80+ Groups Oppose Banning GMO Labeling

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Apr 20, 2010 at 20:39:04 PM PDT

During the first week in May, members of the international community are meeting in Canada to discuss international food labeling standards. This is a part of Codex Alimentarius, a UN agency that develops food and safety standards (and freaks a lot of people out). The U.S. (specifically the USDA and FDA) has drafted a position that opposes a Codex document allowing countries to each set their own rules on labeling genetically modified foods. In other words, the U.S. wants to keep the entire world from labeling GMOs. They want this because U.S. companies make a fortune selling GM seeds, and the U.S. produces a large percentage of the world's genetically modified crops. And one of our governement's top food safety gurus, Michael Taylor, used to work for Monsanto. (That's not the reason they give for their opposition, of course. But who are they kidding?)

Unfortunately (for Michael Taylor), the people of the United States don't all agree with Michael Taylor. Some of us WANT GMOs to be labeled. At the very least, other countries should have the right to require labels even if our country does not. Thus, 80+ groups have signed onto a letter to the USDA and FDA opposing their opposition to Codex letting countries set their own policies on GMO labeling. (In other words, the signers of the letter WANT countries to be permitted to require GMO labeling if they wish.)

Signers of the letter include Consumers Union, Food Democracy Now, the Union of Concerned Scientists, R-CALF USA, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and a vast number of organic food, farming, and consumer groups, anti-GMO groups, pesticide reform groups, food companies, and farms. You can view Consumers Union's press release about the letter below, and you can view the letter here [PDF].

Michael Taylor's Got a New Job Title

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Jan 13, 2010 at 21:52:06 PM PST

Michael R. Taylor, J.D., was named Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on Jan. 13, 2010. He is the first individual to hold the position, which was created along with a new Office of Foods in August 2009 to elevate the leadership and management of the Foods Program.

- From MarlerBlog

I don't know if this means he's got any change in job responsibilities, since this already was his basic function at FDA. It seems to me he's just got a new job title and a revised org chart to go along with it.

UPDATE: Here are articles on this from NYT and WaPo. H/t Naomi Starkman

Food safety bill may not clear Senate this year

by: desmoinesdem

Sat Oct 10, 2009 at 12:52:02 PM PDT

The Senate has been bogged down in the debate over health care reform, and Harkin said his staff is tied up working on other must-pass bills. He said he hoped to have the committee take up the bill in December, but he assured her the issue wouldn't die.

"We're going to get it done," he said.

Recent food scares linked to peanut butter and other products have spurred interest in Congress in increasing the FDA's authority. Michael Taylor, a senior adviser at the FDA, told the victims and their families that the agency was poised to tighten its regulation of foods if Congress would just pass the legislation. "The forces have come together," he said. "Society is finally ready to deal with this problem."

Speaking about food safety legislation last month,

Harkin said he expected the committee's bill to be a modified version of legislation introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. Like the House bill, Durbin's legislation would give the Food and Drug Administration more authority over the 80 percent of the food supply - everything but meat and poultry - that the agency regulates. The administration would be required to inspect processors more often, and processors in turn would face new regulations for controlling against pathogens.

But the Durbin bill omits a key feature of the House-passed bill: a $500 fee on processors to offset the cost of increasing the administration's budget.

Scott Faber, a lobbyist for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, told Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register that he thinks this bill has less than a 50/50 chance of getting through Congress. The Grocery Manufacturers Association supported the food safety bill the House approved in June, but Faber observed, "As we get closer and closer to the [2010] election it makes it harder to move legislation."

Different Perspectives on the Michael Taylor Appointment

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 04:06:04 AM PDT

So what are others saying about Taylor? Well, Marion Nestle thinks he's a good choice. She makes a compelling case, too. Another food expert told me, in an email, that while Taylor did "some bad things" in the past, he's been better in recent years. That pretty much jives with what I've seen. And then there's another email I got from a friend (thank goodness I wasn't drinking anything when I read this because it would have come out my nose!):

I am willing to give him a chance, just as I am willing to give parolees a chance.

Still, he knew exactly as much about the risks of GM when he worked for Monsanto and FDA as he does now. Monsanto paid him to lie and mislead people, so he did it. Had he come clean when he went to FDA, it might be different.

