For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Food Safety page, Genetic Engineering page, and our Millions Against Monsanto page.

Why has the Food Safety Modernization Act (S510) encountered opposition from the Tea Partiers and their unlikely ally, the hippy, natural food, organic farmer, granola crowd?  Look at the history of the FDA and see if they truly have the best interests of America’s health and food safety at the core of their concerns.

In the early 1990s the FDA was constructing their genetically modified organisms (GMO) policy.  During the Clinton Administration Michael R. Taylor was appointed policy chief at the FDA, whose job it was to make policy with regards to these GMOs.  Prior to working at the FDA he had been Monsanto’s attorney. One of the products of Monsanto was Posilac, which is the brand name of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) also known as recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST).  This product, when injected into dairy cows, causes them to produce 10 to 15% more milk on average.  This was marketed as a safe drug to increase milk production and therefore increase revenues for dairy farmers.  Michael R. Taylor declared all GMOs, including rBGH/rBST, to be essentially identical to the natural product and therefore safe for human consumption, even though no safety studies were done. In late1993 Monsanto received permission from the FDA to market Posilac.

Farmers began purchasing Posilac and injecting their cows and found that it did indeed cause the cows to increase their milk production.  What they also discovered is that these cows began to suffer with mastitis (infected udders) continuously and they had to inject them with antibiotics to fight these infections, resulting in pus being present in the milk the cows produced.  They also suffered with fertility problems, hoof diseases and lameness among other illnesses.  The cows were producing milk constantly and were living shorter, unhealthier lives.  The farmers decided that the health of their cows was not worth the increased profits and began to market their milk products as not containing milk from rBGH or rBST treated cows.