Michael R. Taylor is the Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the United States
Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
He received a B.A. degree in political science from
Davidson College and a law degree from the
University of Virginia. In 1976, after passing the
bar examination, Taylor became a staff attorney for the FDA, where he was executive assistant to the Commissioner.[SUP]
[1][/SUP]
In 1981 he went into private practice at
King & Spalding, a law firm representing the
biotechnology company
Monsanto,[SUP]
[2][/SUP] where he established and led the firm's "food and drug law" practice.[SUP]
[3][/SUP] 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
United States Department of Agriculture (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.[SUP]
[4][/SUP]
Taylor has been a professor at the
University of Maryland’s School of Medicine[SUP]
[5][/SUP] and in 2007 he became a Research Professor of Health Policy at the
George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.[SUP]
[6][/SUP]
On July 7, 2009, Taylor once again returned to government as "senior advisor" to the FDA Commissioner.[SUP]
[7][/SUP] Taylor’s re-appointment to the FDA came just after President Obama and the other G-8 leaders pledged $20 billion to fight hunger in Africa over the next three years. 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.[SUP]
[8][/SUP]
Taylor is featured in the documentaries
The Future of Food and
The World According to Monsanto[SUP]
[9][/SUP] 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.