Food Additive Regulation is Politically Contaminated
Ann Veneman
... Bush Jnr. appointee as US Secretary of Agriculture, was on the board of directors of Calgene Pharmaceuticals, purchased by Monsanto.
Tom Vilsack
... once termed Biotech’s “Governor of the Year” for his support of genetic engineering from his position as 40th Governor of Iowa, he enjoyed numerous rides on Monsanto's corporate jets during his time in office. President Obama has since rewarded him (2009) for his work on behalf of Monsanto by making him the new Secretary of Agriculture,
Lidia Watrud
... former microbial biotechnology researcher at Monsanto Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, moved to the United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Effects Laboratory, Western Ecology Division.
Jack Watson
... former chief of staff to the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, became a staff lawyer with Monsanto in Washington, D.C.
Dr Nick Weber
... worked in the FDA under Dr Margaret Miller (see above). According to an internal Canadian health ministry memo of November 1997, Monsanto received advance copies of three volumes of position papers on Monsanto's Posilac dairy growth hormone intended for review in closed meetings of the UN World Health Organisation's Codex Alimentarius Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Weber was the conduit for the leak. This is one valuable set of documents. The European Union's ban on the genetically-altered hormone expired in 2002 and Monsanto's insider knowledge could have helped it to influence the easily influenced JECFA. In the end Posilac failed to get the Codex's approval and the EU still refuses to permit its use, but not through want of trying by Monsanto's revolving door team.
Clayton K. Yeutter
... former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, former U.S. Trade Representative (who led the U.S. team in negotiating the U.S. Canada Free Trade Agreement and helped launch the Uruguay Round of the GATT negotiations), later a member of the board of directors of Mycogen Corporation, whose majority owner is Dow AgroSciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.
Larry Zeph
... former biologist in the Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, then Regulatory Science Manager at Dupont-owned Pioneer Hi-Bred International, suppliers of GE seeds who have a high profile in New Zealand and Australian agriculture as conventional seed suppliers and will benefit similarly as GE seed suppliers. US seed suppliers have regularly been sending GE-contaminated conventional maize seed to NZ as part of a strategy of the US biotech industry to sabotage NZ’s reputation as a source of guaranteed non-GE corn.
Sources:
1. Robert Cohen, author of Milk – The Deadly Poison and Executive Director of the US Dairy Education Board, Tel: (201) 871 5871, Email: <notmilkman@notmilk.com>, Website: <http://www.notmilk.com>
2. Albert V. Krebs, editor of US agriculture watchdog, The Agribusiness Examiner (Issue #27, March 29, 1999 in particular), Email: <avkrebs@earthlink.net>, Website: <www.ea1.com/CARP/> We note, with regret, the death of Albert Krebs in 2008. For decades he monitored US agriculture and the fate of the small family farm, providing a window into North American farming politics which only ACRES USA can equal.
3. ORGANIC BYTES, Organic & Food News Tidbits With an Edge, Issue #17, July 16, 2003. By Organic Consumers Association, Email: <biodemocracy@lists.organicconsumers.org> 4. Additional material from Barbara Metzler’s piece of April 30, 2009 in <http://www.opednews.com/articles/Searle-Monsanto-and-Ajino-by-Barbara-Metzler-090429-453.html>, entitled “Searle, Monsanto and Ajinomoto: Three Corporate Miscreants in the Toxic Junk Food Additive and Aspartame Business.”
Metzler notes: “While much of the controversy over Monsanto has centered on its products and technology, there have also always been concerns about the company's high level connections to the United States Government due to Monsanto's monetary contributions to important officials and the fact that for decades there has been a revolving door filled with people who worked within the USDA and the FDA, as well as for Monsanto.”