Forcing Genetically Modified Foods Into Our Food Supply

It sounded like a great idea:  Eliminate hunger in the world.  But it was simply an altruistic sounding plan to accomplish the transfer of the world’s food supply over to biotech companies and corporations.

The biotech giant, Monsanto was the instigating force behind the idea.  Together with Arthur Anderson Consulting Group, Monsanto executives created a plan whereby all natural seeds in the world would be replaced with GM (genetically modified) counterparts.

On their own, Monsanto couldn’t have pulled this off.  Their ties and influence in government was integral in implementing this strategy.  By the time the proposition was announced at a biotech industry conference in January, 1999, Monsanto and their GM foods were already deeply entrenched in our food supply and governmental policies.

And their plan was clever.  What organization in the U.S. has the power over what appears on our supermarket shelves?  The FDA (Food and Drug Administration).  Attorney Michael Taylor had helped Monsanto draft pro-biotech regulations regarding genetically modified food.  And in 1991 the FDA actually created a new position for Mr. Taylor – Commissioner For Policy.  In this position, he immediately attained major influence on GM food regulation, overseeing the development of government policy.1 

By 1992, Monsanto’s influence on our government had made it to the Presidency.    On May 26, 1992 in the Indian Treaty Room of the Old Executive Building, Vice President Dan Quayle announced the administrations stance on GM foods.  “The reforms we announced today will speed up and simplify the process of bringing better agricultural products, developed through biotech, to consumers, food processors and farmers.  We will ensure that biotech products will receive the same oversight as other products, instead of being hampered by unnecessary regulation.”2

In real terms, “being unhampered by unnecessary regulation” meant that normal testing procedures would either not be done or the results would be ignored.  Steven Druker, a public interest attorney, has studied the FDA’s internal files which reveal intentional ignoring of any negative effects of GM foods.  “During Mr. Taylor’s tenure as Deputy Commissioner, references to the unintended negative effects of bioengineering were progressively deleted from drafts of the policy statement (over the protests of agency scientists), and a final statement was issued claiming (a) that [GM] foods are no riskier than others and (b) that the agency has no information to the contrary.”3

Mr. Taylor continued to be one of Monsanto’s main tools in integrating GM foods into the market.  In 1994, he became the administrator at the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.  And when their governmental influence was well in place, Monsanto brought Mr. Taylor back as their Vice President for Public Policy.


“Just as the magnitude of the industry’s plan was breathtaking, so too are the distortions and cover-ups.”4  According to a biotech consultant, “The hope of the industry is that over time, the market is so flooded that there’s nothing you can do about it.  You just sort of surrender.”5

On May 23, 2003, President Bush proposed an initiative to End Hunger in Africa using GM foods6.  He stated that he was convinced that GM foods “held the key to greater yields, expanded U.S. exports, and a better world.”

1. Jeffrey M. Smith, Seeds Of Deception, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Australia, 2003, introduction
2. Kurt Eichenwald, and others, “Biotechnology Food: Form the Lab to a Debacle,” The New York Times, January 25, 2001
3. Steve Druker, www.biointegrity.org
4. Jeffrey M. Smith, Seeds Of Deception, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Australia, 2003, introduction
5. Stuart Laidlaw, “StarLink Fallout Could Cost Billions,”  The Toronto Star, Jan. 0, 2001. 
6. White House press release in 2003