Monsanto's Chief Lobbyist Now Senior Adviser To Commissioner Of The FDA

By Theodora Filis

                                    Michael R. Taylor

Michael R. Taylor, the same man that was in charge of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) policy when genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were allowed into the US food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety, was appointed Senior Adviser to the Commissioner of the FDA. President Obama appointed the former Monsanto Vice President and lobbyist earlier this month.

Taylor was Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA and later became Monsanto's Vice President and chief lobbyist.

The GMO nightmare began when Dan Quayle led the FDA/GMO connection. Under George Bush Senior's Administration from 1989 to 1993, Dan Quayle single-underhandedly catapulted GMOs into existence through the FDA's anti-consumer right-to-know policy, which stated that GMO foods did not have to be labeled or safety tested.

Yes, you read that correctly – there are no safety tests required on GMOs. Monsanto's Agent Orange pesticide and genetically mutated Frankenfood seeds – produced in a chemical laboratory – don't need to be tested before they're planted and served to unsuspecting consumers.

Institute for Responsible Technology http://www.responsibletechnology.org/ writes: Before the FDA decided to allow GMOs into food without labeling, FDA scientists had repeatedly warned that GM foods can create unpredictable, hard-to-detect side effects, including allergies, toxins, new diseases, and nutritional problems. They urged long-term safety studies but were ignored.

Since then, findings include:

• Thousands of sheep, buffalo, and goats in India died after grazing on Bt cotton plants
• Mice eating GM corn for the long term had fewer and smaller, babies
• More than half the babies of mother rats fed GM soy died within three weeks, and were smaller
• Testicle cells of mice and rats on a GM soy changed significantly
• By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies
• Rodents fed GM corn and soy showed immune system responses and signs of toxicity
• Cooked GM soy contains as much as 7-times the amount of a known soy allergen
• Soy allergies skyrocketed by 50% in the UK, soon after GM soy was introduced
• The stomach lining of rats fed GM potatoes showed excessive cell growth, a condition that may lead to cancer.
• Studies showed organ lesions, altered liver and pancreas cells, changed enzyme levels, etc.

Unlike safety evaluations for drugs, there are no human clinical trials of GM foods. The only published human feeding experiment revealed that the genetic material inserted into GM soy transfers into bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function. This means that long after we stop eating GM foods, we may still have their GM proteins produced continuously inside us. This could mean:

• If the antibiotic gene inserted into most GM crops were to transfer, it could create super diseases, resistant to antibiotics
• If the gene that creates Bt-toxin in GM corn were to transfer, it might turn our intestinal bacteria into living pesticide factories.

Although no studies have evaluated if antibiotic or Bt-toxin genes transfer, that is one of the key problems. The safety assessments are too superficial to even identify most of the potential dangers of GMOs.

Recent health studies provide growing evidence of harm from GMOs:

GM Corn Damages the Liver and Kidneys
Meat Raised on GM Feed is Different
Roundup Could Cause Birth Defects
Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility

Taylor is part of a revolving door at the FDA, where Monsanto Execs just come and go as they please. First, he was assistant to the FDA commissioner. Then, he left to work for a law firm in the 1980s to help gain FDA approval of Monsanto's artificial growth hormone (rGBH), which is directly linked to cancer. Then he became deputy commissioner of the FDA in 1991 and was later re-appointed to the FDA in 2009 by Obama.

Taylor is yet another vehicle pushing Monsanto's patented seeds and plans for global domination of farming. Everyone makes lots of money using Monsanto's RoundUp to grow our food, do you think they're going to let us stop them?