Monsanto's Man in the Obama Administration - The Return of Michael Taylor

[ensho]

http://counterpunch.com/kenfield08142009.html


Michael R. Taylor’s appointment by the Obama administration to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on July 7th sparked immediate debate and even outrage among many food and agriculture researchers, NGOs and activists. The Vice President for Public Policy at Monsanto Corp. from 1998 until 2001, Taylor exemplifies the revolving door between the food industry and the government agencies that regulate it. He is reviled for shaping and implementing the government’s favorable agricultural biotechnology policies during the Clinton administration.

Yet what has slipped under everyone’s radar screen is Taylor’s involvement in setting U.S. policy on agricultural assistance in Africa. In collusion with the Rockefeller and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations, Taylor is once again the go-between man for Monsanto and the U.S. government, this time with the goal to open up African markets for genetically-modified (GM) seed and agrochemicals.

-snip-

In an interview with AllAfrica.com, Obama echoed Taylor’s sentiment: "I'm still frustrated over the fact that the Green Revolution that we introduced into India in the '60s, we haven't yet introduced into Africa in 2009."

Yet as Crossfield points out, “There are very good reasons why we have never introduced a Green Revolution into Africa, namely because there is broad consensus that the Green Revolution in India has been a failure, with Indian farmers in debt, bound to paying high costs for seed and pesticides, committing suicide at much higher rates, and resulting in a depleted water table and a poisoned environment, and by extension, higher rates of cancer. If President Obama is lacking this information, it is his cabinet that is to blame.”

-snip-

As Ben Burkett, president of the National Family Farm Coalition, a U.S. member of La Via Campesina, cautioned, “As an African American farmer who has visited farmers in Africa many times, I am deeply concerned that much of the Obama Administration’s pledge to spend $1 billion on agriculture research will be wasted on biotech research that benefits Monsanto more than it does small-scale farmers.”
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No to Monsanto and Michael Taylor with his finger in the pie

[SpiralHawk]

1. The k and the r

Don't want no steenkin mutant, chemicalized, irradiated, processed, industrial food-product facsimile crapola.

Give us clean food. Period.

[crazylikafox]

2. k&r

[Metta]

3. Another wrong headed move by Obama with evidence more blatant than ever.

Sowing suffering reaps only suffering.

[swilton]

4. Bhopal, Agent Orange

The list goes on - K&R - Thanks for keeping us informed!:hi:

[dolphindance]

5. Yawn. Now I'm supposed to be outraged about agricultural assistance?

Whatever. Unrecced.

[bvar22]

6. Canceling out your unrec.

You don't have to be outraged about anything.
You are entirely free to keep your head in the sand.

[IndianaGreen]

12. same here

I am recommending this in response to the unrecommend squad. DU tried this system years ago, and it turned out to be a joke, just as it is now.

[roody]

11. recced. Hang around here.

You can become informed.

[polichick]

7. Organics for the First Family, Monsanto for the rest of us. That stinks! nt

[ProSense]

8. Noted Food Safety Expert Michael R. Taylor Named Advisor to FDA Commissioner

Noted Food Safety Expert Michael R. Taylor Named Advisor to FDA Commissioner

Counterpuke:

Yet as Crossfield points out, “There are very good reasons why we have never introduced a Green Revolution into Africa, namely because there is broad consensus that the Green Revolution in India has been a failure, with Indian farmers in debt, bound to paying high costs for seed and pesticides, committing suicide at much higher rates, and resulting in a depleted water table and a poisoned environment, and by extension, higher rates of cancer. If President Obama is lacking this information, it is his cabinet that is to blame.”

Yeah, drop a letter to the administration.

[rollingrock]

14. But Obama shares the blame

for putting a Monsanto lobbyist in his Cabinet in the first place.

something he specifically promised he would never do, remember?

[Better Believe It]

9. Monsanto Planting Seeds in the White House?

Monsanto Planting Seeds in the White House?
by Asher Miller
OpEd News
March 24, 2009

Mr. Taylor is a lawyer who began his revolving door adventures as counsel to FDA. He then moved to King & Spalding, a private-sector law firm representing Monsanto, a leading agricultural biotechnology company. In 1991 he returned to the FDA as Deputy Commissioner for Policy, where 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, Mr. Taylor moved to USDA to become administrator of its Food Safety and Inspection Service... After another stint in private legal practice with King & Spalding, Mr. Taylor again joined Monsanto as Vice President for Public Policy in 1998.

The man has moved in and out of roles at the federal government and Monsanto so many times he probably has whiplash.

.... I find it puzzling, to put it lightly, that Obama would choose this guy to help ensure food safety. Here's what Taylor recently said:

FDA is in "bad shape" and the FSIS meat and poultry inspection system is "obsolete," Taylor said. "We're spending a lot of government money to do inspections that could be done by someone else," he said. "We need to complete the transformation of FSIS as a food safety agency, away from inspection to a science-based public health agency."


Michael R. Taylor





http://www.opednews.com/articles/Monsanto-Planting-Seeds-In-by-Asher-Miller-090324-445.html

[boppers]

10. More food, more resistant crops, downsides of vendor lock-in.

Introducing post-industrial agricultural techniques into pre-industrial societies has problems.

While Monsanto is a bit of a wolf-whistle, a boogyman, it's not the problem. The problem is trying to reshape societies without going through intermediary steps, or finding alternatives based on the last 100 years of mistakes.

[Vidar]

13. Another Obama appointee that belongs in jail. Recommended.

[rollingrock]

15. He promised no lobbyists would ever work in his administration

....and yet his Cabinet now appears to be dominated by industry lobbyists. WTH?