I have received quite a few comments (mostly positive) on Wil S. Hylton’s article in The New Yorker – A Bug in the System – Why last night’s chicken made you sick.

Although, I just figured out I might well be the bug!

Although the opening tagline makes my mom happy, my kids embarrassed and me blush – “A lawyer is leading the fight to keep contaminated food off the supermarket shelf” – there are a lot of people in industry, academia, government (regulatory and public health), and public advocacy that really do the heavy lifting to make our food supply as safe as it presently is.  However, we all can do much better – and we all know it.  Here are a few quotes about the use of a well placed lawsuit:

… During the past twenty years, Marler has become the most prominent and powerful food-safety attorney in the country….

… Given the struggles of his clients—victims of organ failure, sepsis, and paralysis—Marler says it can be tempting to dismiss him as a “bloodsucking ambulance chaser who exploits other people’s personal tragedies.” But many people who work in food safety believe that Marler is one of the few functioning pieces in a broken system….

… When regulation fails, private litigation can be the most powerful force for change. As Marler puts it, “If you want them to respond, you have to make them.” Robert Brackett, who directed food safety at the F.D.A. during the George W. Bush Administration, told me that Marler has almost single-handedly transformed the role that lawsuits play in food policy: “Where people typically thought of food safety as this three-legged stool—the consumer groups, the government, and the industry—Bill sort of came in as a fourth leg and actually was able to effect changes in a way that none of the others really had.” Hagen said the cost that Marler extracts from food makers “can be a stronger incentive or disincentive than the passing of any particular regulation.” Mike Taylor called litigation such as Marler’s “a central element of accountability.” …

… At least twice a month, he flies across the country to speak with advocacy groups and at food-industry events. He will not accept payment from any food company, and has turned down thousands of dollars to deliver a short lecture, only to pay his own way to the venue and present the speech for free. Sometimes, when Marler takes the stage, members of the audience walk out. At a meeting of the Produce Manufacturers Association, in the summer of 2013, he approached the lectern as loudspeakers blared the Rolling Stones song “Sympathy for the Devil.” …

… Sometimes, when Marler encounters critics who charge him with having predatory motives, he challenges them to “put me out of business.” David Acheson, a former Associate Commissioner for Foods at the F.D.A., told me, “That’s just become a bit of a trademark. He doesn’t want that.” Still, Acheson told me that he has seen an evolution in Marler. “In the early days, Bill was just on a mission to sue large food companies—he was on a mission to make money,” Acheson said. “But I think during the course of that he realized that there are problems with the food-safety system, and I think progressively, philosophically, he changed from just being a plaintiff attorney to being somebody who believes that changing food safety for the betterment of public health is a laudable goal.” Acheson added, with no small measure of distaste, “He still sues food companies.” …

I think Dr. David needs a hug.