SAN FRANCISCO, CLEAR LAKE and ROME - November 18 - More people than ever before do not have enough to eat. For the first time since such records have been kept, the ranks of the world's hungry passed 1 billion in 2009, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week released findings that 1 in 7 Americans are "food insecure" - a figure surprising even to anti-hunger activists. Meanwhile, Obama's increasingly clear "agribusiness as usual" agenda has civil society groups up in arms. Islam Siddiqui's Senate Finance Committee vote has been scheduled for 10:00 am, Thursday November 19. Observers expect his nomination to come before the full Senate for a vote in advance on the World Trade Organization ministerial on November 30.

Siddiqui, a former lobbyist and current vice president for regulatory affairs for CropLife America - the agribusiness industry trade group - is one of a string of recent appointments that are raising concerns among a broad coalition of sustainable agriculture, family farm, farmworker, environmental, anti-hunger and trade groups. 80+ groups and over 75,000 individuals have signed their names in protest and that groundswell is growing in the lead-up to his Senate confirmation.

"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! "Instead of dipping into the same stale pond of radical ‘free' trade and GMO proponents, President Obama should nominate individuals that have a new vision for agriculture that is sustainable both economically and environmentally."

Kathryn Gilje, Executive Director for Pesticide Action Network, noted that Siddiqui's nomination is one in a telling series of industry-friendly appointments: "First ‘Biotech Governor of the Year' Tom Vilsack, then Monsanto's Michael Taylor, then Roger Beachy (another Monsanto man), then CropLife lobbyist Islam Siddiqui, and now Rajiv Shah as U.S. AID administrator. The administration's approach to global food, farming and foreign aid policy is coming into focus, and it seems to be something on the order of, ‘Green Revolution 2.0 here we come.' Never mind that the first one isn't feeding the world now."

The first "Green Revolution" exported an agricultural model dependent on synthetic pesticides and fertilizers to the developing world with the promise of addressing hunger and feeding a growing population. 40 years later, the Green Revolution's top-down approach to development and resource-intensive system of farming are widely criticized as politically and environmentally unsustainable. With what has been called the second "Green Revolution," genetically engineered (GE) seeds and the pesticides that go with them are promised as 21st century solutions to the converging crises of climate, water and food. After 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization however, GE crops have failed to deliver on promises of increased yields, drought tolerance or better nutrition.

Agriculture and trade policies in countries around the world have been subject to U.S. development and foreign aid policy tools that promote the export of agricultural biotechnology. Countries and peoples are resisting this second "Green Revolution" on a number of points. Key among these points of resistance have been concerns for human and environmental health risks associated with the adoption GE crops, and a renewed insistence upon re-localizing food and farming policy.     

"We have a global trade policy that has been stuck for over a year, in large part because the U.S. has ignored the call to consider new approaches to trade in agriculture that would advance food security," explained Karen Hansen-Kuhn, Director of International Programs at the Institute for Trade and Agricultural Policy. "Siddiqui's promotion of biotechnology is at odds with the sensible demands advanced by developing country farmers to allow them the space to work out sustainable and fair solutions that make sense in their particular contexts."

Available for Interviews:

Kathryn Gilje, Executive Director, Pesticide Action Network, Kathryn@panna.org, (415) 235 - 9437

Karen Hansen-Kuhn, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, khansenkuhn@iatp.org, (202) 222-0749

Dave Murphy, Food Democracy Now!, dmurphy123@gmail.com,  (917) 968-7369

Resources:

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

Democracy Now! coverage: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/17/obama_nominates_pesticide_executive_to_be

Politico coverage: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28722.html