S.510, the Senate bill to modernize the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the safety of the food supply has been sidelined. The bill, sposored by Dick Durbin (D-IL) was supposed to be sent to the Senate floor for a vote next week. Instead the Senate will take up Financial Reform legislation, which I agree is of the utmost importance. Unfortunately, something "more important" always seems to come up. The importance of food safety and inspection cannot be understated. I hope that this issue will not be punted down the road for too much longer.
From Food Safety News
Not that S. 510 was going anywhere fast--the legislation has been stalled behind health care reform and other pressing priorities since it was unanimously voted out of committee in mid-November. The House approved a similar version of the bill in July.
more after the jump ...
Again, from Food Safety News, through a spokesman
"Chairman Harkin (D-IA), [chairman of the Senate committee responsible for the bill] believes that passing this bill and modernizing our nation's patchwork system is needed as soon as possible, and he knows that Leader Reid shares that commitment. Clearly, there are a number of urgent priorities to address during this work period, including financial regulatory reform, but Chairman Harkin is confident that the bill will pass the Senate before we adjourn for the Memorial Day recess."
Aspects of this bill as it affects small farmers were covered here by Jill Richardson and here by myself on Thursday. Both of us addressed in particular the Tester Amendment that would exempt small producers from regulations aimed at large scale producers. As Jill much more eloquently stated, the purpose of the bill is to strengthen accountability of food growers and producers for foodborne illnesses casued by their products. In the case of farmers selling their products directly through a CSA or at Farmers Markets, it is easy to know where the food came from and how to address a particular issue. This becomes exponentially more difficult as the size of the producer grows.
Andrew Kimbrell wrote an excellent piece Monday at the Huffington Post addressing food safety in the US.
The United States once had one of the safest food systems in the world, but now, 70 million Americans are sickened, 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die from food-borne illness every year. It is a sad fact: since 9/11, far more Americans have been killed, injured or hurt because of our lack of a coordinated food safety system than by terrorist acts that challenge our Homeland Security system.
The Bush administration constantly claimed it was protecting Americans from potential security threats, yet it completely failed to protect the public from the clear and present danger of deadly food.
Due in part to that administration's cuts in funding and staff, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently inspects less than 25% of all food facilities in the U.S. More than 50% of all American food facilities have gone uninspected for five years or more. During President Bush's last term, regulatory actions against those companies selling contaminated food to Americans declined by over a half (Office of the Inspector General: FDA's Food Facility Registry. Report: OEI-02-08-00060, December 2009).
As with all legislation, this bill has some flaws. It does little to address the fact that regulation of our food is spread between the FDA, USDA, and EPA. In fact, the bill specifically denies the FDA the power to impinge on the USDA's authority over meat, poultry, and eggs. This means that the FDA will be virtually powerless to combat E. coli and Salmonella from these products. These two illnesses result from fecal material in foods and are the most common foodborne illnesses. Since January 2010, over 850,000 pounds of beef -- mostly from industrial feed lots -- has been recalled due to E. coli O157:H7 contamination.
As Mr. Kimbrell says, the country needs a single unified Department of Food Safety. It is at least as important as the unification of Intelligence and Defense agencies under the Department of Homeland Security. Again, I realize that the nation faces a number of challenges on all fronts. I realize that the President and Congress have a plethora of hurdles in front of them. I realize that Republicans in Congress live to put up roadblocks to legislation and that this particular piece of legislation will be viewed as increased regulation of business which they abhor. However, this issue is close to my heart and it is close to hearts and bodies of all of us who eat in this country every day. My only hope is that this bill will be debated on the Senate floor and passed before the Memorial Day break. That may be wishful thinking but there you have it.
Yesterday, the USDA released a report that found gaping holes in the safety of beef production in this country. Worse, it says that the government makes little effort to recall meats that fail tests.
"Based on our review, we found that the national residue program is not accomplishing its mission of monitoring the food supply for harmful residues," the USDA's oversight office wrote. The audit revealed that USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), along with the FDA and EPA, "have not established thresholds for many dangerous substances (e.g., copper or dioxin), which has resulted in meat with these substances being distributed in commerce."
Some chilling facts from the audit:
Out of 120 substances tested in beef, only one is a pesticide.
FDA has not set a "tolerance level" for many of the drugs, pesticides and heavy metals found in beef, including copper and arsenic, which can promote growth and inhibit certain parasites.
In 2008, a shipment of US beef was rejected by Mexican inspectors because it tested above the Mexican tolerance level for copper in beef. The food was sold and consumed in the US, where no levels are set.
Individual plants amassed as many as 211 violations and still were able to treat residue as a problem "not reasonably likely to occur."
Meat testing data are gathered on pen-and-paper tags affixed to carcasses, "a system that is slow, cumbersome and not always very legible," yet FSIS officials did not realize their technology was out-of-date.
So there you have it. The current system sucks. Regulators do not have the staff, time, and money to properly do their jobs. Regulations leave gaping holes through which food producers can pass poor quality product. The general public is unaware of most of these problems. Some that do know about them do not care. Legislators are beholden to large scale agricultural producers because of campaign contributions. This is a list of things that I HOPE can CHANGE.
some photos courtesy of Farm Sanctuary
follow S.150 on Govtrack