(NaturalNews) Once upon a time, federal regulatory agencies charged with approving fully tested and verified safe products for the U.S. market and pulling those that were found to be dangerous or cause sickness made decisions based on the best interests of the public. But sadly, those days are gone – long gone – and it's hard to imagine that we will ever see integrity reintroduced into our country's regulatory process.

Today, regulatory decisions are too often based on the wants, needs and desires of large mega-corporations – firms whose top officials serve on government panels with obvious conflicts of interest, firms that provide billions a year in financial "contributions" to politicians from both major parties (and the president), and firms that the government allows to hide or override scientific findings indicating that their products either don't perform as advertised or are harming the public with dangerous side effects.

Some of the most offensive and subjugated U.S. agencies are the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control (the latter is not really a federal bureaucracy, but the CDC is looked upon by the mainstream scientific community and the federal government as a Christian would look upon the Bible – the final word on all matters).

The EPA

Back in the 1970s, the EPA was not a very good ally of agri- and biotech giant Monsanto. The agency – along with other federal bureaucracies – banned the chemical dioxin ( a persistent organic pollutant that takes a very long time to break down in the environment), safety concerns arose over its artificial sweetener saccharin (the first of its kind; it was thought to contribute to cancer), and cyclamate (another artificial sweetener) had been banned over dangerous side effects. And the FDA was putting up roadblocks as Monsanto attempted to get another sweetener, aspartame, approved, because independent research showed that it caused brain tumors in mammals.

Furthermore, the company's best-selling herbicide at the time, Lasso, was also showing signs it may be carcinogenic. As sales fell and the company was facing an uncertain future, Monsanto put huge amounts of effort into gaining approval for its (then) new herbicide compound, glyphosate – what would become the main ingredient of its Roundup brand.

It worked, though the effort took some time. And along the way, a vast amount of research showing that glyphosate has detrimental effects of animals, humans and the environment has been ignored. In fact, Monsanto has never been held liable for any of it.

The USDA

And, as Natural News reported Sept. 15, Monsanto's efforts to flood agriculture with harmful genetically modified organisms (GMOs) bore fruit in the late 1980s after the company convinced then-Vice President George H. W. Bush that they were "safe" enough for approval.

His boss, President Ronald Reagan, became known for many accomplishments: improving the economy, strengthening the military, and dealing decisively with a Soviet Union whose power and influence was waning. However, Reagan was also a deregulator; if there was red tape he could cut in Washington in order to benefit business, industry and the economy in general, he would gladly do it.

Enter Monsanto – and the agricultural world was forever changed. As we reported in 2012, the newest GMOs – engineered with "stacked traits" – are even more harmful than earlier versions, according to a study published at the time in the Journal of Applied Toxicology.

The FDA

While the FDA has levied fines and other sanctions against Big Pharma, there have also been lapses in enforcement, as well the failure to recognize that entire classes of some medications are literally killing us. One of them is the antidepressant class of drugs.

This is unforgivable, considering that – as reported in 2004 by Natural News editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger – the agency admitted that children who are prescribed antidepressants are 180 times more likely to have suicidal tendencies than those who don't take them.

"This is after the agency stalled for months by requesting an independent investigation of the research data, during which antidepressant drugs continued to be prescribed in huge numbers to children around the country and around the world -- all at great profit to pharmaceutical companies," Adams wrote.

And yet, today, that class of medications remains unchallenged by the FDA and little-regulated, with the agency even colluding with Big Pharma to cover up antidepressant-related deaths.

The CDC

Once hailed as the gold standard of medical science and research, the CDC has lost much of its luster in recent years – and a health portion of its reputation.

The agency repeatedly botched handling the spread of Ebola in the U.S. – after its director essentially said the disease would never spread to the country.

But the CDC has been particularly forgiving to the vaccine industry, even to the point of covering up scientific data regarding the risks associated with some of Big Pharma's most popular vaccines, like the MMR.

Again, as Adams reported Aug. 27, CDC whistleblower William Thompson recently went public with charges that he and some colleagues hid data indicating that African American male children developed autism at significantly higher rates than others after receiving the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

With so many billions of dollars at their disposal – and a U.S. government filled with politicians and bureaucrats for sale – it is little wonder that the regulatory processes once designed to protect the general public have largely been co-opted by Corporate America.

Sources:

PRN.fm

EPA.gov

HealthyEating.SFGate.com

NaturalNews.com