President Obama used his weekly radio address last weekend to talk about an urgent matter for all Americans. Which one? It could have been any of a half dozen, but it was one that received essentially no attention from the last administration: food safety. He also officially announced his nominations for the two top spots at FDA, Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Hamburg and Dr. Josh Sharfstein. Both are public health experts and intimately familiar with urban health problems, Hamburg as Commissioner of the New York City health department, Sharfstein as head of the Baltimore health department. Both are getting very positive reviews from consumer, food industry and pharmaceutical stakeholders. I've met Hamburg, although I don't know her well. Her record and expertise suggest she can be an excellent FDA head, but we'll have to see. Several of my colleagues knew Sharfstein in earlier years and they have very positive things to say about his abilities. In New York, Hamburg had a reputation for good management and a commitment to using science, not ideology, as a basis for public health policy (favoring needle exchange and opposing abstinence-only sex education, being two signal issues). She was a CDC advisor on bioterrorism and pandemic flu preparedness. Sharfstein has been an outspoken critic of drug industry influence in medical practice (see this piece from Nature for more background). Neither have been particularly prominent regarding food safety, but the signs from these other issues are good. Again, we'll have to see, although I am optimistic on both counts. But I'm usually optimistic.
Obama's address and earlier interviews acknowledge something we and many others have been saying for some time: the FDA is a broken agency, and the food safety system in the US is a broken system. Obama has promised a detailed and complete review of the agency. Multistate foodborne disease outbreaks in the last few years (we are still in the midst of the peanut butter debacle) have revealed in the starkest terms how inadequate both the agencies and the system are. Over 3000 products have been "voluntarily" recalled since a salmonella outbreak involving most every US state was traced to a minor peanut industry player with plants in Georgia and Texas. Why voluntarily? Because the only product that FDA has the authority to order a mandatory recall for is infant formula.
Congress isn't waiting and several bills to overhaul the food safety system have been introduced. The outgoing Acting head of the FDA was candid new powers were needed and also honest when he said he thought it would take time:
“We need enhanced authority to issue preventative controls for foods, greater access to food records during routine inspections, authority to require food facilities to renew their registrations, and mandatory recall authority,” he said.
[snip]
However Torti said that new controls, together with better communication mechanisms and a science-based strategy, will not be achieved in a few days - or even a few months. (Food navigator)
The industry understands that new rules are coming down the pike and they also understand that public confidence in the food supply is badly shaken and needs to be restored. The peanut industry is estimated to have lost over $1 billion so far in the current outbreak. But industry lobbyists are still at work to make sure that the industry doesn't have to pay for it. While it is true that the costs are passed on to the consumer so we pay no matter what, when they are incorporated into the cost of the product, it makes the product reflect the true cost of production, while if they are paid for out of FDA funds, the costs are externalized. Anyone in favor of the free market should want to internalize the cost of safety (which is good business for the industry), but I guess the food industry is not in favor of the free market when it is their ox being gored:
Although a spokesperson for the Grocery Manufacturers Association broadly welcomed the news that the legislation had been put forward, he criticized the proposal that industry should pay for plant inspections. He told FoodNavigator-USA.com: “We believe that food safety is a right that all Americans have and that it should be paid for by Congress appropriating general funds.” (Food Navigator)
I wonder if they feel the same way about the right to join a union or to have adequate health care?
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"Food safety legislation" can mean treacherous waters, another area where the food industry pushes onerous regulations that punish small food producers and allow further monopoly control of land, seeds, animals, water and food. Take for example HR 875, introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband Stanley Greenburg, is a Monsanto consultant.
This bill would virtually outlaw organic farming, seed saving and farmers markets, create a new bureaucracy the Food Safety Administration that would require small farmers to register and fill out mountains of paper work to sell a few vegetables or free range eggs,stipulate prison terms and excessive fines, require the 24 hours GPS tracking of all farm animals, the easements on farm property to allow for warrantless government entry. In short it dictates the "the imposition by the filthy, greedy industrial side of anti-farming international "industrial" standards to independent farms - the only part of our food system that still works, the planned elimination of farmers through all these means." (Linn Cohen-Cole)
Once again small farmers are blamed for the food safety crisis when it is industrial food production that has been the source: Bird flu comes from chicken factories in southern China, E. coli 0157 from big feed lots, salmonella from large scale processing facilities, mad cow from recycling slaughterhouse wastes, mirsa in hogs. Not to mention the principle cause of death in America, diet related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, caused by the poor quality industrial food diet.These are the real food safety issues and they do not involve small or organic farmers.
HR 875, misnamed 'food safety' bill, now in committee. Check it out.
Yes, please check it out. The bill, HR875, has many of us very worried. It is not about "food safety". It is about forcing the small farmer out of business. Once again the average consumer, having no idea where his or her food comes from, will unwittingly accept the dictates of big brother Monsanto for their lifeless homogenized "food".
Quite often, diseases and unhealthy conditions can be traced back to diet. This bill will insure the drug companies a future supply of malnourished Americans to whom they can peddle their drugs. Drastic cures for conditions that might have been averted early on with a proper diet full of fresh, living foods grown from the variety of seeds the organic farmer saves and nurtures to fruition.
This bill is a cancer that will lead to cancer. The only profiteers will be Monsanto (as Ron has pointed out) and down the line...the drug companies. Let's try some early intervention shall we, and arrest it before it takes hold? Please check it out. And as you do, remember your local farmer and the variety of life he or she plants, preserves and most importantly...represents. Let's do what we can to stop the forced hybridization of America's seeds. It really isn't good for the people.
HR 875, misnamed 'food safety' bill, now in committee. Check it out.
Maybe you should check the bill out yourself, and quote â verbatim â the provisions you describe. If you can find them.
Anyone who's interested in a more realistic take on HR 875 should read this statement from Food and Water Watch.
...adding, it's kind of depressing that so many people want to turn the comment section of an exceptionally sane and thoughtful science-policy blog into a clearinghouse for every rumor and conspiracy theory that comes down the pike.
Why not take this unsourced, unverified, misleading nonsense over to Rense, or Prison Planet?
These are not 'rumours' or 'conspiracy theories' - This bill would create a tremendously powerful bureaucratic structure that would increase the control of corporate agro-industry over our food system. Read the bill.
All this is done in the name of 'food safety'. I believe the issue is highly pertinent to Revere's original post.
Phila:
"Why not take this unsourced, unverified, misleading nonsense over to Rense, or Prison Planet?"
I know you mean to summarily categorize Ron with this statement. But because I agree with Ron and spoke to that with my comment, I thought I might address your request. I began to go though the bill, copying and pasting the specific segments that worry me as a local organic consumer. But I soon realized that there are so many, I would do better to simply have you understand my reality and invite you to use it as a context as you peruse the bill.
I am fortunate enough to live in West Virginia where, during the summer months, I can buy my organic vegetables from a local farmer in Ohio who drives his truckload of produce 15 miles to my local church parking lot. (Aside to Revere; Iâm not actually a member of the church, but very much appreciate their allowing us to use the lot! ; )). He pays local kids $5.00 an hour to help him with the harvest, and sets up on the lot every Saturday.
The truck he (letâs call him Mick, since that is his actual name) uses is the same old pick-up he uses to haul manure in the spring. He gets the manure where all the local gardeners do, myself included, from the local stables. We just back our trucks up and load in what the stable hands have cleared from the stalls that week.
Now, under this bill Mickâs business would fall into the category of Food Production Facility:
â(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term âfood production facilityâ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.â
Because he is in Ohio and we are in West Virginia, Mick would also qualify as someone who is trafficking interstate commerce.
Just look through the bill with this scenario in mind. Please imagine what it would mean for Mick, and ultimately our community. I realize the bill is intended for big agribusiness, but in itâs current form it would be applicable to him as well. So many (many, many) legislative hoops, registry requirements and stiff (up to $1,000,000) penalties for non-compliance. The language allows for sweeping administrative license for search and seizure:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875
In itâs, albeit minimal, defense there are two statements that seem to consider the small farmer. Here is one:
â(12) provide technical assistance to farmers and food establishments that are small business concerns (meeting the requirements of section 3(a) of the Small Business Act and the regulations promulgated there under) to assist with compliance with the requirements of this Act.â
Note that it doesnât allow for exemption, but compliance. I can tell you right now, this bill will put Mick out of business. And if you donât think these laws would be used against him, then you have obviously never dealt with Health and Human Services. In this area, organic farmerâs, like health food store ownerâs and yoga instructors are fringe elements at best. â Just give âem an excuse!â
Okay, perhaps there is a bit of the Rense.com type in me after all.
But that is not all I am. I am also an organic vegetable lover who believes that heirloom seeds are precious and worth preserving, and that pure food is the best medicine. I am deeply grateful to Mick for doing this kind of backbreaking work for such a measly monetary payoff. He would never submit himself to, let alone be able to afford, compliance. I donât want him, or the thousands of independent farmerâs like him, paper worked to death and harassed under the guise of food safety. One year of his being tied up in paperwork could mean the permanent loss of a particular heritage of seed.
I may be a hillbilly, but I know enough to wash it well before I eat it. Leave us alone.