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Michael R. Taylor, J.D., was appointed Deputy Commissioner for Foods.  This was announced on the FDA’s website the day after the earthquake in Haiti.  Michael Taylor is a former top executive, lawyer and lobbyist with biotech giant Monsanto Co. He has rotated in and out of law firms, Monsanto, the USDA and FDA.

During his former stint in the FDA during the Clinton administration he helped write the rules to allow rBGH (Bovine Growth Hormone) into the American food system and our children’s milk. Which is perhaps why the FDA staffer who wrote Taylor’s bio seems to have all-but-forgotten his decade-plus of Monsanto work.  Michael Taylor and Monsanto are responsible for subjecting this country and many others to the increased risk of breast cancer (7 times greater risk), prostate cancer and colon cancer because of what they 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.

As a bi-product of the rBGH fight Michael Taylor then led the ban on labeling of GM products all together.  This was labeled “the principal of substantial equivalence” which prohibits any distinction to be made between GM and traditional products.  Regardless of any testing or lack there of  on the possible effects of GM foods used for human consumption.  Even though Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried “serious health hazards,” and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.

He left the FDA in 1994 and a few years later became Monsanto’s Vice President in charge of lobbying in Washington.  As a lobbyist, Taylor argued AGAINST the Delaney Clause, one of the foundations of food safety regulation that prohibits cancer-causing chemicals to be added to food.

“The American Academy of Environmental Medicine this year said that genetically modified foods, according to animal studies, are causally linked to accelerated aging, dysfunctional immune regulation, organ damage, gastrointestinal distress, and immune system damage. A study came out by the Union of Concerned Scientists confirming what we all know, that genetically modified crops, on average, reduce yield. A USDA report from 2006 showed that farmers don’t actually increase income from GMOs, but many actually lose income. And for the last several years, the United States has been forced to spend $3-$5 billion per year to prop up the prices of the GM crops no one wants.

If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history.  That person is Michael Taylor.” – Jeffrey M. Smith*

It’s deplorable that Michael Taylor who has repeatedly and knowingly endangered the American people is once again in charge of our food safety.

A Winning Pair FDA & USDA!

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto support of genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn.  Vilsack was the origin of the Seed Pre-Emption bill in 2005, which many people in Iowa fought.   The bill took away local government’s possibility of ever having a regulation on seeds such as where GE would be grown, having GE-free buffers.  Tom Vilsack was also the founder and former chair of the Governor’s Biotechnology Partnership.

Bill HR 875 nicknamed ‘The Criminalization of Organic Farming and the Take Over of the US Food Supply’

Monsanto is taking massive control over all farms through the falsely named “Food Safety” bills, introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband, Stanley Greenburg got rich from working for Clinton and Monsanto. The agriculture committee is loaded with people who have gotten large donations from Monsanto.  The biggest of the Monsanto bills introduced by DeLauro is HR 875.   Identical bills that have been enacted into law in the European Union resulted in 60% of the Polish farmers are now gone and 60+ UK farmers have committed suicide.  Iraq has been rendered helpless serfs by the theft of their country’s seeds and criminalization of farmers’ collection of their own seed.  By far the most devasting is India, where 182,000 farmers have committed suicide since the WTO and IMF got hold of agriculture and our Big Ag firms went in there, an additional 8 million farmers have left the land altogether.

By comparison to other nations the criminalization of our hard working family farmers is still in it’s infancy.  In Ohio, state ag department SWAT team raid on an organic CoOp, Pennsylvania ag department raids on horse and buggy Mennonites, California setting coliform levels so low fresh milk dairy farmers would need cows that produced pasteurized milk right out the udder, arrest and handcuffing of a single mother in front of her children for selling goat milk, the USDA paying its agents bonuses for foreclosing on farms.  HR-875 will make theses instances look like specs of dust in the devastation it wishes to unleash on Americans.

This is the death of organic food and the criminalization of seed banking.   It is a Monsanto take over and Taylor is here to run it with a few former Monsanto sidekicks – Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court), Ann Veneman (Executive Director of UNICEF).

