OPEN LETTER TO THE GAO: MICHAEL TAYLOR, MONSANTO ATTORNEY SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM THE FDA BECAUSE OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST, ASPARTAME APPROVAL REINVESTIGATED AND BANNED

Posted: 04 August 2009

From: Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum., Bettym19@mindspring.com
To: fraudnet@gao.gov
Date: Fri, Jul 31, 2009 4:34 pm
Subject: Open Letter To The GAO: Michael Taylor, Monsanto Attorney Should Be Removed From The FDA Because Of Conflict Of Interest, Aspartame Approval Reinvestigated And Banned

AUTHOR'S NOTE (this note was not included to the letter sent to the GAO. This is included here as to inform the reader as to what the GAO is): The GAO Report is used by industry to say everything is fine, but the first thing they say is they have no expertise in science and therefore can't evaluate safety.

Gentlemen:

Monsanto Attorney Michael Taylor is back at the FDA. While I understand an arm of Congress must request an investigation my Senator and Congressman are receiving a copy of this, but its necessary that all have the facts. Regardless of Taylor's position with the FDA you can be assured the FDA is now Monsanto's Washington Branch Office. The GAO failed the public in the past when Taylor went to FDA to get rBST approved. The public needs to know the Government is protecting them, not industry. The GAO investigated aspartame's approval and again let the people down when the facts were black and white.

In 1994 your government investigation cleared three FDA officials accused of conflict of interest in the approval of rBST. They were Margaret Miller, Suzanne Sechen and Michael Taylor. Miller, a former Monsanto lab supervisor, became director of the FDA division that was involved in the technical review of the Monsanto drug. Taylor, who served as the FDA's deputy commissioner for policy from 1991 to 1994, represented Monsanto as a partner at the law firm of King & Spalding. Sechen, the primary reviewer for the rBST had not worked for Monsanto but did research for a Cornell University scientist who did some consulting work for Monsanto. When David Kessler discovered Miller's prior Monsanto connection he ordered an investigation into whether Miller's conduct constituted a conflict of interest. The internal investigation found that Miller's participation in general rBST matters "does raise questions" but that she did not violate the government's standard of conduct. What do you call "standard of conduct"? This woman goes to the FDA to be involved with the technical review of rBST so it can be approved!!!!

Congressman Bernard Sanders' aide, Anthony Pollina said, "When you read it carefully, as we have, you see at least 11 violations of the rules that are clearly there." In a statement, Sanders said the report showed problems with FDA leadership: "The FDA allowed cooperative influence to run rampant" in its approval of the drug. It was more than that, where the evidence was so very clear, the GAO did not do its job and cleared these people. There had to be industry influence. How could anyone look at these facts starring you in the face, and make a decision which is obviously contrary to the truth. It's like saying a band of bandits broke into a bank and stole the money, but that's okay, their standard of conduct was good because they said please when they took the money.

First of all, Michael Taylor is a Monsanto attorney. That itself is a conflict of interest without even doing an investigation. Nobody could say it better than Jeffrey Smith in the article below.

What does Taylor do? He writes reports and makes decisions that will benefit Monsanto and industry and uses his influence where it's necessary. As an example, he wrote "The De Minimis Interpretation of the Delaney Clause: Legal and Policy Rationale, 7 Journal of the American College of Toxicology 529-37. The Delaney Clause was written to protect the public and forbids allowing anything in food that you know will cause cancer. Who would want to minimize a clause that protects the public? Monsanto would. At the time this was written they had bought Searle and owned NutraSweet (aspartame, E951, Equal, Spoonful, Benevia, etc.). Aspartame violates the Delaney Clause. Here is the FDA's own toxicologist admitting it to Congress:

On August 1, l985 the FDA's own toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross, told Congress at least one of Searle's studies "has established beyond ANY REASONABLE DOUBT that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors in experimental animals and that this predisposition of it is of extremely high significance. ... In view of these indications that the cancer causing potential of aspartame is a matter that had been established WAY BEYOND ANY REASONABLE DOUBT, one can ask: What is the reason for the apparent refusal by the FDA to invoke for this food additive the so-called Delaney Amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act?"

The Delaney Amendment makes it illegal to allow any residues of cancer causing chemicals in foods. In his concluding testimony Gross asked, "Given the cancer causing potential of aspartame how would the FDA justify its position that it views a certain amount of aspartame as constituting an allowable daily intake or 'safe' level of it? Is that position in effect not equivalent to setting a 'tolerance' for this food additive and thus a violation of that law? And if the FDA itself elects to violate the law, who is left to protect the health of the public?" Congressional Record SID835:131 (August 1, l985).

Fortunately Delaney still lives: http://www.wnho.net/delaney_lives.htm Aspartame also violates adulteration laws and as such violates Interstate Commerce because you aren't allowed to ship something for sale that is adulterated. http://www.mpwhi.com/open_letter_dick_adamson.htm In fact, the law is that additives must be inert or non-reactive. Since aspartame triggers 92 symptoms including death by the FDA's own report its not inert. Aspartame in reality is an addictive excitoneurotoxic, genetically engineered, carcinogenic drug that interacts with other drugs and vaccines because of damage to the mitochondria.

The medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, http://www.sunsentpress.com, by H. J. Roberts, M.D., is over 1000 pages of dangerous symptoms, neurodegenerative diseases, tumors and cancer triggered by this chemical poison. We now have a global plague with people sick and dying from aspartame disease, its own medical text on the mechanisms by which it causes disease and reactions, aspartame detoxification centers, an Aspartame Toxicity Center, http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame, and chapters of Mission Possible all over the globe warning consumers off this deadly chemical poison.

The GAO was suppose to investigate aspartame approval but let the people down. Rumsfeld was on President Reagan's transition team and he said he would call in his markers to get aspartame on the market even though the FDA had revoked the petition for approval. http://www.mpwhi.com/fda_petition1.doc Reagan had said he would nominate Rumsfeld for Vice President and instead nominated Bush, so owed him a favor. Indeed, Reagan paid. He had Mary Frances Wright from the Reagan Transition team call FDA Commissioner, Dr. Jere Goyan at 3:00 AM, and ask for his resignation, as he would have signed the revoked petition into law. http://www.mpwhi.com/letter_about_jere_goyan.pdf He appointed Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes to do the deadly deed but knew it would take at least 30 days to get him there. So, he wrote an executive order making the FDA powerless to do anything about aspartame until Hayes got there. Hayes over-ruled the Board of Inquiry and went to work for the PR Agency of the manufacturer at $1000.00 a day on a ten year contact. What a reward. That's what he sold his soul for and millions have perished because of it.

Check out these reports: UPI story about Rumsfeld and his markers: http://www.mpwhi.com/upi_rumsfield_calls_in_his_markers.pdf Scientists could not recommend approval: http://www.mpwhi.com/upi_nutrasweet_questions_swirl.pdf

Aspartame is even an abortifacient and triggers birth defects and mental retardation. The formaldehyde converted from the free methyl alcohol embalms living tissue and damages DNA. http://www.mpwhi.com/formaldehyde_from_aspartame.pdf When you damage DNA you can destroy humanity. It triggers neurodegenerative diseases and is a multipotential carcinogen.

It says in the GAO Report "We interviewed Dr. Hayes and Mr. Gardner on their postemployment activities relating to their contacts with FDA officials on aspartame and discussed with them specific issues relating to their involvement with the approval of aspartame." Some articles say Dr. Hayes was never at Burson Marsteller for more than 15 days. Did it not occur to the GAO that getting $1000.00 a day for ten years from the PR firm of the manufacturer was a pay-off for over-ruling the Board of Inquiry? The GAO just had to read the facts. There is even a movie about the approval called Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World. See James Turner, Atty, explain how Rumsfeld got aspartame on the market: http://www.soundandfury.tv/pages/rumsfeld2.html

Stuart Pape who you investigated use to head the National Soft Drink Association and then the National Yogurt Association and is behind getting the FDA to allow this deadly poison in yogurt unlabeled. This is against the law because of the requirement of the PKU warning. Now they want aspartame unlabeled in all dairy products. Today people are simply dropping dead from aspartame sudden cardiac death. Some years ago two Parliamentarians actually petitioned WHO to track and label sudden death a syndrome so they could find out why so many people are dropping dead for no apparent reason. Here are two reports on the subject by two world renowned experts, Dr. H. J. Roberts and neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D.

http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_msg_scd.htm and http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_and_arrhythmias.htm

In a letter from David Baine, Associate Director of GAO on July 22, 1986 to Senator Howard Metzenbaum it says: "We plan to continue reviewing the FDA aspartame approval process and other matters identified in your request." So why didn't the GAO continue to investigate? How black and white do have the facts have to be? A group of 7th graders would understand the political chicanery of Don Rumsfeld getting aspartame on the market, and every player's part. You can google millions of pages on aspartame. It's even in books like, "Rumsfeld, His Rise, Fall And Catastrophic Legacy" by Andrew Cockburn. TV exposes have released the information to the world. What is there not to know about the manufacturer of aspartame having their defense team hire the US Prosecutors who were asked to indict Searle. The FDA doesn't even need a revolving door anymore, they can build a bridge to take care of the traffic.

I've lectured in several countries and I can tell you the sick and dying from aspartame is everywhere. Proof? I've been taking the case histories on aspartame for 18 years. If someone reacts and doesn't know the culprit, he goes to allergist. The allergist has a sure proof way of finding the product. They call it the add back diet. They keep taking products out of the diet until the symptoms stop. Then they add it back and if the symptoms recur they know that is the culprit. The FDA on aspartame list 92 documented symptoms in their report. For instance, seizures are listed 5 times. You get someone using aspartame and having seizures to abstain, and what do you know the seizures usually stop. Aspartame interacts with anti-seizure medication, usually the drugs do not work at all.

The movie, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, was produced by Cori Brackett who was diagnosed with MS and had one of the largest lesions. She was in a wheelchair and could barely walk or talk. She had a hard time getting off of it but when she did she walked out of her wheelchair and 8 months later her lesion all but disappeared. The cases never stop coming in on aspartame MS. In fact, the last case came in 5 minutes ago.

To: Bettym19@mindspring.com
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 30 Jul 2009

Hi Betty - I was diagnosed with MS 3 years ago. I have had symptoms here and there. Recently my left leg is about as numb as one can get - my neurologist can find NOTHING wrong with me. I am an avid Diet Coke drinker. My coworker shared an article about aspartame with me today - and bought me a water to drink instead. I found your information on the internet and thought I would write to you. Is this true? I see both sides being debated. If I stop drinking diet drinks - how long does before the symptoms go away? Thanks for the help!

Kelli
Reliability Engineer"

Check back after we get her off aspartame in about 60 days. Aspartame Disease can mimic or precipitate the disease. It has been proven over and over again. Read this case in the paper below where a woman proved her MS was due to aspartame to her neurologist by getting back on it again. http://www.mpwhi.com/new_report_at_neurology_conference.htm This is how easy it is to prove what aspartame triggers.

Some years ago an organic market gave out brochures on aspartame called "Killer Kola". The owner of the market said after about 60 days people woke up from problems they had been going to doctors about for years. Those crippled by aspartame fibromyalgia could walk again, one who had lost her sight due to the free methyl alcohol in aspartame had her vision return. All kinds of medical problems disappeared, and there were thousands who called, faxed or came into the store. This is why the aspartame industry will do anything to keep it from being banned. They know people will wake up from all types of diseases and symptoms and will know what poisoned them.

As neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D. said in a lecture, "The reactions from aspartame are not allergic but toxic like arsenic and cyanide." Dr. James Bowen who has Lou Gehrigs from aspartame wrote the FDA over two decades ago telling them aspartame is mass poisoning of the American public and more than 70+ countries of the world.

It's an open and shut case no matter how you look at it, and Monsanto's Michael Taylor is back at FDA.

Disability and death are not acceptable costs of business. When Arthur Hayes became FDA Commissioner to over-rule the Board of Inquiry the FDA was no longer an adversary of industry. It became known as the new FDA: http://www.mpwhi.com/the_new_fda.htm

Big Pharma has raised the prices of drugs to "gouge". Industry influence is everywhere and aspartame manufacturers fund professional organizations and front groups to make sure they are defended and to push their poison. What the public gets is propaganda that has been shown to be wrong for a quarter of a century. Doctors' hands are tied because they have no idea an "additive" is causing these problems. They know additives are suppose to be inert. They don't question drug interaction because they don't know aspartame is a neurotoxic drug.

