ag and the Chemical giants afraid of? In addition, she’s not pro environment. It’s time the leaders of this world wake up and start enacting measures to save this planet. Don’t doom us all. You owe her nothing.
The health crisis has proven to us that we need to make serious changes to our lifestyles if we are to avoid more crises in the future. Toxins and other chemicals that damage our health and a dirty, chemical laden environment makes people more susceptible to this kind of virus. We need to take a good, hard look at what we are putting on and in our food and water. We need to make changes, not continue the status quo. I was hoping that Biden would look to people with more creative ideas that will help to sustain the environment, not degrade it. Our soils are in very bad shape all over the world. We need to stop using all of these toxins on our soil – the soil is life – until you kill it with toxins.
Oppose the appointment of Sen. Heitkamp to the USDA. Thank you.
This needs to stop!! Our health is very important to a well-functioning society and for those who would compromise it with dangerous chemicals are wrong!!
These toxic b______s MUST be reigned in!
They are wrecking the environment, decreasing life expectancy, and increasing morbidity.