Profile: Michael Taylor

Why He Matters

A wave of industrial food safety scares and a 2009 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, which found the safety of the nation’s food supply wasn’t improving, convinced President Barack Obama that a shakeup was needed at the Food and Drug Administration.

Enter Taylor. Taylor returned to the FDA in July 2009 as an adviser to new FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg after an extended stint in the private and academic sectors. Taylor previously had worked as an FDA staff lawyer in the 1970s and as the FDA deputy commissioner for policy in the 1990s. In January 2010, Taylor was named deputy commissioner for foods, becoming the first person to hold the position, which was created along with the Office of Foods in August 2009.

Due to his previous position as senior lobbyist for agribusiness giant Monsanto, Taylor’s appointment drew criticism from many members of the organic movement, who called it a prime example of the revolving door that exists between food companies and government agencies charged with regulating them.

But the Obama administration tapped Taylor because it valued his expertise in food safety and regulation. He had studied food safety issues for years and previously ran the food safety program at the Agriculture Department, where his successful implementation of regulations in the meat industry were widely lauded. One of his prominent earlier critics even acknowledged that he was fit for the job. (1)
As FDA deputy commissioner for foods, Taylor was tasked with coordinating various divisions to unify and expedite action on core issues like regulation and setting safety standards.

In January 2010, he told The New York Times that his biggest task would be preparing the agency to handle its proposed new responsibilities in the areas of food recall and inspection, pending the passage of congressional legislation. (2) However, those responsibilities – which include power over food recalls and inspections — had yet to be granted as of November 2010 because major food-safety legislation has stalled in the Senate after passing the House last year. (3)

Path To Power

Taylor earned a degree in political science from Davidson College in North Carolina before attending law school at the University of Virginia. After passing the bar in 1976, Taylor got a job as a staff lawyer for the FDA, where he spent five years until leaving government for the private sector.

In 1981, Taylor began working for King & Spalding, a law firm that represented biotech company Monsanto. Taylor spent ten years there before returning to the FDA as the deputy commissioner for policy — at which time the agency approved the use of Monstanto’s now-controversial Bovine Growth Hormone. From 1994 to 1996, he worked at the USDA as Food Safety and Inspection Service administrator.

Then it was back to the private sector at King & Spalding and eventually on to Monsanto, where he became its vice president of public policy.

In the last decade, Taylor has worked in academia, teaching both at the University of Maryland and George Washington University. In that capacity, he has done extensive research on policy, resource and institutional issues that affect the success of public-health agencies in carrying out their missions.

Taylor returned to government in 2009 as the special adviser to FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, before being installed as the deputy commissioner for foods. (4)

The Issues

In late September 2010, the FDA posted a draft of its strategic priorities for 2011-2015 on its web site. The food goals included advancing food safety and nutrition, ensuring the safety of the food supply from farm to table and promoting healthy dietary practices and nutrition. (5)
Advancing Food Safety

The FDA has stated its desire to create a food-safety system that is prevention-oriented and based on scientific and risk-based principles. This will allow the agency to identify and eliminate potential outbreaks before they reach the public and create widespread harm. In addition to prioritizing prevention, the FDA aims to strengthen its surveillance and enforcement duties as well as improve its response when food-related health concerns do arise.

To this end, the FDA has been working with Congress to pass legislation – stalled in the Senate as of November 2010 — that would give the agency authority to recall foods and require more frequent inspections.

The agency states that the food supply must be preserved from farm to table, meaning that all players involved, both domestically and internationally, must comply with the necessary safety standards and regulations.

“The key to food safety is prevention at every step from farm to table,” said Taylor, in an October 2010 press release that discussed the efforts being made to improve safety at retail food establishments. “Food retail managers, like growers and processors, have a responsibility to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. We want to build on past progress through continued collaboration with the retail industry and strengthened partnerships with state, local and tribal agencies in their standard-setting and compliance efforts.” (6)
Promotion of Health and Nutrition

In addition to keeping citizens safe from foodborne illness, the FDA also has a responsibility to promote healthier eating. To help consumers make healthier dietary choices, the agency promotes truthful and informative labeling on packaged foods. To reduce the chronic disease burden, which accounts for a majority of health care costs in the U.S., consumers must have the information and the consistent motivation to seek healthier food choices.

The FDA plans to do its part by increasing the availability of nutritious foods and providing relevant information about nutrition and strengthening food-labeling practices.

Specifically, the agency will focus efforts on addressing obesity by reducing sodium levels in processed and restaurant foods and promoting front-of-package nutritional labeling.

“We’re also working on regulations and guidance for industry on how companies can make positive statements about a food’s contribution to an overall healthy diet, how calories can be declared on the front of food packages, and how nutrition information may be provided on restaurant menus,” Taylor said in a July 2010 article that appeared in the Atlantic magazine. “We think a lot of good will be done for consumers through these initiatives to provide reliable, science-based nutrition information that is not marketing-driven and that is available in convenient forms where it is needed.” (7)
In December 2009, the FDA launched its One Mission, One Program initiative, which is chaired by Taylor and aims to build a unified FDA foods program that can both prevent foodborne illness and improve nutrition. The ten areas on the agenda are:

The Network

Taylor is a veteran of both the public and private sector, having worked for the FDA, USDA and Monsanto. He’s worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

While working as a senior fellow at the environmental think tank Resources for the Future, Taylor published two documents on U.S. aid for African agriculture. Both documents were funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, which teamed up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

The final draft of Taylor’s 2002 paper on African agriculture was reviewed by Dr. Robert Horsch, a Monsanto executive for more than 25 years who left in 2006 to work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (8)

Campaign Contributions

Over the past decade, Taylor has contributed generously to the Democratic Party. In 2000, he gave money to the Gore/Lieberman presidential ticket; in 2004, he gave money to presidential candidate Howard Dean and later to Democratic nominee John Kerry; and in 2008, he donated to presidential candidates John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. His total contributions sum to $12,600.(9)

Footnotes

1. Nestle, Marion, “Michael Taylor appointed to FDA: A good choice!” Food Politics, July 7, 2009

2. Harris, Gardiner. “New official named with portfolio to unite agencies and improve food safety,” New York Times, January 13, 2010

3. Bottemiller, Helena, “DeLauro: ‘Imperative’ to fix food safety system,” Food Safety News, November 7, 2010

4. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Meet Michael R. Taylor, J.D., Deputy Commissioner for Foods,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Last updated April 23, 2010

5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “Strategic priorities 2011-2015,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, September 29, 2010

6. FDA News Release, “FDA heightens focus on retail food safety,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration. October 22, 2010.

7. Taylor, Michael, “How the FDA is picking its food label battles,” Atlantic, July 19, 2010.

8. Kenfield, Isabella, “Michael Taylor: Monsanto’s Man in the Obama Administration,” Counterpunch. August 14, 2009

9. Website: campaignmoney.com