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

Keep the conversation going! Share informative articles such as this with friends, family and colleagues.  Knowledge is power! This is a topic you rarely if ever see on the news, it’s up to us to protect our family, friends and farmers.  Americans need to demand a food safety system that is independent of corporate interests.  Use your buying power; every dollar you spend with organic, local, Monsanto-free farmers, as well as the stores and restaurants that carry their food, is a vote against companies like Monsanto.

CLICK HERE TO DIGG THIS STORY

It will take you less then 5 minutes to read the facts below.  These scientific facts should lead to no other conclusion that top parties (former and present) at Monsanto should face criminal prosecution, not be rewarded with top seats in the American Government.

a VERY Brief Monsanto Background – Monsanto is responsible for the following:

• The Manhattan Project – under Monsanto operation conducted during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb and nuclear weapons.
• Agent Orange – Dow Chemical and Monsanto were the main producers of Agent Orange.  Internal memos from them reveal that at the time Agent Orange was sold to the U.S. government for use in Vietnam it was known that it contained a dioxin, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD), a by-product of the manufacture 2,4,5-T. The National Toxicology Program has classified TCDD to be a human carcinogen linked to the following diseases as reported by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs: prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and spina bifida in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
• DDT – Monsanto began producing in 1944 along with 15 other companies. People living in areas where DDT is used for IRS have high levels of the chemical and its breakdown products in their bodies.   These levels have been associated with profound affects on male fertility and neurological abnormalities in babies ingesting relatively large quantities of DDT from breast milk.
• Bovine Growth Horomone (rBGH, BST) - Bovine somatotropin (abbreviated bST and BST) is a protein hormone produced in the pituitary glands of cattle. It is also called bovine growth hormone, or BGH. Monsanto first synthesized the hormone in large quantities using recombinant DNA technology and marketed it as “POSILAC” beginning in 1994. The resulting product is called recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), or artificial growth hormone.  After many legal battles, bad press and public outcry against rBGH Monsanto sold its POSILAC Brand Dairy Product and Related Business to Elanco Animal Health, a division of Eli Lilly and Company in August 2008. Posilac was banned from use in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe, by 2000 or earlier. By 2009, in parts of the United States, consumer desire for “no artificial growth hormones” caused many milk products to become rBST-free
• Sued 100+ Family Farms – The non-profit Center for Food Safety listed 112 lawsuits by Monsanto against farmers for claims of seed patent violations.  Many innocent farmers settle with Monsanto (agree to use their GMO seeds) because they cannot afford the lawsuit from the giant company. Monsanto is frequently described by farmers as “Gestapo” and “Mafia” both because of these lawsuits and because of the questionable means they use to collect evidence of patent infringement.
• RoundUp - This is a deep rabbit whole that is a key element in the current Monsanto compan – I highly recommend watching The World According to Monsanto! Much of Monsanto’s seed products are genetically modified, often to make them immune to their pesticides. In a study by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, researchers found that “these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity (chemical driven liver damage).
• PCBs – Monsanto produced PCBs at plants in Sauget, Illinois and Anniston, Alabama. Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills.  And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents — many emblazoned with warnings such as “CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy” — show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew. Anniston is now one of the most polluted patches of land in America, so saturated with toxic, cancer-causing chemicals, that it’s in the dirt people walk on, in the air that they breathe, even in the blood that pumps through their veins. Due to PCB’s toxicity and classification as persistent organic pollutants, PCB production was banned by the United States Congress in 1976 and by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2001.

*Jeffrey M. Smith, International Best Selling Author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods from Chelsea Green Publishing. Smith worked at a GMO detection laboratory, founded the Institute for Responsible Technology, and currently lives in Iowa—surrounded by genetically modified corn and soybeans.

More detailed Monsanto Articles

BioIntegrity.org |  OrganicConsumers.org |  Vanity Fair 2008 feature article | Combat-Monsanto.co.uk

Animal Kingdom, Biofuel, Blue Ridge Mountains, Clothing, Economy, Environment, Green Design, Green Sustainability, News »

Highlights from the Mountain Green Sustainability Conference at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina held June 24th, 2009.  Many exciting posts are soon to come as a result of our attendance at the conference including in depth coverage of:  The Carolina Raptor Center, TSDesigns, First Light Solar, and a Green Conference video “What does green mean to you?”

