Obama and the New USDA Chief: Vilsack Out, Two Remain

Posted by Tom Philpott at The Grist
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/24/134851/03
Until very recently, speculation around who would take the top spot at Obama’s USDA centered on former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, a champion of both genetically modified seed technology and farm-subsidy reform.
But now Vilsack’s out of the running, the Des Moines Register reports. Evidently, a petition from the Organic Consumers Association helped sink his prospects.
What [...]

Obama Transition and Agriculture/USDA Policy: Selling Out?

Posted by Tom Philpott at Grist
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/19/6373/9820
The transition named its “team members” looking at energy and natural resources agencies, which includes USDA. The list includes Michael R. Taylor, a man who spent his career bouncing between the employ of GMO-seed giant Monsanto and Bill Clinton’s FDA and USDA. Taylor is widely credited with ushering Monsanto’s recombinant bovine growth hormone [...]