He did it, despite the opposition from the FDA, the Centers for Science in the Public’s interest and other NGOs, and former Under and Deputy Under Secretaries for Food Safety at the USDA.

CSPI, by the way, has provided a lot of manpower to the Codex efforts of the United States

Secretary Perdue has gone and moved the Codex Office from the public health and science oriented Food Safety and Inspection Service Agency to the sales and trade oriented Trade and Foreign Affairs Agency, a move that definitely sends the message that the current administration positions trade far above food safety and the public’s health.

But the kicker is the caveat that came with the delayed move; a statement definitely intended to diminish the uproar that follows. A statement that implies Americans are too stupid to connect the dots, to get from point A to point B without falling on our collective faces.

But some of us CAN read between the lines.

Sonny says that he will keep the Undersecretary for Food Safety as the Chair of the U.S. Codex Policy Committee and will name the Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Affairs as the Deputy Chair, a position that for years has been filled by the FDA, the largest food regulatory agency in the U.S.

Guess what, Mr. Secretary; you don’t have an Undersecretary for Food Safety!

That chair has not been filled for 47 months! But the Chair for Trade and Foreign Affairs has seldom been empty. Since it was created, the position of Undersecretary for Food Safety at the USDA has been empty more than it has been filled. We don’t even have good rumors about anyone being vetted for that position.

So Ted McKinney, the Undersecretary for Trade, fills in as the Chair of the Codex Policy Committee. Back to square one, Mr. Secretary. Nothing has changed. Point A is still Point A. You did not get us to Point B. You didn’t even try.

The former Elanco global affairs guy who tried his best to open markets for the controversial recombinant Bovine Somatotropin and Elanco’s beta agonist ractopamine now heads up the multi-departmental U.S. Government’s policy committee for Codex.

He now can create U.S. policy regarding Elanco’s products and other controversial products, like Zilpaterol, based not on food safety but on sales. Connect the dots. This is ALL about trade and the almighty dollar. Do not pass Go and do not collect your $200. You do not count and you do not have a say on the issue.

How will our Codex delegates even begin to explain this to the other 187 countries that make up the Codex International Commission?

And another big WOW just arrived from inside the DC Beltway.

That five page letter signed by Stephen Ostroff, the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Food and Veterinary Medicine, protesting the Codex move to Trade and sent to Secretary Perdue a couple weeks ago?

It is now a solid rumor (by the time this posts it will be fact, not rumor) that the FDA Commissioner himself, Scott Gottlieb, M.D., has said he and the FDA are now OK with the Codex Office move to Trade, even though they no longer are in a leadership position on the policy committee and even though Trade is not public health or science based.

But why would we expect less from the doctor? He is the same leader that will not let FDA release the names of retail outlets involved in food recalls to better protect the public’s health.

After all, that information might affect sales and stock prices.

I am so glad I am sitting in Timnath, Colo., penning this and not in D.C. defending our government’s actions.

WOW !! He did it anyway.

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