On Halloween, Pres. Bush nominated Edward Schafer for the post of Agriculture Secretary. Schafer is a two-time North Dakota governor and former co-chairman of the Governors Biotechnology Partnership. While the White House is highlighting Schafer’s experience at directing emergency aid to the 1997 flooding disaster, voters and the Senate would do well to consider his role in shielding the biotech industry from consumer product labeling laws.
According to an online search, Ed Schafer was the former co-chairman of the Governors Biotechnology Partnership. He was instrumental in getting former Pres. Clinton to back off of requirements that GM modified foods be labeled as such. See the article from The Guardian in May of 2000, titled, 'Clinton bows to food producers.'
There was quite a flurry of press about Mr. Schafer in 2000. You might like to look up the Salon article from its archive, 'Stalking the wild Frankensalmon,' from May 5, 2000. Quote:
'On Wednesday, 13 governors joined forces with the biotech industry to try to persuade American consumers to become more enthusiastic consumers of engineered food. 'It makes sense to say that this isn't just the big, bad chemical companies trying to engineer something to jam down your throats,' said North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer… How political is the coalition? Consider that two of the group's three Democratic governors are from states housing the headquarters of biotech gorillas Monsanto and DuPont.'
And an editorial and letter to editor in Gentech, also from May 2000, has even more of his own words about the 'promised land' of GM foods...
' In 1998, the Governor let his constituents know his innermost feelings about the 'new' agriculture. In his State of the State address, he said: '...today different winds blow across our fields of waving wheat. Washington has changed the rules on...agriculture.'
His 1999 address included a commercial for Monsanto's pesticide: 'Every day I read about a new innovation...Roundup-ready crops...'
This year, the governor made no mistake about his intentions: 'Genetic engineering will make farms smaller, more specialized and more profitable.'
This ill-informed politician is the chief executive of an agricultural state, North Dakota, which produces enormous surpluses. Farmers in his state are paid subsidies not to grow corn and soybeans, yet the governor believes that genetically modified foods are the keys to easing world hunger. '
