Tom Vilsack

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack was appointed US secretary of agriculture by President Barack Obama in 2009.

Vilsack has come under fire for his support for genetically engineered (GM) pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn:

Gov. Tom Vilsack said a decision by a biotechnical industry group not to grow genetically engineered corn for pharmaceutical purposes in states such as Iowa is "a dangerous precedent."

"I feel this decision by for a pharma-crop ban is a knee-jerk reaction that is not fully warranted by the scientific evidence," Vilsack wrote in a letter to the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

The group said this week that its members had agreed not to grow pharmaceutical crops in states where it could contaminate neighboring crops intended for human consumption. That includes Iowa, and Vilsack reacted quickly, dashing off a letter asking the group for a clarification of its policy... Vilsack has said the state could have a bright future in developing genetically engineered crops for the pharmaceutical industry.

In 2001 the biggest biotechnology industry group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, named Vilsack Governor of the Year. He was also the founder and former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership.

When Vilsack created the Grow Iowa Values Fund, his first poster child of economic development potential was biotech company Trans Ova and its pursuit of cloning dairy cows. Vilsack proclaimed, "Iowa begins today an effort to break the genetic code of economic development."

Not everyone shared Vilsack's faith that Trans Ova would regenerate Iowa's economy. According to information gathered by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau but never made public, Trans Ova was one of "two big business projects given incentives through the Iowa Values Fund [that] actually will cost the state money in the long run, despite the increased economic activity they bring."

The data, a copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press, says incentives and services offered to Trans Ova Genetics "eventually will cost the state more than it will receive in tax revenues."

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Vilsack was the origin of the seed pre-emption bill in 2005, which many people here in Iowa fought because it took away local government's possibility of ever having a regulation on seeds- where GE would be grown, having GE-free buffers, banning pharma corn locally, etc. Representative Sandy Greiner, the Republican sponsor of the bill, bragged on the House Floor that Vilsack put her up to it right after his state of the state address.

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Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto. Sustainable ag advocated across the country were spreading the word of Vilsack's history as he was attempting to appeal to voters in his presidential bid. An activist from the west coast even made this youtube animation about Vilsack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmoc4Qgcm4s The airplane in this animation is a referral to the controversy that Vilsack often traveled in Monsanto's jet.

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Vilsack is an ardent support of corn and soy based biofuels, which use as much or more fossil energy to produce them as they generate, while driving up world food prices and literally starving the poor.

Vilsack's response to his critics: "What About the OCA?", Support Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture website, accessed January 2009.</ref>

To learn more about this vitally important issue:

Tom Vilsack's Kind of Agriculture: Another Shill for Monsanto: http://www.counterpunch.org/cummins12182008.html

You Said NO to Vilsack: http://www.organicconsumers.org/vilsack.cfm

Obama Picks Pro-Ethanol, Agribusiness Ex-Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack to Head Agricultural Dept. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/18/obama_picks_pro_ethanol_former_iowa

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