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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Just Nominated a Pesticide Exec to Oversee Science at the USDA
https://www.motherjones.com/food/2018/07/trump-just-nominated-a-pesticide-exec-to-oversee-science-at-usda/Trump Just Nominated a Pesticide Exec to Oversee Science at the USDA
Of course he did.
Tom Philpott
Jul. 18, 2018 6:00 AM
On Monday, while most media were still digesting President Donald Trumps extraordinary travels abroad, the White House quietly named a long-time pesticide executive as chief scientist for the US Department of Agriculture.
If approved by the Senate, Scott Hutchins will be the third major player from Dow Chemicals pesticide/seed divisionnow known as Corteva, after Dows 2017 merger with DuPontto hold a high post in Trumps USDA. Back in April, the administration tapped Ken Isley, a 30-year Dow Agroscience/Corteva veteran, to lead the USDAs Foreign Agricultural Service. In October 2017, another former Dow man, Ted Mckinney, was confirmed by the Senate as undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs. McKinney had served for 19 years on Dow Agrosciences government affairs (read: lobbying) team.
Hutchins, the USDAs presumptive new chief scientist, has been with Dow Agrosciences and later Cortvea since earning a Ph.D. in entomology from Iowa State University in 1987. His most recent title is global leader of integrated field sciences; before the DuPont merger, he served as global director for crop protection research and development at Dow AgroSciences. Crop protection, of course, means pesticidesa category that includes bug killers (pesticides), weed killers (herbicides), and fungus killers (fungicides).
In his role as chief scientistformally known as undersecretary for research, education, and economicsHutchins would set the agenda for the USDAs $2.9 billion research budget.
His nomination is the latest step in what has emerged as a remarkably active relationship between Team Trump and the company formerly known as Dow Chemical. After the 2016 election, Dow donated $1 million to Trumps inaugural committee. In March 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency reversed an Obama administration plan to ban a widely used Dow Agroscience pesticide called chlorpyrifos, a potent neurotoxin that has been shown to stunt kids brain developmentweeks after EPA director Scott Pruitt met privately with Dow CEO Andrew Liveris. In June that year, the Department of Justice approved Dows megamerger with former rival DuPont. Corteva, the agriculture unit of Dow-Dupont, is a massive player in both the US and global pesticide markets.
The chief scientist post had been vacant since Trump took office. Last year, the president generated a firestorm when he tried to hand the post to Sam Clovis, a former right-wing radio host and business professor with no scientific credentials. Clovis ultimately withdrew his nomination over revelations of his role in the Russia scandal while working as an operative for the Trump campaign.
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Trump Just Nominated a Pesticide Exec to Oversee Science at the USDA (Original Post)
babylonsister
Jul 2018
OP
DBoon
(22,366 posts)1. liek putting a vampire in charge of a blood bank
nt
Matthew28
(1,798 posts)2. Just nuts
trump wants to turn America into a third world country and is doing it for russia.
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)3. FFS
lunasun
(21,646 posts)4. Oh Dow? Perfecto