Siddiqui would represent industry, not best interests of the American people

A broad coalition of groups delivered a petition today to the White House and Senate leaders opposing the nomination of Islam Siddiqui for Chief Agriculture Negotiator with the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. More than 77,000 people signed the petition calling for President Obama to remove Siddiqui’s name from consideration; another 14,000 people emailed their Senators directly; and over 80 organizations sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee. Siddiqui, a former lobbyist for the pesticide industry, is one of a string of recent nominations who is raising concerns among the ad hoc coalition, which includes sustainable agriculture, family farm, farmworker, environmental, anti-hunger and trade groups.

The Senate Finance Committee had been scheduled to consider Siddiqui’s nomination today but was postponed. If favorably reported from the Committee, the Senate is expected to vote in the next few days.

Siddiqui was a lobbyist for the pesticide industry association, CropLife America, between 2001 and 2003. Since then, he has held the position of Vice President for Science and Regulatory Affairs with CropLife, during which time the association actively lobbied the Bush Administration in favor of human – including child – testing of pesticides. CropLife has also been a driving force behind weakening the U.S. position on the Stockholm Convention, an effort to regulate the use of toxic Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) including DDT, PCBs and dioxins.

In responding to questions asked by Senate Finance Committee members, Siddiqui has promised to recuse himself from matters pertaining to his current employer, CropLife America, should he be confirmed. Kathryn Gilje, Executive Director of Pesticide Action Network, noted that an ethics pledge misses the mark, “Siddiqui cannot recuse himself from a narrow and short-sighted view of agriculture. He believes that chemical-intensive and genetically modified agriculture is what the world needs to feed itself when all the best independent science tells us that this is simply not the case.”

Siddiqui’s nomination comes at a moment of heated global debate about the best way to feed the world’s 1 billion hungry people. Companies like Monsanto, which CropLife represents, claim that genetically-engineered seeds will boost yields. However, decades of scientific research show that those promises have yet to materialize, while international experts involved in the International Assessment Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) study warn against genetic engineering as a solution to world hunger.

Dena Hoff, a Montana farmer and vice-president of the National Family Farm Coalition, said, “This November 30th marks the tenth anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle. We face a deepening food crisis, water crisis, climate crisis, all of which have been exacerbated by our trade agreements and the World Trade Organization continuing to push failed chemical-intensive and biotech solutions. We believe the United States can do better than nominating a former pesticide lobbyist to this key position.”

“On the campaign trail Barack Obama promised that he would end business as usual in Washington; Siddiqui’s nomination is a fundamental violation of that campaign pledge,” commented Dave Murphy, director of Food Democracy Now! “Rather than extending the Clinton- and Bush-era legacies of promoting ‘free’ trade and GMO devotees, President Obama should nominate leaders who have a new vision for agriculture that is both economically and environmentally sustainable.”

To view the petition to President Obama protesting the nominations of Siddiqui and Roger Beachy, visit: http://action.panna.org/t/5185/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2150

The groups co-hosting the petition: Pesticide Action Network, National Family Farm Coalition, Food & Water Watch, The Farmworker Association of Florida, Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, Food Democracy Now!, Greenpeace, Center for Food Safety, Organic Consumers Association, Credo, Center for Biological Diversity, Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance.