Food Crisis: A Regulatory Meltdown No Bailout Can Save

In the wake of the mortgage crisis, there's no doubt that the Bush Administration's lack of a coherent regulatory plan and its subsequent mishandling of events paved the way for a dramatic, and deeper, economic collapse. Acute observers noted that the President's laissez faire approach to regulation extended to nearly every federal agency and program. Foremost among these is management of our nation's food supply, but unlike the fiscal crisis we are witnessing, when the inevitable food safety disaster strikes, the losses won't be measured in dollars, but in human lives.

The problems we face in food safety are familiar when viewing the unfolding financial crisis. We see cuts in agency budgets, weakening of regulations, and the fox being put in charge of the henhouse.

Tax dollars are nowhere better spent than on ensuring that the food we eat is safe, but oversight agencies have faced deep cuts, prohibiting them from adequately protecting the public. For two years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - reduced to a shell - has been beleaguered by one food safety failure after another. An examination of government records earlier this year showed FDA inspections down by more than 75 percent. In 2006, FDA estimated that it had inspected only one percent of 8.9 million incoming foreign food shipments. During this summer's tainted-tomato scare, Dr. David Acheson cited his agency's shortage of manpower, inspections, and resources as the reason the FDA couldn't be held accountable, a remarkable admission.

In addition to the slashing of already bare-bones budgets, the past eight years have been characterized by a consistent weakening of public safety regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the FDA have stopped enforcing some rules while they pushed through new regulations that undermined public safety in favor of corporate profit. EPA recently raised the maximum level of pesticide residue that may be found on certain food crops - such as sugar beets -by 5,000 percent when sold to the public, allowing farmers to use ever-increasing concentrations of toxic chemicals like Monsanto's Roundup. And, despite rejection of foods derived from cloned animals and their offspring in Europe, the FDA has failed to respond to increasing public demand here for regulation of these foods, which are now entering our food supply with no labeling and no means of tracking.

Another similarity to the financial crisis: the Administration has repeatedly put the fox in charge of the hen house. Several personnel who hold or have held positions of authority in food safety and agriculture have direct ties to the companies they are supposed to have been regulating. A former Patton, Boggs, and Blow attorney who represented large biotech and agribusiness concerns, Anne Veneman promoted genetically engineered crops while USDA Secretary. Monsanto lobbyist Linda Fisher was made second in command at the EPA before resigning to take a job with DuPont. A former Monsanto employee, Michael Taylor wrote FDA's regulations for genetically modified organisms. Lester Crawford, FDA Commissioner until 2005, was indicted by the US Justice Department for violating conflict-of-interest laws when he falsely denied ownership of stock in companies that his own agency regulated. The presence of these and other "officials with conflicts" has consistently lowered standards at a time when Washington has been cutting overall agency budgets. The results have been devastating.

As the President's term rapidly closes, leaders in these agencies have been scrambling to push forward increasingly lax regulations and last-minute approvals. Foremost among these are recently-proposed guidelines for food products from genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). These regulations ignore the lack of data available on potential health effects of consuming GMOs and their environmental impact; do not require labeling for products containing GMOs; and will be further developed in secret before they are put into effect.

Loose regulatory policies have failed us in the financial world: the same can be said for public health. Food-borne illness sickens one in six Americans each year. Resultant hospitalization, medication, and missed work days costs tens of millions. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 5,000 people die annually from food-borne diseases; fatalities in large part attributable to illness caused by tainted produce.

Those concerned with the purity of their food have invested their hopes in President-Elect Obama. They hoped he would be a staunch advocate for reform based on his sponsorship of new food safety measures while a Senator. However, Obama's appointment of Tom Vilsack at USDA has shown food advocates that they may have misread his level of commitment to their concerns. Those who care about testing, transparency, and truth shouldn't hope for the best; now's the time for us to make our concerns clearly known.

When moving trucks pull up at the White House and our new President settles into the Oval Office, we must demand that one of his first orders of business is taking a good, hard look at the agencies in charge of our food safety. The only way to prevent the looming food crisis is to act quickly, clean house, and begin thinking more about public safety than corporate bottom lines. It's bad enough that many have lost their shirts in the financial crisis; a food crisis would see too many people losing their lives.

Comments

[americaforme]

USA must make safe food storage a major goal. Time is running short, food saved in abundent days can be a God send. We are facing perilous years ahead when a well stocked cupbard could be the difference between going hungry for a few days a week. We are not at a time to be supplying the world, but rather storing up for our own future. We must be responsible to our own citizens. Victory gardens isn't enough. Soilent Green is not an option.

[TJCole]

Maybe is we switched from corn and other food type of plants for bio fuel to Industrial hemp people wouldn't have to starve...?

Industrial Hemp for bio diesel and also the stalks for ethanol fuel it renews every four months and eats CO2 like crazy and does not get you high so why would our government rather see wrold wide hunger and even starvation..?

It's immoral not to use this great easily grown non invasive plant..for fuel and so much more and this will increase our energy independence and also even national security..!

[SimJack]

IMHO a systematic and rigorous review of GMO, use of livestock supplements, herbicides, pesticides and business practices of the major players needs to be undertaken and explained to the public clearly and comprehensively. Your major corporate players include ADM, Conagra, Cargill, DuPont, Dow Chemical, General Mills, Hormel, Kellogg, JBS, Kraft, Monsanto, Nestle, Pilgram's Pride, Sanderson Farms, Smithfield Foods, Tyson, Unilever to name a few. These multinationals, in many cases, impact everything we consume and operate to serve their shareholders, not the consumer. They have almost complete control of every commercially producing farm in the world and will stop at nothing to drive out small family farmers through unethical business practices and the co-opting of governments.

[babyboomerorig]

When I was growing up and into my 40's, we never had to worry about food quality. We grew our own, had our own animals, there was always a butcher shop fairly close, we didn't buy tomatoes in the winter because they just weren't fresh...lettuce, too...it was light colored and small heads. Juices were always good because they came from reputible companies. It's only been the last 20 years or so that we started getting products from all over the world, not local farmers. Meat wasn't wrapped in plastic if you chose to talk to the meat cutter.

Now with everything being shipped in from God knows where, nobody knows what they're getting.

[Libarchist]

Believe it or not -- toothpaste gets me sick; except, for the paste, that does not have the junk in it, or fluoride.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

The toxin in toothpaste is the same toxin used in insect spray... particularly, when a building is tented and treated with "fluoride." The amount of fluoride in toothpaste has i think tripled by now, since its introduction.... a waste product of aluminum production - a widely used and the most abundant metal on earth, but which is difficult to dispose of because of environmental issues.

If you do your research regarding the time it was found to be "good for our teeth" and introduced into our now cancer ridden society.... you'll see names like Alcoa.... Alcoa... oh, and Alcoa, responsible for engineering that scheme.

[Midnightrain]

Food production has always been a source of wealth and the road to economic activity within communities and nations. What does it mean that the majority of Americans don't know how to grow their own food, or of those who do, many are thwarted by the government in their attempts to do so?

[Roseberry]

If I understand correctly, sugar beets are now 'the' source for the granulated white sugar we buy and use. Considering what you wrote, that alone is enough to make one stop and buy organic!
I hope I'm not alone, also, in hoping that we will soon be able to know where all of our food comes from and is made. Knowing the origin of only fruits and veggies is not enough.