Food Politics

Marion Nestle, on her great site Food Politics, is saying that Mike Taylor has been appointed to the FDA and that he's a good choice. Here's a little snip of why she thinks so:

He really is a good choice for this job. Why? Because he managed to get USDA to institute HACCP (science-based food safety regulations) for meat and poultry against the full opposition of the meat industry — a truly heroic accomplishment. His position on food safety has been strong and consistent for years. 

Read about HACCP here.

At this point, I'm not so sure that I agree with Ms. Nestle, his industry ties are pretty deep even though (as she points out) that he "recused himself from matters related to Monsanto’s BGH and had “never sought to influence the thrust or content” of the agency’s policies on Monsanto’s products."

Her article (with an explanation) is located here. There is one thing clear though, with people that have interests like Mr. Taylor's, its important that we do everything we can to keep them "honest" and working for the best practices that they can for the consumer and not for big business like Monsanto.