Issue #029, August 20, 2010

Fox in the Henhouse

There is a bill currently in Congress that you have likely never heard of. I certainly didn't know about it before yesterday, but its implications are terrifying.

To fully understand what's going on, you have to know about Michael R. Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a new position created by the Obama Administration.

Taylor is an attorney who for years worked in the legal department of Monsanto, a leading industry in creating genetically modified seeds and that also crammed Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone or rBgh down all of our throats during the early nineties.

If you've ever seen a nine-year-old girl with unusually large breasts, rBgh is likely the culprit. This growth hormone causes cows to create far more milk, but also has nasty health implications for the rest of us who consume this hormone unawares every time we drink milk or eat ice cream or cheese.

During the early nineties, Taylor left Monsanto to work as Deputy Director of the FDA. During the three years he was there he rammed through acceptance of rBgh and also pushed through legislation not allowing required labeling of rBgh. Then he went back to work for Monsanto.

So what about Taylor's new job? Well that's to create and push the new food safety bill.

Out of concern over the rash of salmonella cases that have been cropping up of late, the government is reacting by passing a new law in hopes of protecting us from further cases of food poisoning. All well and good, but choosing Taylor to oversee this law is like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

If passed, Bill S.510 will give the Secretary of Agriculture the authority to establish "science-based minimum standards for the safe production and harvesting of...fruits and vegetables that are raw agricultural commodities."

Small businesses and entities, basically anyone who sells any kind of fruit or vegetable, will be included in these regulations and will have to comply with Federal standards for "soil amendments, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment and water."

As far as my research has shown, Taylor has yet to make any move that serves the best interests of the public. This bill he's spearheading is no different. No matter how loud proponents may yell about the benefits of this bill, its passage could spell the doom of the local farmer and virtually destroy all of our chances of obtaining fresh raw milk, raw honey and locally produced fresh fruits and vegetables.

I would urge you to contact your representatives and let them know you oppose S.510 before all of our freedoms are ripped away.

You can read an interesting commentary about Taylor by clicking here.

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