Monsanto fox now in charge of food safety hen house
Former Monsanto vice president Michael Taylor may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history. Yet he has recently been appointed by Obama to be the U.S. food safety czar. It looks like we have yet another case of the fox guarding the hen house.
The safety of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) in the public food supply has been hotly debated in Europe. As a result, labeling laws have been enacted there to allow consumers choice in the matter. Yet in the U.S., the powerful agriculture lobby, which is dominated by Monsanto and a few other mega-corporations, has managed to keep the GMO debate out of the media spotlight and thus out of public awareness.
Respected researcher Jeffrey Smith has worked tirelessly on this vital topic to report what the media has failed to cover. Below are excerpts of his comments regarding the recent appointment of the FDA's new food czar.
FDA scientists were asked to weigh in on ... the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods. Secret documents now reveal that the experts were very concerned. Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried "serious health hazards," and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.
But the biotech industry had rigged the game so that neither science nor scientists would stand in their way. They had placed their own man in charge of FDA policy, and he wasn't going to be swayed by feeble arguments related to food safety. No, he was going to do what corporations had done for decades to get past these types of pesky concerns. He was going to lie.
That man was Michael Taylor. He was Monsanto’s attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA in 1991. Not long after leaving the FDA in 1994, he became a Monsanto vice president and its chief lobbyist. Now, as of last month, he is back again as the FDA's new food czar. Like so many other similar positions, it's been a revolving door between big business and government.
If you read the FDA's announcement of Taylor's appointment as FDA commissioner at this link, you will not find any mention of his work with Monsanto. He is introduced there as "a nationally recognized food safety expert and research professor at George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services."
If you read Taylor's bio on the website of George Washington University available here, you will see mentioned that he once worked as Vice President for Public Policy at Monsanto Corp, yet you will read nothing about his avid support of GMOs, nor the fact that his private law practice mentioned in the bio was largely in service to Monsanto.
Many had hoped that the more progressive Obama administration would not be as swayed by the deep pockets of mega-corporations as was the previous Bush administration. Sadly, it's too often turning out to be the same old story. Obama is repeatedly being more influenced by big money than by what's best for the public. For lots more on the serious danger of having Monsanto's Michael Taylor as U.S. food czar, read Jeffrey Smith's well researched article available here.
For a powerfully revealing video exposing the blatant corruption of Monsanto and their push to control the seed market and inject GMOs into the vast majority of our food supply, watch the excellent documentary The Future of Food at this link. For the sake of your own health, you will be glad you did.
The box immediately below provides several ideas on what you can do to educate yourself and spread the word about the health dangers of GMOs and of having former Monsanto execs in charge at the FDA. We also invite you to comment below and let us know what you think. How can we keep big business from endangering the health of the public?
What you can do:
- Read other powerful, reliable articles on hidden dangers to your health at this link.
- Inform your media and political representatives of this important information. To contact those close to you, click here. Urge them to pass legislation putting public health ahead of lobbying dollars and to require labeling of GM food.
- Read Jeffrey Smith's powerfully revealing 10-page summary on the cover-up of GMO dangers and more at this link. Lots of excellent footnotes for verification are included.
- Read concise summaries of revealing media reports on health cover-ups available here.
- Visit our Health Information Center at www.WantToKnow.info/healthinformation.
- Spread this news to your friends and colleagues, and bookmark this article on key news websites using the "Share This" icon on this page, so that we can fill the role at which the major media is sadly failing. Together, we can make a difference.
Fred Burks served as personal language interpreter to Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Gore, and other top dignitaries in secret meetings. As part of an international network of researchers and news analysts, Fred obtains and disseminates key, reliable information about powerful, yet little-known forces which shape our world. For more, see articles and links in the right column of this page.
Comments
I only recently learned about Monsanto's culpability in many frightening issues - unbelievable how well they've dodged the bad publicity, how few people are aware of what they've been doing. Too bad Obama didn't rise above politics as usual.
Monsanto wants the Senate version of HR 2749. If it passes, corporations will control seed, animals, and farmland; dictate how a farmer can farm (including what GMO products - drugs, seeds, feed - will be listed as minimum "safe" requirements; set up farmers for surveillance, monitoring, warrantless entry, immense bureaucracy, fees and fines; and let Michael Taylor trap farmers in unlisted crimes and then set the penalties for them ... with no judicial review. The details of this travesty of a bill are to be filled in by "the Administrator" (Taylor?) within a year of its passage after consultation with "experts" (read agribusiness and biotech).
So, if people wish to save the family farm, farmers markets, and private and urban gardens, and stop Monsanto despite Obama's caving to corporations, they should do all they can to stop HR 2749 in its Senate version.
Go to the Farm Wars site to learn how serious this is for your own life. Corporations took our money first. Now, our foo
Congratulations Fred. This is an excellent article and very useful to have all the links making it easy for one to make something about it. I am happy I came across your page and I have sent it to Fondazione Diritti Genetici in Rome, Italy, as I know the founders, who have been working hard with the Europeans to get the information across to the general public and get laws passed. I'm a filmmaker from Brazil, living in LA, forming alliances to hault forest destruction in Brazil, which is vastly conducted by soy and cattle farmers. Monsanto interfered recently with the launching and distribution of 640.000 awareness booklets informing the Brazilian population on why choose organic products and organic agriculture. The booklet was ready and was going to be distributed by the Ministry of Health. Monsanto moved a judicial action against it, and even the page in the Ministry of Health website disappeared! Totally inconstitutioal
Thanks so much for that important information Anna and Jonathan. And thanks for spreading the word, too. I have no doubt that by working together, we can make a big difference.
Monsanto is the most evil corporation in the world. Thanks to them, I worry about planting corn in my garden because their GMO corn is grown by farmers all around me. They illegaly expanded their GMO foods all over the world, and have had nothing done in consequence other than they have been allowed to grow even more powerful. Any government that endorses this company is an enemy of it's people.
Mr Burks, I would appreciate if you could post a website that shows the credentials of the "respected" researcher Jeffrey Smith. What is his education and publication record?
Nick, you can read about Jeffrey Smith at this link: seedsofdeception dot com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=15. Though he does not have a PhD, he's done a lot of amazing work, and I know him personally.
I'm not too happy with Mr President on a lot of things.. BUT this one boils my blood! is an organic (Market/Whole Foods) lifestyle even safe? I will be spreading the word to everyone I know!
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