Majestic Birds Make a Big Impact at the Mountain Green Conference

By far one of the most popular attractions at the conference was the Carolina Raptor exhibition!  The center brought 3 of it’s educational birds to visit for the day including two owls and a hawk.  The raptor center does it’s best to rehabilitate and release birds back into the wild.  The birds that are part of the education program are unable to be returned to the wild but sure do a huge service for their kind.  The raptors make a tremendous impact on children and adults which helps to tell their story and raise funds to help rescue and rehabilitate others.   In the very near future WeAreGreen.tv will be visiting the center and we hope to tell you more about their incredible story and share some amazing photos and video!

With your support, you can help other orphaned raptors be released into the wild.

Click Here to make a donation

Bald Eagle Release on The 4th of July! “Carolina Raptor Center will release a bald eagle in honor of North Carolina’s veterans and fallen service men and women. The event will be at McGuire Nuclear Station’s EnergyExplorium. The free event begins at 8:30 AM, led by military and political leaders, culminating with the eagle release at 9:15 AM. Local and state dignitaries expected to attend with keynote speaker Colonel Charles A. Dunn II of Pope Air Force Base. Local veteran and Mayor of Davidson, John Woods will release the eagle.”  Click Here for more info on this event.

Race Car Driver Leilani Munter Making a Difference at Top Speed!

Kelly Miller (Senior Vice President & Executive Director of the Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau) introduced Leilani Munter a.k.a. Carbon Free Girl.    Leilani is a biology graduate, racecar driver, vegetarian and environmental spokeswoman.  Her keynote speech helped to inspire both young an old to do all that is possible to help the environment.

Leilani’s extraordinary mission to stay carbon neutral has proven to be quite the challenge yet she remains strong.  Leilani is going the extra mile only accepting ‘Green’ sponsors for her race car.  This challenging step has kept her off the track for a short period while on her mission to green her car.

So, any of you forward thinking green businesses out there who want a cool female racecar driver as part of your marketing contact:

Leilani’s Eco Dream Team

Blown Away by Speaker Eric Henry of TS Designs!

TS Designs prints and dyes T-Shirts.   What sets them apart is their 3-part bottom line that focuses equally on People, Planet and Profit.  They use local and organic cottons and top quality low impact dieing process.

We were so blown away by Erics A+ quality shirt and mission that we’ll soon be dedicating a few post to the companies incredible mission and achievements.

One of these future post will include the full video of his presentation at the Mountain Green Sustainability Conference.

TS Designs has an industrial location with:

• A small farm that employees volunteer in and benefit from.
• Solar panels on the roof
• Bio-diesel station out front along with a Bio-Diesel Co-op facility
• Walking path
• Beehive
• Natural landscaping based on permaculture
• Compost & compost heating
• Recycled carpet
• Water free urinal and grey water toilet

… I mean really what has your business implemented lately!  Just buying recycled paper, take it up a notch or ten. Click here to see a full tour of the complex and be inspired.

Some of our Favorite Vendors at the Conference

The image above is from the Living Roofs display.  The plants they use are so pretty, I would need to have a roof top garden just to admire them.  I was really impressed with Alkemi Recyled Surface Material I’ve never seen such beautiful textured material green or otherwise a really impressive product.  Click below to see images

Biofuel, Environment, Green Sustainability, Human Health, Inspiration, Videos »

A great interview with Sir Richard Branson.   He answers top Digg questions and talks about his view on money, space and marijuana.  He also speaks about some of his major humanitarian and environmental endeavors which include working with Gevo to run his planes on clean energy!  Bravo Branson!

My real question isn’t whether he will save our planet, my question is:

Will entrepreneurs and businesses around the world follow his lead to go above and beyond to make great differences and contributions to the planet?  I sure hope so!  Entrepreneurs like Branson are poised to bring upon change and tackle issues more quickly and affectively then most governments.

Below is the Digg Dialogg session with Sir Richard Branson and Arianna Huffington. length 22 minutes