Michael R. Taylor
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Michael R. Taylor is the Deputy Commissioner for Foods, at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
He received his law degree from the University of Virginia and his B.A. degree in political science from Davidson College, in 1976, after passing the bar examination, Taylor became a staff attorney for the FDA, where he was executive assistant to the Commissioner.[1]
In 1981 he went into private practice at King & Spalding, a law firm representing the biotechnology company Monsanto[2], where he established and led the firm's "food and drug law" practice.[3] On July 17, 1991, Michael Taylor left King & Spalding, returning to the FDA to fill the newly created post of Deputy Commissioner for Policy. Between 1994 and 1996 he moved to the USDA, where he was Administrator of the Food Safety & Inspection Service.
After briefly returning to King & Spalding, he then returned to Monsanto to become Vice President for Public Policy.[4]
Taylor has been a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine[5] and in 2007 he became a Research Professor of Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.[6]
On July 7, 2009, Taylor once again returned to government as "senior advisor" to the FDA Commissioner.[7] Taylor’s re-appointment to the FDA came just after Obama and the other G-8 leaders pledged $20 billion to fight hunger in Africa over the next three years. According to Paula Crossfield "President Obama is embedded in a bubble" featuring some of the fervent promoters of the biotech industry and a Green Revolution in Africa.[8] Before joining Obama’s transition team, Taylor was a Senior Fellow at the think tank Resources for the Future, where he published two documents on U.S. aid for African agriculture, both of which were funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. And on January 13, 2010, he was appointed to another newly created post at the FDA, this time as Deputy Commissioner for Foods.[9]
Taylor is featured in the documentaries “The Future of Food” and “The World According to Monsanto”[10] as a pertinent example of revolving door since he is a lawyer who has spent the last few decades moving between Monsanto and the FDA and USDA.
References
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- Marie-Monique Robin: "The World According to Monsanto", New Press May 4, 2010 (Book ISBN 2-7071-4918-7 or 978-270714918 and DVD-ASIN: B001684BP0)
