Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) have introduced the safe Food Act, which would create a single food safety agency and put all food safety responsibility under a single Food Safety Administrator.
According to ConsumerAffairs.com, “The Safe Food Act also would modernize the 100-year old food safety laws, and give the new chief a unified budget. The legislation is supported by the nonprofit food safety and nutrition watchdog group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)…The bill would also establish a comprehensive program to protect public health and bolster consumer confidence in the safety of the food supply. Currently, food safety monitoring, inspection, and labeling functions are spread across 12 federal agencies.”
It was less than a month ago that the US Government Accounting Office (GAO), the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, added food safety to its list of critically flawed federal programs, saying that splintered jurisdiction among 15 agencies has left the nation vulnerable to outbreaks of food-borne illness or, worse, a terrorist attack.
According to ConsumerAffairs.com, “The Safe Food Act also would modernize the 100-year old food safety laws, and give the new chief a unified budget. The legislation is supported by the nonprofit food safety and nutrition watchdog group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)…The bill would also establish a comprehensive program to protect public health and bolster consumer confidence in the safety of the food supply. Currently, food safety monitoring, inspection, and labeling functions are spread across 12 federal agencies.”
It was less than a month ago that the US Government Accounting Office (GAO), the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, added food safety to its list of critically flawed federal programs, saying that splintered jurisdiction among 15 agencies has left the nation vulnerable to outbreaks of food-borne illness or, worse, a terrorist attack.
- KC's View:
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We agree with this approach, and furthermore believe that the people who run it ought to be people of science, not people of politics. Our problem with the current situation is that most of the articles we read about the current bureaucracy, not to mention the interviews we’ve done with some of these folks, make us believe that the consumer’s interests are not paramount.
Based on our recent travels, and seeing what it is being done in places such as the UK, Singapore and Tokyo, we think that far more can be done here.