I find that pretty hard to forgive.

Obama's Food Safety Working Group's Findings

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 04:38:53 AM PDT

Consumers Union put out the statement below.

Michael Taylor's Views on Food Safety

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jul 07, 2009 at 23:17:57 PM PDT

Obama White House Appoints Former Monsanto Lobbyist to FDA

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jul 07, 2009 at 22:35:57 PM PDT

The FDA just announced the appointment of Michael Taylor as a Senior Advisor to the FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg.

Taylor previously worked at the USDA from 1976-1981 as a staff lawyer. He left government to work at King & Spaulding, a law firm representing Monsanto.

He returned to government - this time to the FDA - for a stint as Deputy Commissioner for Policy from 1991-1994. According to Marion Nestle in Food Politics:

[At the FDA] he was part of the team that issued the agency's decidedly industry-friendly policy on food biotechnology and that approved the use of Monsanto's genetically engineered growth hormone in dairy cows. His questionable role in these decisions led to an investigation by the federal General Accounting Office, which eventually exonerated him of all conflict-of-interest charges.

In 1994, he moved over to the USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service to serve as Administrator until 1996. Then it was back to King & Spaulding for a little bit, and - in 1998 - over to Monsanto, where he was a senior lobbyist (Vice President for Public Policy).

Most recently, beginning in 2000, he was a fellow for Resources for The Future, serving as Research Professor Of Health Policy at George Washington University. Until this week, that is. Resources for Our Future is quite corporate funded with members of its Board of Directors from BP, Chevron, and DuPont.

And now he's back at the FDA. Great. Thanks Obama. Really.

Mr. Monsanto In Charge of Food Safety? Seriously, Obama?

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

The Door on the Government Goes Round and Round...

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Mar 08, 2009 at 15:00:00 PM PDT

Here are some more examples of this revolving door:

Terry Medley, former administrator of the Animal and Plant Inspection Service of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, chairman and vice-chairman of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Biotechnology Council and former member of the FDA's food advisory committee, is now Director of Regulatory and External Affairs of Dupont Corp.'s Agricultural Enterprises.

Margaret Miller, deputy director of the FDA's Office of New Animal Drugs, had worked for Monsanto as a research scientist.

Michael A. Friedman, M.D. a former commissioner of the FDA Dept. of Health and Human Services is now vice-president for clinical affairs at GD Searle & Co. a pharmaceutical division of Monsanto Corporation.

And lastly Michael R. Taylor, FDA's deputy commissioner for policy, wrote the FDA's rBGH (Monsanto's genetically engineered cattle drug) labeling guidelines, which prohibited dairy corporations from making distinctions between products made with or without rBGHs, had been a lawyer for the Monsanto Corporation. (source)

For Taylor, the door might swing around once again. In fact, Taylor is the poster child for the revolving door! (If you keep a copy of Food Politics next to your bed like I do, check out page 101.) Now rumor has it that the White House may appoint him to a food safety post (czar?). Let's hope they have the good judgment not to, after Obama has pledged to keep lobbyists out of the administration. Taylor might not be a lobbyist at the moment, but he's certainly got a taint on him all the same.

My Letter to Tom Vilsack Re: Bad Potential Food Safety Appointees

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 22:59:02 PM PST

Dear Secretary Vilsack,

I was initially a skeptic when you were appointed but thus far you've impressed me. That said, I would definitely change my positive opinion of you if you choose to appoint either Michael Osterholm or Michael Taylor to any position at the USDA. I ask that you take the lead in helping America protect the safety of its food supply by appointing a real reformer at the I USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) position and advising President Obama not to name Michael Taylor to any position in the administration.

Please appoint someone other than Michael Osterholm, who has proven to be too biased in favor of a single technology that has been ineffective in stopping food safety outbreaks and is something that most American consumers don't want. My feeling on irradiation is that sterile shit is still shit and I don't want it in my food. As Marion Nestle called it, "it is a late-stage techno-fix to a problem that should never have happened in the first place."

I took the President at his word when he said he would close the revolving door in this new administration and I know that you want to lead a new era at the USDA. If you look in the dictionary under "revolving door" you will literally see Michael Taylor's picture. Why would you want to open up the USDA to that kind of critique or ridicule by appointing him?

