The Good Ole' Boys Network + The Revolving Door = No Food Safety for All of Us

The Ethicurean ran an article on June 30th that Mike Taylor would be joining the FDA. The article states that Mr. Taylor used to be part of the legal arm of Monsanto. Not only that, some of the positions that Mr Taylor has occupied recently has been that he was part of the AG transition team for the Obama White House. Now the rumour is that he is going to be tapped to be part of the FDA in a position coordinating food safety. According to PoliticalFriendster , Mr. Taylor has some friends who don't seem very concerned about Food Safety at all. 

Here's a little excerpt:

* Michael Taylor is a Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) and Director of the Risk, Resources and Environmental Management division. As the creator of the biotech loopholes for Monsanto's GMOs he's perfect for "public policy".  

* Attorney for Monsanto who rewrote the "regulations" for Genetically Modified foods. His brilliant addition is the "substantial equivalence" measure which says if the nutrition measures are the same for the GMO as the natural food it is nobody's business what the chemical companies add. They add a lot.  

* One of Taylor's duties was to represent Monsanto's efforts to get its bovine growth hormone approved by the FDA. Taylor left King and Spaulding in 1991 to rejoin the FDA, this time as Deputy Commissioner for Policy. In that position Taylor was responsible for writing guidelines on the use and marketing of the controversial hormone that were favorable to the company. 
Specifically, Taylor drafted guidelines that exempted milk producers from labeling dairy products from cows that had been treated with rBGH. Now Taylor has returned to Monsanto to work on what the company calls "long range planning."

* Attorney for Monsanto who rewrote the "regulations" for Genetically Modified foods. His brilliant addition is the "substantial equivalence" measure which says if the nutrition measures are the same for the GMO as the natural food it is nobody's business what the chemical companies add.

As you can see, this is politics as usual. The large AG businesses have their people in place to do as much harm as the people who want to do the right thing can do good.  If you want to see all of Mr. Taylor's connections, go here. The article from the Ethicurean is here.