Michael Taylor, The New Old Guy At The FDA

Michael TaylorMichael Taylor may be a controversial choice for the special assistant to the FDA Commissioner for food safety.  After all, he worked for several years as a lawyer working to represent Monsanto, vilified by many as the face of genetically modified foods.  He personifies the ‘revolving door’ between governmental positions and the food industry.  Taylor has gone back and forth between working for Monsanto in various capacities and working for both the FDA and the USDA.

However, while he was working for the FDA, he did recuse himself from matters related to Monsanto and its bovine growth hormone, which they did approve the use of.  And, while he was working for the USDA he instituted HACCP (science-based food safety regulations) for meat and poultry against the full opposition of the meat industry.  He even made a speech about it to the American Meat Institute–his said the USDA would be more about consumer health and public safety than agricultural productivity.  (Funny how that objective seemed to slip away from the agency…)

Furthermore, according Marion Nestle’s Safe Food, Michael Taylor has (as of 2002, at least) a lot of high-minded priorities that are sure to please many food activists:

  • A single agency accountable for providing consistent and coordinated oversight of food safety, from farm to table.
  • Institution of Pathogen Reduction: HACCP, with performance standards verified by pathogen testing, at every step of food production.
  • Recall authority, access to records, and penalties for lapses in safety procedures.
  • Standards for imported foods equivalent to those for domestic foods.
  • Food safety to take precedence over commercial considerations in trade disputes.

One would think that these goals would pervade the food safety system even without Mr. Taylor’s direction, and that seven years on there would be more progress on these issues inherent to everyday food safety.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to change the past.

Consequently, for us in linear time, we must focus on the future and watch closely to see if Taylor is true to his older self.  We can only hope that he gets right back to the business he started getting down to years ago.

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P.S. Check out PoliticalFriendster.com for the many degrees of Michael Taylor.  Along with Monsanto, think tanks, and academia, it turns out that he is also related to Tipper Gore.

July 10, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized

One Response

  1. Mom - July 17, 2009

    It seems to me that I saw this on the front page of the good old fashioned newspaper also!

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