Jim Hightower

Big government and Big business are usually so close you couldn't separate them with a crowbar.

But sometimes government and business literally become one, totally merging the public interest into the private interest.

What's that sound [whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop]? Why, yes, it's the old revolving door, which allows civil servants to exit from government and go to work for companies they used to regulate; then [whoop, whoop] come back inside government later to bend public policy in favor of their former private employer.

Meet Michael Taylor. Coming out of law school, he went to work for FDA, the Food & Drug Administration, for five years, gaining valuable expertise in food regulatory issues.

Then [whoop, whoop] he slipped-out through that revolving door to a hot-shot Washington lobbying and lawyering outfit. There, Mr. Taylor specialized in -- Big Surprise -- food regulatory issues!

His client list included Monsanto -- a chemical giant trying to get FDA, Taylor's old agency, to approve a genetically-engineered growth hormone called BGH. This synthetic hormone would be injected into cows to force more milk out of them. Problem is, not every parent wants their kids drinking milk spiced with antibiotics and extra hormones. But Monsanto, with Taylor's help, got FDA to go along. Now that their drug was approved, there was the testy matter of keeping consumers from knowing which carton contains Monsanto's Mystery Milk, since most folks don't want to buy it.

So when FDA recently wrote guidelines to regulate the labeling of this milk -- guess who was in charge? Yes! Michael Taylor! He'd [whoop, whoop] slipped through that revolving door back inside the FDA, just in time to write the guidelines.

Will it surprise you to learn that FDA's Taylor-written labeling guidelines are tailor-made for Monsanto -- and are designed to keep you in the dark about BGH?

I didn't think so.

This is Jim Hightower saying . . . THIS STINKS! To fight back, call the Pure Food Campaign: 202-775-1132.