Agricultural Secretary Vilsack to Hold ‘Secret Meeting’ with Biotech

naturalsociety.com

The USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, previously indicated he would be back to business as usual as soon as government officials returned to work from their holiday break. Now he has reportedly announced a closed-door, invitation-only meeting to continue the bidding of the biotech industry. [1]

Natural Society has pointed out Vilsack’s very obvious conflict of interest in his position before as it pertains to Big Biotech and other health/food related sectors, but this planned meeting makes it even more obvious that he has no intention of protecting the small farmer, or US agriculture in general. 

Vilsack’s plan for a secret meeting is timed with Campbell’s Soup Company’s announcement that it is going to adopt GMO labeling for all of its products. While representatives from Big Food and Big Biotech, including Monsanto executives, will be invited to the meeting in Washington D.C., it seems odd that not one official representative will be invited from the four states that have recently passed obligatory GMO labeling laws: Alaska, Connecticut, Maine, and Vermont.

There should be no ‘secret’ invitation-only meetings. They should all be open to the public, and at the very least broadcast or live recorded for all to participate in the democratic process of deciding what is to become of our food.