190 the rice diet renewal
different government organizations: the FDA, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA).
The FDA fi rst established its policy on GMO testing in 1992.
The leader of this movement was Dan Quayle, who at that time
was the U.S. vice president and the chair of the Council of
Competitiveness. Vice President Quayle wanted the United States
to be progressive in this new agricultural market, and he didn ’ t
want red tape to hinder progress. Accordingly, the food producer
would be responsible for ensuring food safety, and voluntary test-
ing was left to the discretion of the manufacturer. The position of
deputy commissioner for policy in the FDA was fi lled from 1991
through 1994 by Michael Taylor, and under his advisement, the
general policy for the regulation of GM foods was that they were to
fall under the GRAS List, or foods in the U.S. food supply that are
generally recognized as safe. Interestingly enough, Michael Taylor is
a lawyer and had previously been part of Monsanto ’ s senior counsel;
he later served as Monsanto ’ s vice president. Because Monsanto is
the world ’ s leading producer of GM seeds, there would seem to be
a confl ict of interest in its former employee being chosen for a gov-
ernment position in the FDA, which was supposed to decide on
the safety of GM foods. The number of opportunities for confl ict
of interest in this saga between mega - agribusiness and the govern-
ment employees we have entrusted to protect our food supply is
beyond sobering. You can learn more about these concerns by view-
ing the 2004 documentary The Future of Food , reading the substan-
tial summary at http://www.ricediet.com, and consulting the references
in the back of the book for more details on the following studies.
A recent Austrian study found that GM corn has a damaging
effect on the reproductive system. The research was conducted
at the University of Vienna at the request of the Austrian Health
Ministry. Professor Jurgen Zentek and colleagues presented their
fi ndings to an expert panel convened by the Austrian Agency for
Health and Food Safety. Over a period of twenty weeks, mice were
fed GM corn (a GM maize hybrid line called NK603 x MON810),
along with a control group of mice being fed non - GM corn. It soon