The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

scientists suppressed 165the “Agribusiness Department” or “USDA, Inc.” because it is accused of servingthe interests of the companies that control the production, processing, anddistribution of food. “These industry-linked appointees have helped to implementpolicies that undermine the regulatory mission of USDA in favor ofthe bottom-line interests of a few economically powerful companies,” writesPhilip Matera in a 2004 article titled “USDA, Inc.: “How Agribusiness HasHijacked Regulatory Policy at the US Department of Agriculture.” 26To illustrate his argument, the former journalist, now working at GoodJobs First in Washington, took the example of biotechnology, for which, hesaid, the USDA had become one of the most fervent promoters. Begun underthe first Bush administration, this direction was followed by the Democraticadministration of Bill Clinton, whose campaign director was MickeyKantor, later U.S. trade representative and commerce secretary, and, as I’vealready noted, later a member of the Monsanto board of directors. In 1999,the intransigent American trade representative became famous for the harshcomments and the threats he made against his European counterparts whenthey announced their intention to label GMO products. In this area, hisgreatest ally was Dan Glickman.The St. Louis Post-Dispatch once referred to Glickman as “one of biotechnology’sleading boosters, admonishing reluctant Europeans not to stand inthe way of progress.” 27 Clinton’s agriculture secretary firmly believed in thebenefits of genetic manipulation: “I believe that biotechnology has enormouspotential for consumers, for farmers, and for the millions of hungryand malnourished people in the developing world” was the language he wasstill using in April 2000 in a speech to the Council for Biotechnology Information.28 He had already seen the fervor of people on the opposite side ofthe issue: at the World Food Summit, held under the auspices of the FAO inRome in November 1996, governments had just committed themselves tocutting the numbers of the malnourished in half by 2015, and the Americanrepresentative was holding a press conference. Greenpeace activists whohad gotten forged press credentials stood up, took off their clothes, and displayedanti-GMO slogans on their naked bodies as they pelted Glickmanwith Roundup Ready soybeans.Appointed Secretary of Agriculture just after Monsanto’s transgenic soybeanshad gone on the market, Dan Glickman was the one who authorizedall subsequent GMO crops. When I met him in July 2006, he had completelychanged hats: in September 2004 he had been appointed CEO of