The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

7The Invention of GMOsThe health and safety of biotechnology products is not an issue: the food, feedand environmental safety of the products must be demonstrated before theproducts enter the agricultural production system and supply chain.—Monsanto, Pledge Report, 2005“The cow hormone drug was simply the first major application of biotechnologyto food production and Monsanto is a very powerful corporation withmany, many linkages to top level persons in government. I think the prevailingethic at the federal government was ‘Biotechnology is so important thatwe can’t let a few little questions about cow safety or human safety get inthe way.’ The drug got approved, regardless of its demerits,” Michael Taylortold me.Indeed, by the time rBGH was approved by the Food and Drug Administration,dozens of GMOs were in development in the laboratories ofbiotechnology companies, chiefly Monsanto, which had just filed an applicationfor the marketing of Roundup Ready soybeans, genetically modifiedto resist the spraying of Roundup. The connection between the company’smaneuvering to secure approval of the controversial hormone at any costand its plan to position itself in the market as the “Microsoft of biotechnology”was confirmed, unexpectedly, by Taylor, who, it will be recalled, workedas counsel for Monsanto, was appointed deputy commissioner of the FDAin 1991, and a few years later became a Monsanto vice president.