Last Wednesday, U.S. Food and Drug Administration veteran Michael R. Taylor (right) was named deputy commissioner for foods, a newly created position.

According to the FDA, Taylor will help develop and implement a prevention-based strategy for food safety, plan implementation of new food-safety legislation, and ensure food labels contain clear and accurate nutrition information.

Taylor began his career as an FDA staff attorney before moving to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he was involved in establishing rules to protect our meat and poultry supply, despite industry outcry. (That’s the good news.)

But the big blot on his resume is his long stint at King & Spaulding, the law firm that represented GMO giant Monsanto. Taylor then returned to the FDA as deputy commissioner for policy, where he was instrumental in approving Monsanto’s bovine growth hormone, as well as rules that stated milk from hormone-treated cows needn’t carry labels.

Christine Escobar has regularly taken Taylor to task on Huffington Post. But über-respected nutrition professor Marion Nestle, who seldom makes a bad call, thinks he’s the right man for the job.