Ted McKinney, [former] director of global corporate affairs for Elanco Animal Health, a division of pharma giant Eli Lilly; [former] executive on the government affairs team for seed/pesticide giant Dow AgroSciences; [and]… recently reappointed as director of Indiana’s agriculture department, has emerged as the latest in a long line of contenders du jour for the [secretary of the US Department of Agriculture], Politico reports.
Tom Vilsack, the outgoing USDA chief, abruptly quit Friday, informing employees in an email he had served his final day, Associated Press reports. Vilsack added some damning commentary on Trump’s delay in choosing his successor: “When that individual is named, he or she will be at a tremendous disadvantage, in terms of getting up to speed on all this department does,” Vilsack said in a statement, according to AP.
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In addition to having worked for Dow for nearly two decades, Mckinney was a co-founder and served as interim executive director for the Council for Biotechnology Information, a group funded by BASF, Bayer, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, Monsanto, and Syngenta to promote agriculture biotech. These companies need USDA approval to move novel genetically modified seeds from lab to market.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Trump Eyes Ex-Agrochemical Exec to Fill HIs Cabinet Post
