People are subject to disease not because they are deficient in pharmaceuticals. We are subject to disease because we either do not get the nutrients we need from our food sources or because we are exposed to environmental toxins and harmful food adulterants like hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, pesticide residues, aspartame, and GMOs, falsely deemed safe by the FDA. These adulterants contribute directly to a long list of predictable degenerative diseases. But thanks to the tireless work of Mrs. Taylor, the chemical cartel will get wealthier by making us sick and wealthier still by treating us for illnesses its products cause.
Sweeping Inconvenient Facts Under the Rug
In addition to her work toward the implementation of Codex, it's worth noting that Christine Taylor Lewis has done her part to rewrite history to make her husband's tenure at the FDA to appear less corrupt than it, in fact, was. Talk about housekeeping. While serving as the thesis advisor to a Tuft's university student, Taylor oversaw the details of a dissertation entitled the "Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods: Stakeholder Perceptions of the Food and Drug Administration's Public Consultation Processes and Food Industry Reactions to the United States Voluntary and European Union Mandatory Policies."(12)
This thesis belongs to Janice Lee Albert, who happened to be an employee of the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome while working on her dissertation. Albert's dissertation focuses on the controversy over labeling GMOs, a topic that deeply involved Michael Taylor, her thesis advisor's husband. However, that marital relationship is never disclosed in the dissertation. In fact, while Mr. Taylor's work is described throughout the dissertation, Albert fails to identify him by name as a key participant in the controversy. On the contrary, when Michael Taylor is - finally - mentioned by name, it is as one of twenty-four people Albert interviewed to obtain their views on the appropriateness of the FDA's labeling decisions. Astonishingly, Albert identifies Michael Taylor as an "Independent Expert," revealing nothing about the fact he (1) previously worked as a lawyer for the company who's product was getting special treatment or (2) the fact that he was the one in charge of implementing the concept of "substantial equivalence" at the FDA or (3) went to work for Monsanto afterwards.
Under Christine Lewis Taylor's supervision, Albert's thesis defends the FDA's controversial labeling decision and its consultation processes with the public as being "conducted as intended by law." Albert claims that members of the public who are dissatisfied with the FDA's decision not to label GMO products just don't understand the all the factors that go into making decisions at the FDA. She's probably correct on that point: Most of the public is under the mistaken assumption that the FDA has a responsibility to protect it from the unsafe products of an untested technology. Thanks to her explanation, at least we now know that certain employees of the FDA consider their only legal obligation is to offer the public an opportunity to voice its concerns, not act upon them.
Albert contends that the exact nature of the public concerns about GMOs was outside the scope of her dissertation and therefore unnecessary for her to address or even note. Nevertheless, a thorough pre-market study of the health risks associated with GMOs should never have been outside the scope of the FDA's responsibilities.
Scientists and journalists have lost their jobs for daring to cross the powerful biotech industry to publicize the health risks of GMOs.(13) The well-controlled media dutifully ignores the pile up of evidence of the nature of the dangers. In recent months, research has been published showing that GM corn increases infertility (14) and that the key ingredients in Monsanto's Round-Up Ready, the herbicide used on all GMO crops, cause death to human cells.(15)
Given what we now know about the dangers of GMOs, we should dispense with the discussion of whether or not to label them and move right to the topic of banning them altogether.
Identifying What Ails Us
Americans should be able to have confidence that the food they eat is safe. The Trust for America's Health, however, is using recent food-borne illness events as an excuse to make radical and unnecessary changes to a regulatory system has been purposely underfunded and understaffed.(16) While focusing exclusively of food borne illnesses, it has ignored the predictable diseases suffered by millions that are caused by the chronic consumption of foods adulterated with ingredients that an industry-dominated FDA deems to be GRAS, that is, "generally regarded as safe."
Restoring and protecting our health requires a real understanding about what ails us. To put things in perspective, food borne illnesses are responsible for some 5,000 death a year; but over 700,000 people die each year from government-approved medicine(17), and millions more suffer from predictable diseases that could be prevented if we had a safe, clean, whole-foods based food supply. If we allow those behind the food "safety" bills to use this crisis as an opportunity to change the food safety system, transnational corporations will have even more control over our health than they do now.
Prevention, as they say, is the best cure.
References:
(1) "Fixing Food Safety: Protecting America's Food Supply from Farm-to-Fork," a report from The Trust for America's Health
http://healthyamericans.org/reports/foodsafety08/
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