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Dan Glickman, a previous Secretary of Agriculture under Clinton and a 9-term Democratic Congressman from Kansas, co-authored a piece on the Huffington Post about the global food crisis. I decided to do a bit of digging around about Glickman.
At first I didn't come up with much. He did NOT grow up on a farm, but as a Kansas Congressman he sat on the agriculture committee, where he predictably supported commodities and exports. However, he DID actually vote for the amendment to a food-related bill that created the National Organic Program. (On the other hand, he did NOT co-sponsor the bill to create the National Organic Program). His campaign contributions are large and they mostly go to Kansas Democrats or the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. After leaving the USDA, he predictably went to work as a lobbyist, but few of his clients had any relation at all to food or ag. One client, the Motion Picture Association of America, apparently liked him quite a bit, because he's now their CEO and has been since 2004.
Then I stumbled upon this: Glickman serves on the board of Friends of the World Food Program. It's a US organization that tries to drum up support for the UN's World Food Program. Catherine Bertini, Glickman's co-author on the HuffPo piece, is the former executive director of the UN World Food Program and a senior fellow at the Gates Foundation. Together, they chaired a project to write a report about global food security for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (a rather corporate-funded group). The report was funded by a grant from the GMO-loving Gates Foundation.
Serving on the board of Friends of the WFP with Glickman are Bob Dole, Marshall Matz and George McGovern (co-authors of a HEINOUS op ed about agriculture in the Chicago Tribune... here's a commentary on it), David Novak, CEO of Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food, and Bonnie Raquet, the corporate vice president of corporate affairs for Cargill, Inc.,.
What Matz perhaps forgot to disclose in his op ed is who he lobbies for on food & agricultural issues...
Altana Incorporated (2000)
Adheris (2000)
Altria a.k.a. Philip Morris (1999-2007)
American Coalition for Ethanol (2001-2003)
American Commodity Distribution Association (1999-2008)
American Cotton Shippers Association (2007)
Association of Medical Device Reprocssors (2000)
Beef Products Inc (2000)
Bethel Native Community Inc (2002)
Biotechnology Industry Organization (2009)
Black Hills Forest Resource Association (2000-2009)
California Cling Peach Growers (1999-2008)
Canadian Pork Council (2004-2005)
Catalina Health Resource (2000)
Chocolate Manufacturers Association (1999-2003)
Clement Pappas & Company, Inc (2000)
Cliffstar Corp (2000)
Didion Milling (2009)
Duramed Pharmaceuticals (2000)
Environmental Power Corporation (2006)
Food Distributors International (2000)
Food Products Association (1999-2006)
General Mills (1999-2005)
Gentrac (2000)
Institute of Food Technologists (1999-2005)
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe (2000)
McDonalds Corporation (2000)
National Association of Margarine Manufacturers (2000)
National Coalition of Food Importers Association (2000-2001)
National Confectioners Association (2003-2005)
National Frozen Pizzza Institute (2000)
National Meat Association (2000-2007)
National Women Infants and Children Grocers Association (2006)
Nutritional Grocers Association of California (2003-2006)
Ocean Beauty (2004)
Pennfield Oil Co (2000)
Pillsbury Co (1999-2001)
Pixius Communication LLA (2009)
Pocahontas Foods USA Co (2000)
Pork Trade Action Coalition (2004)
Procacci Brothers Sales Corp (2005-2006)
San Tomo Group (2000)
Sanofi Pasteur (2000)
School Link Network (2006-2008)
School Nutrition Association (1999-2009)
Schwan Food Company (1999-2006)
Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar (2001)
State of Indiana (2007)
State of South Dakota (2000)
Sterigenics International (2000)
Surebeam Corp (2000-2003)
Texas Produce Association (2007-2009)
Thermogel (2006)
Transhumanc Holding Co (2000)
United Fresh Produce Association (1999-2005)
Urner Barry Publications (2000)
Matz is a partner at the lobbying firm Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Bode Matz PC, a company whose "senior legislative advisor" is also on the board of Friends of the WFP, John Block.
Block was Reagan's Secretary of Agriculture in the 1980's. In between his USDA gig and working at Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Bode Matz PC, he was president of the International Foodservice Distributers Association, "a trade association based in the Washington, DC, area that represents the wholesale grocery and foodservice distribution industry in the United States, Canada and overseas."
As it turns out, Bob Dole has been working as a lobbyist as well - for Syngenta Crop Protection in 2004-2005.
Getting back to Glickman, he's also on the board of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, a group devoted to expanding the biotech sector in Kansas. They fund a wide range of companies and organizations, including Archer Daniels Midland.
Glickman also serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Hain-Celestial Corp (a company that owns a number of "industrial organic" brands and is controlled by Heinz), Communities in Schools, Food Research and Action Center (an anti-hunger group), National 4-H Council, the William Davidson Institute and the Center for U.S. Global Engagement. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. And... he used to be on the international advisory board of Coca-Cola.
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