A Step Closer to Safer Food

Today's House passage of H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act, marks a victory that every American should applaud. After all, we all eat, and we want confidence that we're eating the safest food possible.

From spinach to peanut butter to cookie dough, the foods that we consume everyday make 76 million Americans sick every year. This piece of legislation will provide the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the authority and tools necessary to protect our food supply.

There are a number of key components to this legislation that will address the problems in current food safety laws that have become all too apparent with every new recall announcement. First, the FDA will have explicit authority to inspect high-risk food processing facilities every 6-12 months, low-risk facilities at a minimum of every 18 months to 3 years, and storage warehouses every 5 years. Astonishingly, the FDA currently inspects all facilities only ONCE every 10 years on average. Facilities will be required to meet strong performance standards. If our cars are required to meet performance standards to ensure they are safe enough to be on the road, food processing facilities must also meet standards to ensure they are qualified to handle our food.

Additionally, a food trace back system will allow the FDA to more quickly determine the source of contamination in case an outbreak does occur. Time is of the essence in the event of any incident of food contamination, and unnecessary delay in finding the source is unacceptable. Foreign foods will also be more closely inspected to ensure that they meet all of the food safety standards in the United States. These are just a few of the components of the bill which will protect you and your food.

Despite this achievement, we can not rest on our laurels and lose focus on another key facet of food safety, the use of antibiotics in animal feeds. As a microbiologist, this issue is one with which I am very familiar and very concerned. Cattle, pigs, and chickens are regularly fed antibiotics in order to prevent incidents of disease made more likely by the crowded, unsanitary conditions in which these animals live. The nontherapeutic use of antibiotics has been conclusively linked to a growing number of incidents of antimicrobial-resistant infections in humans, and ensuring the effectiveness of the antibiotics we use to treat a plethora of illnesses is essential to protecting public health. On July 13, the House Rules Committee held a hearing on this issue, and Joshua M. Sharfstein, Principal Deputy Commissioner of the FDA, Lance B. Price, a top scientist at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, as well as other scientists and food experts confirmed the potentially devastating effects of antibiotics in animal feeds.

People on Capitol Hill wondered if I would incorporate components of my antibiotics legislation into the food safety bill. However, strengthening the authority of the FDA and ensuring that it has the funding necessary to protect the American people from contaminated food is too important to have risked delaying or hindering its passage. In March of this year I introduced the H.R. 1549, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, or PAMTA, and will continue my unwavering support of this legislation as it moves through the legislative process. On Wednesday, I appeared on Lou Dobbs Tonight to help increase public awareness about this issue, and discuss my legislation.

 

Follow Rep. Louise Slaughter on Twitter: www.twitter.com/louiseslaughter

Comments

[BannedNBoston]

Louise Slaughter and Lara De Rosa SHAME SHAME SHAME!

[Tyler-Durden]

@ SLAUGHTER: you big phony. you know very well this bill panders to big Farm. don't bring your bait n' switch to HuffPo, cuz we're smart enough to kick it back at you. This bill needs to crash and burn, and you need to start over, and make a bill that

puts enough inspectors on the ground;
focuses on mass production facilities;
allows small farm business to grow and compete;
tracks food imports;
and doesn't screw the American public.

FOR EVERYONE ELSE, HERE'S A GREAT SUMMARY OF WHY THIS BILL SUX FOR AMERICANS.
http://www.foodrenegade.com/hr-2749-nearly-passes-and-spells-the-end-of-local-food/

[EgyptianMysterySchool]

I'm applauding this entry.

[EgyptianMysterySchool]

This bill is the true example of a "Wolf In Sheep's Clothing" . This bill is nothing more than a front for more government control, corporate farming and it is a danger to small, organic farms and even home gardens. Like the bankruptcy bill written by the banking industry, this bill is written under the influence of the corporate farming that was rightfully demonized in the movie "Food, Inc.". This bill is great for Monsanto, factory farming and the like - but it's a danger to the citizens that it feigns to protect.

Why does a "Food Safety" bill have martial law provisions, allowing the FDA to quarantine large geographic areas?

Why is the government trying to dictate how crops should be raised and harvested?

Why is it that even home gardens can be subject to pay a $500 registration fee?

Why is this bill giving the FDA the power to make random warrantless searches of businesses and local farmers w/out any hint of violations - a direct violation of the Constitution?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/17/743564/-Henry-Waxmans-betrayal-of-our-existenceHR-2749

http://www.infowars.com/hr-2749-food-safety-bill-has-martial-law-provisions/

"One provision allows the FDA to declare food "adulterated" simply if the grower or manufacturer has failed to follow safety standards, regardless of whether the food is actually tainted."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR2009073003271.html

[Tyler-Durden]

great comment, with links.

[OldHick]

Many people I know are afraid of eating meat - the quality is so poor and from sources unknown.. People are worried about pesticides, and the like ... and wonder if chemical are used on plants that make them dangerous to consume. Many people are trying to restict their diets, attempting to keep
from feeling ill.

Why oh why, are our Congressional reps hesitant to rapidly pass legislation that keeps us from living in paranoia over our food? My God anyway, the cost of this is a pittance, compared to the grand amounts of money that have been squandered on other things.

I was raised to eat all the food on my plate - and I shudder when I hear of these recalls in these deplorable distribution systems.

[mlaiuppa]

Getting rid of unsanitary, crowded conditions making antibiotics un-necessary is a first step.

How about feeding animals what God designed them to eat? I.E. no more corn.

And while you're at it, how about ensuring that our food is actually food and not food like products like high fructose corn syrup?