Now there is the Swine Flu vaccine so vaccine makers can make billions and the public gets disability and death. The patent for the Swine Flu is 4 years old showing how long this pandemic has been in the making.

Scare tactics are inexcusable. They want to vaccinate pregnant women first. Today neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D., said: "Previous studies of flu viruses found that the danger to the unborn is not from the virus, but from the cytokine immune reaction to the virus--that is the mother's immune reaction to the virus. What this means is that pregnant women who take this vaccine (especially since it is to be a two to three part vaccine) will have the same immune effects and may dramatically increase the mother's risk of having a child with autism or schizophrenia. This is accepted in the medial literature and have been done repeatedly in animals exposed to vaccine during pregnancy. We could see a real disaster with this vaccine program. Mothers should be warned. Remember, there is no evidence that the vaccine will protect anyone from the virus."

Industry controls the media as well so we read articles that can terrify pregnant women into thinking they should get vaccinated, when it can only harm the unborn. The FDA is so loyal to Big Pharma there was an article that if you told what you could take that is natural for the flu they would seize the product. The FDA (Fatal Drugs Allowed) should be changed to the Food and Death Association.

If all this industry influence is not enough to endanger the planet, now they are trying to get through health reform which ought to be called death reform. Such things as having consultations every five years so seniors can be told how to end their life is enough to make you vomit. Also denying medical care to the elderly and letting this money be used for funding. Congress better read this bill because the public is outraged. Click: HERE

Whatever happened to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

I'm sending a copy of this to my Senator and Congressman and hope everyone who reads it will do the same. Then they can get in touch with the GAO. I'm writing merely to give you "all" the facts. The GAO said in its original report on the aspartame investigation they not have the scientific expertise to comment on safety but things were done properly. If they had been the GAO wouldn't have been asked to investigate in the first place. Read the FDA audit, the Bressler Report http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=56 Does this sound like Searle did everything the way they were suppose to? Plus two mouse studies were so bad when the report was typed the FDA left them out as well as left Dr. Thomas Xavier Collins name off the audit. He was part of the team. Dr. John Olney was so concerned about the studies that he insisted studies be done in his lab so he could oversee them. Sure enough they showed brain damage so he thought aspartame would never be approved. He was unaware Searle did not give FDA the results. Almost 100% of independent studies show the problems aspartame causes. Dr. Ralph Walton did the research on scientific peer reviewed studies and funding.

It's obvious that to this day aspartame research funded or controlled by the manufacturers cannot be trusted. They couldn't get studies to show safety in original studies so they couldn't do it today either. On request we can show you how the studies are flawed that come from industry. When Dr. Walton himself did an independent study Monsanto refused to even sell him the aspartame because they knew they couldn't control it. Sure enough the reactions were so bad, and the administrator lost sight in one eye from a retinal detachment, that the institution stopped the study.

Just reviewing all the chicanery is enough for anyone to know aspartame was approved by politics and not science. As an example, the FDA failed to challenge the manufacturer's contact with Universities Associated for Research and Education in Pathology (UAREP). This private group was engaged to determine the factual accuracy of prior aspartame studies - but with stipulation that UAREP "shall not express an opinion" regarding either the design or safety significance of these studies, nor make recommendations about the safety of aspartame for human use! Could GAO not see that Searle had sworn them to silence. What they got for not speaking out was a half a million dollars. There are pages of outrageous dealings like these facts in Dr. H. J. Roberts' books.

When the GAO reported on its two year investigation of aspartame during July 1987 they stated that more than half of the scientists surveyed were concerned about the neurological reactions and other potential adverse effects of aspartame products in children. Forty per cent called for further research, 32 per cent sought new warnings and 15 per cent suggested a total ban.

Today a large part of the population is chemically hypersensitive because they used aspartame which causes polychemical sensitivity syndrome. Dr. H. J. Roberts who wrote the medical text on Aspartame Disease testified before Congress over two decades ago and today is still writing the FDA about this deadly chemical poison: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Dr-H-J-Roberts-Internis-by-H-J-Roberts-M-D-090723-933.html Aspartame victims react to genetically engineered foods and Monsanto's attorney is working for the FDA who is suppose to regulate them. Why didn't the GAO see anything wrong with it when Taylor was sent to FDA with Miller to get Monsanto's RBST approved before?

