QUICK
QUIZ: HOW U.S. DEMOCRACY WORKS
Question: How is it that every industrialized nation in the world
has banned Monsanto’s rBGH as unsafe, but it’s legal (and unlabeled) in
the United States?
Answer: In
order for the FDA to determine if Monsanto’s growth hormones were safe
or not, Monsanto was required to submit a scientific report on that topic.
Margaret Miller, one of Monsanto’s researchers put the report together.
Shortly before the report submission, Miller left Monsanto and was hired
by the FDA. Her first job for the FDA was to determine whether or not
to approve the report she wrote for Monsanto. In short, Monsanto approved
its own report. Assisting Miller was another former Monsanto researcher,
Susan Sechen. Deciding whether or not rBGH-derived milk should be labeled
fell under the jurisdiction of another FDA official, Michael Taylor, who
previously worked as a lawyer for Monsanto.