| The first thing I heard about this came from Shirah. She reported that Dennis Wolff was in talks with the Obama admin for the USDA job on November 15. From there it got worse. The next thing we found out was from Tom Philpott, that biotech shill Michael Taylor is on the UDSA transition team.
To those of you who are reading these names and wondering why they are so bad, let me connect some dots. Michael Taylor is a second cousin of Tipper Gore and the poster boy for the "revolving door" between industry and government. He was Monsanto's VP of Public Policy at one point. Now he's in academia. He's also worked for the USDA and the FDA and at a law firm.
Taylor was instrumental in legalizing rbGH - the growth hormone so unpopular that even Wal-Mart has decided to stop carrying products from cows treated with it. It's unpopular for a good reason too: it's cruel to the cows, it causes increased antibiotics and pus in the milk, and it is linked to cancer in humans when cows are treated with it and humans drink their milk. So obviously Mr. Taylor has all of our best interests in mind in his role on the Obama transition team. Obviously.
As for Wolff, he's a dairy farmer who, for some reason, must hate cows. I can't imagine that anyone with any concern for cows - or people - would ever stoop to using rbGH. But Wolff went a step further. He tried to ban any milk in Pennsylvania from a cow NOT treated with rbGH from having an "rbGH-free" label. Because consumers have soundly rejected the hormone, so he figures they might as well just not know how their milk was produced. What an arrogant, destructive opinion for someone to have who is in a place of power!!!
Wolff tried to do this in PA about a year ago, and fortunately after a flood of calls and emails came into the Governor's office, Ed Rendell kept it from happening. Pennsylvanians still have a right to know how their milk was produced. But what if Wolff became head of the USDA? Then we'd all be screwed.
Today the news came out that PA Gov. Rendell backs Dennis Wolff in his quest to head the USDA (Reuters). The only good news I can think of is that Rendell was a major Hillary supporter so maybe Obama won't listen to him. I've heard one source tell me they doubt Wolff would be appointed as Ag Secretary, but Reuters is still reporting about the possibility of such an appointment, so I think Obama needs to hear some vocal opposition to Dennis Wolff!!! |