No one will ever forget FDA toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross' last words to Congress: "And if the FDA itself elects to violate the law, who is left to protect the health of the public?" Congressional Record SID835:131 (August 1, l985)." Last time you found nothing wrong with six former HHS employees being involved in Aspartame's approval. Michael Taylor is back and this time Congress should get involved because its time for the people to get help, not industry. Enough is enough. Here is the whole aspartame story: http://www.mpwhi.com/letter_to_cynthia_oshita.htm Read more below from Jeffrey Smith.

The GAO's non-action has let the people down over and over. The pharmaceutical industry has gotten away with murder, so now we have a fascist government. I'm asking my Senator and Congressman to ask you to investigate again and because this is an open letter I'm hoping others will do the same thing. The people don't need an FDA run by Monsanto, they need an agency that is concerned with the welfare of the public, and safe food and drugs. Today even prescription drugs are full of aspartame interacting so Big Pharma can sell more drugs and more people can die.

The FDA continues to operate above the law. A Citizens Petition for ban is required to be answered in 180 days according to FDA law. The FDA has had my petition for over 7 years and continues to ignore it. I filed an amendment based on an imminent health hazard which is required to be answered in a week or ten days. It was filed over a year ago. They have ignored this as well. Who is left to protect the public when the FDA continues to violate the law?

Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
http://www.wnho.net
http://www.dorway.com

Aspartame Toxicity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

CC: Senator Saxby Chambliss, Senator Johnny Isakson and Rep Tom Price
Subject: [Ban-GEF] Spilling the Beans newsletter - Please Obama say it's not so
Precedence: list
Reply-To: jeffrey@seedsofdeception.com
Ban Genetically Engineered Food, ban-gef@txinfinet.com

Institute for Responsible Technology:
Spilling the Beans, July 22, 2009

The following is also available on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/youre-appointing-who-plea_b_243810.html - Jeffrey Smith's Huffington Post blog.

You're Appointing WHO? Please Obama, say its not so!

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.

Heres the back story.

When FDA scientists were asked to weigh in on what was to become the most radical and potentially dangerous change in our food supply-the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods-secret documents now reveal that the experts were VERY concerned. 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.

But the biotech industry had rigged the game so that neither science nor scientists would stand in their way. They had placed their own man in charge of FDA policy and he wasn't going to be swayed by feeble arguments related to food safety. No, he was going to do what corporations had done for decades to get past these types of pesky concerns. He was going to lie.

Dangerous Food Safety Lies

When the FDA was constructing their GMO policy in 1991-2, their scientists were clear that gene-sliced foods were significantly different and could lead to different risks than conventional foods. But official policy declared the opposite, claiming that the FDA knew nothing of significant differences, and declared GMOs substantially equivalent.

This fiction became the rationale for allowing GM foods on the market without any required safety studies whatsoever! The determination of whether GM foods were safe to eat was placed entirely in the hands of the companies that made them-companies like Monsanto, which told us that the PCBs, DDT, and Agent Orange were safe.

GMOs were rushed onto our plates in 1996. Over the next nine years, multiple chronic illnesses in the US nearly doubled-from 7% to 13%. Allergy-related emergency room visits doubled between 1997 and 2002 while food allergies, especially among children, skyrocketed. We also witnessed a dramatic rise in asthma, autism, obesity, diabetes, digestive disorders, and certain cancers.

In January of this year, Dr. P. M. Bhargava, one of the worlds top biologists, told me that after reviewing 600 scientific journals, he concluded that the GM foods in the US are largely responsible for the increase in many serious diseases.

In May, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine concluded that animal studies have demonstrated a causal relationship between GM foods and infertility, accelerated aging, dysfunctional insulin regulation, changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system, and immune problems such as asthma, allergies, and inflammation

In July, a report by eight international experts determined that the flimsy and superficial evaluations of GMOs by both regulators and GM companies "systematically overlook the side effects" and significantly underestimate the initial signs of diseases like cancer and diseases of the hormonal, immune, nervous and reproductive systems, among others.

