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| One of Taylor's duties was to represent Monsanto's efforts to get its bovine growth hormone approved by the FDA. Taylor left King and Spaulding in 1991 to rejoin the FDA, this time as Deputy Commissioner for Policy. In that position Taylor was responsible for writing guidelines on the use and marketing of the controversial hormone that were favorable to the company. | | Submitted by fedup | 2007-06-27 17:33:44 | Specifically, Taylor drafted guidelines that exempted milk producers from labeling dairy products from cows that had been treated with rBGH. Now Taylor has returned to Monsanto to work on what the company calls "long range planning."
One of Taylor's former associates at the FDA, Dr. Nick Weber, recently leaked confidential notes from the European Commission on whether the Commission was going to approve the use of the company's bovine growth hormone. Weber passed on the notes to his boss at the FDA, Dr. Margaret Mitchell. Before joining the FDA, Mitchell had served as director of the Monsanto lab working on the hormone. The notes helped Monsanto prepare its arguments in advance of the September meeting. Monsanto's application was approved on a tie vote when the U.S. chair of the committee determined "by the chairman's privilege" that a tie vote meant approval.
The company may have secured its biggest coup in 1997, when it brought onto its board Mickey Kantor, the former Secretary of Commerce and one of Bill Clinton's closest advisors. It was Kantor who opened the doors to the White House and got the administration to threaten the European Union on the matter of Monsanto's genetically-engineered grain.
Kantor's new law firm, Mayer, Brown & Platt, watches out for the company's interests in matters of international trade, food safety, and product labeling. Prior to Kantor's arrival at the firm in 1997, one of Mayer, Brown & Platt's top lobbyists was William Daley. Daley was tapped by Bill Clinton to fill Kantor's spot in the cabinet as Secretary of Commerce. In that capacity, he has led the charge for Monsanto on several continents.
eatthestate.org/03-29/NaturePolitics.htm
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March 17, 1994 Last month Taylor signed the FEDERAL REGISTER notice warning grocery stores not to label milk as free of rBGH, thus giving Monsanto a powerful boost in its fight to prevent consumers from knowing whether rBGH produced their milk.
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