Food Czar & Food Safety Bill. What's this all about anyway?
by Kathryn Burke, with excerpts from article by Tracey Planinz. Denver Examiner Aug. 2009.

[Fall 2009] AFTER THE CHICKEN SCARE in May 2007 (3 million chickens had been fed melamine-tainted feed), the FDA appointed David Acheson, a basically anonymous physician with a quiet passion for microbes, to the much ballyhooed position of  Food Czar (or more accurately, FDA asistant commissioner for food protection). He was well qualified for the job. Perhaps not so for the new guy.

Note: Protests were made to the Chinese government and as a sign of how serious China is about shoring up the safety of its food products, Beijing executed the former head of its State Food and Drug Administration in May of 2008 for accepting bribes to approve untested medicine reportedly blamed for at least 10 deaths. Story here.)

President Obama's newly appointed food czar (or food "safety" czar) Monsanto's Michael Taylor, is an attorney, not a physician, and has a background of (questionable?) connectons to biotec and GMO industries. He's yo'yoed between working for the government and working for private industry, primarily Monsanto. (See bio here.)  Not surprisingly his latest appointment has raised some eyebrows along with many concerns. Food Democracy Now describes Taylor as: "... 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.

OpEdNews author Linn Cohen-Cole suggests that Taylor: "subjected this country and many others to the increased risk of breast cancer (7 times greater risk), prostate and colon cancer because of what he did to milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream with rBGH as well as to all the foods that rely on milk solids and other parts of milk?"  And asks: "Why, over see "food safety?"  Full Article.

More to the point, in an August 2009 article by Tracey Planinz in Orlando Alternative Medicine Examiner, reported on examiner.com, the author asks: Will Obama's new Food Czar end organic farming?  The author concludes it would appear so "considering the history of his latest appointment of Michael Taylor, as "Food Czar." The former Monsanto Executive worked closely for years with the FDA, passing legislation that restricts organic farming."  Planinz notes that "Taylor's resume includes positions such as Vice President and Chief Lobbyist for Monsanto. His lobbying efforts have done much to hurt small non-commercial farmers, especially those with organic farms..."

Also in this article: "A more recent concern is the Food Safety Enhancement Bill (HR 2749). The title is misleading, to say the least. This bill, if passed, with give the FDA even more power than it already has, including the ability to randomly inspect, without notice, any farm and confiscate property without probable cause. Reportedly, the bill also provides the FDA with control over organic farming, and gives them the right to impose the use of GMO animal feed, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Which would, in essence, eliminate organic farming as we know it."

It's not just the "czar" though, but the newly defined empire over which he reigns. Read the related article: Alert: The End of Food as We Know It by Paul Fassa, citizen journalist, appearing in NaturalNews.com. The article addresses serious concerns about the so-called Food Safety Bill (Food Safety Enhancement Bill HR 2749) and the author suggests you should "do your own research on the ambiguity of the bill, of which interpretation and enforcement will be left to the discretion of The Food Czar.... The Food Safety Bill does next to nothing to protect consumers from the industrial foods of agribusiness giants such as Monsanto and their ilk. It has the potential to be an instrument of legal oppression for small farmers, organic farming, even farmers' markets and food co-ops. Some indicate the Bill's language is broad enough to even include home vegetable gardens!"  The House has already passed it.

In a recent Huffington Post article, "You're Appointing Who? Please Obama, Say It's Not So!" Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, asserts: "The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US Food Safety Czar. This is no joke."  Perhaps that is exaggerated, but Michael Taylor's history with Monsanto and the FDA through the corporate/government revolving door is scary enough to provoke such an assertion.

To learn more, visit these resources:

Organic Consumers Association action page
http://www.organicconsumers.org/art...

Communist Takeover Of All Food Production From Farm To Fork Almost Complete!
http://www.healthtruthrevealed.com/...

The Farm Blog - GMO Real Story
http://polyfaceyum.blogspot.com/200...

Monsanto Buys Terminator Seed Company by F. William Engdahl
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index....

HR 2479: Totalitarian Control of the Food Supply
http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2009/06...

Jeffrey Smith article on Obama's Food Czar
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffr...
and www.responsibletechnology.org

NSSM 200 "Food as a weapon"
http://www.schillerinstitute.org/fo...

List of Obama Czars (before most recent selections)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...

Ohio ODA raid on organic food co-op
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...