The Fox Guarding the Chickens

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. He had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto's Vice President and chief lobbyist.

This month Michael Taylor became the senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. He is now America's food safety czar. What have we done?

The Milk Man Cometh

While Taylor was at the FDA in the early 90s, he also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST)-injected into cows to increase milk supply.

The milk from injected cows has more pus, more antibiotics, more bovine growth hormone, and most importantly, more insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 is a huge risk factor for common cancers and its high levels in this drugged milk is why so many medical organizations and hospitals have taken stands against rbGH. A former Monsanto scientist told me that when three of his Monsanto colleagues evaluated rbGH safety and discovered the elevated IGF-1 levels, even they refused to drink any more milk-unless it was organic and therefore untreated.

Government scientists from Canada evaluated the FDAs approval of rbGH and concluded that it was a dangerous facade. The drug was banned in Canada, as well as Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. But it was approved in the US while Michael Taylor was in charge. His drugged milk might have caused a significant rise in US cancer rates. Additional published evidence also implicates rbGH in the high rate of fraternal twins in the US.

Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.

Taylor's disclaimer was also a lie. Monsanto's own studies and FDA scientists officially acknowledged differences in the drugged milk. No matter. Monsanto used Taylor's white paper as the basis to successfully sue dairies that labeled their products as rbGH-free.

Will Monsanto's Wolff Also Guard the Chickens?

As consumers learned that rbGH was dangerous, they refused to buy the milk. To keep their customers, a tidal wave of companies has publicly committed to not use the drug and to label their products as such. Monsanto tried unsuccessfully to convince the FDA and FTC to make it illegal for dairies to make rbGH-free claims, so they went to their special friend in Pennsylvania-Dennis Wolff. As state Secretary of Agriculture, Wolff unilaterally declared that labeling products rbGH-free was illegal, and that all such labels must be removed from shelves statewide. This would, of course, eliminate the label from all national brands, as they couldn't afford to create separate packaging for just one state.

Fortunately, consumer demand forced Pennsylvania's Governor Ed Rendell to step in and stop Wolff's madness. But Rendell allowed Wolff to take a compromised position that now requires rbGH-free claims to also be accompanied by Taylor's FDA disclaimer on the package.

President Obama is considering Dennis Wolff for the top food safety post at the USDA. Yikes!

Rumor has it that the reason why Pennsylvania's governor is supporting Wolff's appointment is to get him out of the state-after he screwed up so badly with the rbGH decision. Oh great, governor. Thanks.

Ohio Governor Gets Taylor-itus

Ohio not only followed Pennsylvania's lead by requiring Taylor's FDA disclaimer on packaging, they went a step further. They declared that dairies must place that disclaimer on the same panel where rbGH-free claims are made, and even dictated the font size. This would force national brands to re-design their labels and may ultimately dissuade them from making rbGH-free claims at all. The Organic Trade Association and the International Dairy Foods Association filed a lawsuit against Ohio. Although they lost the first court battle, upon appeal, the judge ordered a mediation session that takes place today (July 23, 2009). Thousands of Ohio citizens have flooded Governor Strickland's office with urgent requests to withdraw the states anti-consumer labeling requirements.

Perhaps the governor has an ulterior motive for pushing his new rules. If he goes ahead with his labeling plans, he might end up with a top appointment in the Obama administration.

To hear what America is saying about GMOs and to add your voice, go to our new Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?gid=121443803326

Copyright Institute For Responsible Technology 2009.

Jeffrey M. Smith is the author of publication Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, which presents 65 risks in easy-to-read two-page spreads. His first book, Seeds of Deception, is the top rated and #1 selling book on GM foods in the world. He is the Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology http://www.responsibletechnology.org,which is spearheading the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America. Go to http://www.responsibletechnology.org to learn more about how to avoid GM foods.

Spilling the Beans is a monthly column available at http:// www.responsibletechnology.org The website also offers eater-friendly tips for avoiding GMOs at home and in restaurants.

Permission is granted to publishers and webmasters to reproduce issues of Spilling the Beans in whole or in part. Just email us at column@seedsofdeception.com to let us know who you are and what your circulation is, so we can keep track.

The Institute for Responsible Technology is working to end the genetic engineering of our food supply and the outdoor release of GM crops.