Please appoint true reformers to positions within the USDA to help you transform America's food and farm system for the 21st century.

Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Jill Richardson

More info coming on this topic soon, courtesy of Ms. Obama Foodorama :) I urge everyone to send letters like this to the email address listed above - or wait for more information and send your own personalized letter then.

Discouraging news on food safety appointments

by: desmoinesdem

Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 12:43:02 PM PST

There's a possibility that former Monsanto executive Michael Taylor and irradiation proponent Dr. Michael Osterholm will be named to top food safety spots in the new Administration. [...]
1. Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto executive, whose career literally fits the definition of the revolving door between government, lobbying and corporate interests. Before serving on the Obama ag transition team, Taylor made a name for himself rotating in and out of law firms, Monsanto, the USDA and FDA. While at the FDA he helped write the rules to allow rBGH into the American food system and our children's milk.

Now we've learned that Taylor may be in line to run an office in the White House on food safety!

2.  On Monday, Secretary Vilsack is set to announce the appointment of Dr. Michael Osterholm, a food safety expert, to lead the Food Safety agency at the USDA. According to Food  & Water Watch, Osterholm has been "a zealot in promoting th[e] controversial technology (of irradiation) as the panacea to contaminated food."

Irradiation allows food processors to nuke disease from contaminated food at the end of the production line, while ignoring the root problems that create unsafe food.

For Osterholm, the recent peanut butter fiasco apparently was just another example of how irradiation could save the day. "Clearly it's a problem where the raw peanut butter or paste is consumed and not cooked," Osterholm said.

Food Democracy Now wants people to e-mail Vilsack immediately, asking him to block these appointments. The action alert included a sample e-mail, which I've posted after the jump, but it's always better to write this kind of letter in your own words.

Dennis Wolff and the USDA - Update

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 16:57:00 PM PST

Well now it gets worse. There's been quite a bit of speculation over the new Ag Secretary and we've learned a little bit. Collin Peterson (D-MN) and Tom Vilsack aren't in the running, it would seem. Hallelujah. Although it seems like other than Vilsack's support of biotech he might not be a bad guy. Not that it matters if he's out of the running.

But who is in the running? A name has surfaced that no one initially suspected. Dennis Wolff, evil Secretary of Agriculture in the great state of Pennsylvania. And it looks like he might get the job.

The Fox is On the Henhouse Transition Team?

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 10:33:14 AM PST

The transition named its "team members" looking at energy and natural resources agencies, which includes USDA. The list includes Michael R. Taylor, a man who spent his career bouncing between the employ of GMO-seed giant Monsanto and Bill Clinton's FDA and USDA. Taylor is widely credited with ushering Monsanto's recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) through the FDA regulatory process and into the milk supply.

Could he be the reason behind consideration of rBGH-loving Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff for a post at USDA? (Wolff not only attempted to ban rBGH-free labels in Pennsylvania, he has also worked to deprive communities the right to ban toxic sewage sludge, factory farms, and GMOs.)

More on Salmonella

by: OrangeClouds115

Thu Jul 10, 2008 at 13:58:16 PM PDT

But officials have still not pinpointed the source of the contamination. Nor do they know the country or state where the tainted produce was grown, despite a rule issued by the Food and Drug Administration under the bioterrorism law that was intended to give federal officials a way to respond immediately to threats to the nation's food supply.

The rule requires importers, processors and distributors to keep track of where they buy produce and where it goes. A major hurdle facing investigators in this outbreak, however, is that processors frequently repack boxes of tomatoes to meet a buyer's demands. In doing so, officials said, they are not required to record the tomatoes' farm, state or even country of origin.

"The purpose of the recordkeeping provision of the Bioterrorism Act was to support going back to the origin of food after people have gotten sick when you are trying to find out how the biological agent got there," said Michael Taylor, a professor at George Washington University and a former FDA official. "But the provisions are of little or no value with respect to trace-backs of fresh produce because of the amount of shoe leather and time it would take."

What's interesting here? First of all - they quote Michael Taylor. I was wondering what he was up to these days. He's the poster boy for the "revolving door" between industry and government.

But second of all - what does this say about having a centralized food system as we do now? Either they need much MUCH more tracking and accountability or else we'll continue to have problems like this. I say give up on the centralized disaster of a food system and support local food.