[OldHick]

I hope this goes well, and I thank the representative for her concern. Hopefully, in the future, more can be done with labeling so people know the product's origin, and whether or not the product quality has been determined. Spot inspections are also needed. Perhaps a program involving US personnel and foreign governments, similar to Japan, is necessary. Japan has protected its citizenry from bad food, whereas we have not.

[FZliveson]

Yeah yeah yeah....th­e Representative (recipient of lobby money) is joyous that another step into the automated food production world has been taken. Step by step, artificial ingredients and pharmaceuticals will find their way, more and more into our food....th­at is one end of the spectrum.

The other end of the spectrum is the Codex Alimentarius, which would outlaw the sale of food supplements and vitamins in health food stores, making those things prescription items.

People see two words...."­Food Safety" and they get all lathery in glee, when it has little to do with real safety and more to do with economics.

[greencowgirl]

Representative Slaughter,

I'm sure you know that a primary reason food safety is so poorly implemented now is often due to a lack of compliance officers on the ground. From what I understand, there are only handfuls of them responsible for thousands of producers in any multi-state region.

Unless a new law is backed by a budget that can hire enough oversight staff, it won't have any efficacy.

Furthermore, don't citations just pile up without any enforcement?

I'd love to know the numbers of staff now, and the numbers needed. More than the department wants to pay for I'll bet.

[farmette]

Even democracy loses with this one. The bill was defeated Wednesday and rather than accept that, the PTB forced a revote on Thursday? Nice.

[veracity]

Thanks for your concern for America's critical food supply, and our health, Representative Slaughter.

Yet again, if something good is to be done for Americans and American families, it will be done by the "liberal" wing of the "Democratic" Party.

It is such a shame that the institutional, 'conservative' wing of the Dem. Party is so poor at reminding Americans of just how DISMAL life in America was, before hard-fighting Americans, and genuinely democratic leaders, fought and won the battles for job safety, elimination of child labor; a forty-hour work week with overtime; the freedom to vote for women, oversight & regulation of meat packing, medical care, and (theoretically) the financial markets; and of course Civil Rights and voting rights progress, etc.

[farmette]

I am as liberal as they get and am in no way supportive of this bill. Were our reps actually concerned about quality of food in our system and food safety, they would not have put through a bill that unfairly burdens small farms who have never been part of the food safety issues we have.

Did you know this bill also allows congress to dictate farming practices? Not a stretch to imagine that Monsanto will get them to outlaw many "dangerous" practices, such as organic farming. After all, that might mean putting poop on the food.

So many bad provisions in this bill. Please visit the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund site to view a synopsis of the problems.

[lastpost]

If its going to cost tax money to keep people healthy, does it make sense to permit the sale of food that makes them sick? Hardly.
But how many corporate toes does that mean treading on?

Only those who consider their profitably more important, than the people on whose custom they depend.

[j mcdouglas]

I was very happy to see something on food safety. Thanks Rep. Slaughter.

Our food companies have been feeding us garbage and it's really pretty unacceptable.

[Tyler-Durden]

Mr. McD,

this bill is made to pander to those very companies. research the bill. read it. it is bogus.

it restricts the little guy, and frees up the big processors. it's a junk bill and she's got some nerve touting it as a life saver for us. she's apparently a good LIAR.

[PaiaGirl]

This isn't the bill that places onerous tracking requirements that will put small organic farmers out of business is it?

I know our Maui egg farm went out of business when the FDA instituted some huge ($50,000/year?) inspection fee that only the big factory farms could afford.

I hope this isn't more of the same.

[farmette]

Yes, that's exactly what this bill was. I am disappointed at the shoddily crafted legislation and that it passed as written. It will likely be devastating to small farms and will not likely improve safety at all. It boggles me that Rep. Slaughter could be proud of this.

[Ice9]

I followed your link to the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund and I don't see any concern in articles there about costs loaded onto the farms. I did see, "$500 to be paid by food processing plants" to provide 40% of the funding for the new programs.

There may be some cost shifting (though that's generally to the consumer), but I'm not seeing the impact you are talking about on small farms. More frequent inspections should improve safety, as long as the funding is there for more inspectors.

[gsteinum]

thank you rep. slaughter for the information. good to know.

[Tyler-Durden]

sorry to break it to you, but this is PROPAGANDA. go seek out some info on your own, instead of swallowing whole what is spoon fed to you.

you'll learn this bill is bad news.

[eilish]

Did you know that 1/3 of all children in America born after 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes and obesity? Part of the problem is lack of activity - but many believe the worst culprit to be .. high .. fructose corn syrup, the 1st or 2nd ingredient in so many foods you can't count 'em. But they are especially high in the foods kids normally like, high cholesterol, high fat, high in calories, and high in process. If the FDA gets rid of this one dangerous, completely without any food value additive, that would take care of much of the problem. Screening garbage that we are forced to buy from 3rd world countries could be next.

[PaiaGirl]

I would be more specific and place the blame primarily on sodas. Did you'all see the anti-soda tax commercial that the soda industry (basically aluminum and plastic can manufacturers since the cost of the soda is negligible) is running?

I didn't even know a tax on soda was in the offing. Once I saw their propaganda piece, I immediately emailed my reps in FAVOR of the tax.

[j mcdouglas]

You know what doesn't have high fructose corn syrup?

Coke from Mexico in bottles.

They use cane sugar. You can get Coke from Mexico in all the border states.

[Ice9]

Me too.

[Ellamental]

Important documentary now playing at theatre near you: FOOD, INC. This is a must-see if you ar e concerned about quality of our food supply and how legislation is affecting it.

This is a BAD bill.Add that to my list of issues to bring to the attention of my elected officials.­...