Marler Blog - Well I See Obama Is Interested in Food Safety - Comments

Amy

bmarler@marlerclark.com (Bill Marler) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:41:21 -0800

Nice work, Batman.

Eddie Gehman Kohan

bmarler@marlerclark.com (Bill Marler) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:41:21 -0800

Mr. Obama's bill is a good ginsu-knife stab at moving towards rapid action and transparency when dealing with foodborne disease outbreaks, but you are very "nice" in saying the bill is light on funding at $25 million; "alarmingly low" seems like a better description. And the funding level should increase exponentially each year following enactment of the bill; in this version it stays the same for three years. Also, 180 days seems like an awfully long time; we need microwave-oven speed, not slow-cooker speed, since the safety of the American food supply is already in a state of crisis. Disappointing, too, that there is no provisions for assessing harmful adulterants added to food, since Big Beef wants certain pathogens classified as adulterants rather than disease carriers, and there are no provisions for review of the soon-to-be happening uses of the very dangerous nanotechnologies that the food industry is currently rapidly introducing into packaging. Final disappointing part: Mr. Obama forgot to announce that you will be appointed the new Food Safety Czar, and you forgot to accept the post! --But yes, this is far far better than anything we have right now, and it's very exciting that Mr. Obama has started to take notice of food safety issues.

Bix

bmarler@marlerclark.com (Bill Marler) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:41:21 -0800

As I understand it, and I'm prone to misunderstanding...

This Bill addresses, and places authority with, the department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under which the CDC and FDA fall. It does not address, nor does it place authority with, the Department of Agriculture (USDA), under which the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) falls.

Thus, where it might someday give recall authority to the FDA, it would not be giving recall authority it to the USDA. No meat recalls.

I think there needs to be better integration/coordination between agencies regarding food safety -- at least those 2 agencies, the FDA and the USDA. This is why a Food Safety Administration or some other Food Safety Umbrella is needed.

About the Bill ...
These same initiatives have been outlined, and fleshed out, in the FDA's Food Protection Plan (Nov. 2007)
http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/advance/food/plan.html

It would be wonderful if Obama staff would access that Plan as they formulate legislation, especially since the Plan designates specific legislative action needed to move ahead with food safety. Someone already did this work ... Instead of reinventing it, why not enhance it?

Amanda Rose

bmarler@marlerclark.com (Bill Marler) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:41:21 -0800

The 25M appears to fund state and local capacity-building grants. I assume that the implementation costs of the legislation will either be added to the legislation later or included in discussion of the bill.

In terms of the 25M for state and local grants, it is still a modest sum. It would be good seed money for demonstration programs. Larger funding streams could result from the evaluation process of the food safety plan in general and the demonstration programs in particular.

Amanda

Phyllis Entis

bmarler@marlerclark.com (Bill Marler) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:41:21 -0800

It sounds good at first read, but it only addresses one part of the overall problem. And it assumes that the problems have already been adequately defined.

I think, for example, that we need to learn from the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak - perhaps by having the GAO do an investigation of the entire chain of events, especially the issues of federal-state and FDA-CDC "cooperation" and information exchange.

On another point, it's all very well to talk about federal-state data sharing, but we'd better make darned sure that all of the labs are on the same page as far as their analytical methods are concerned. Otherwise, the data will not be comparable lab-to-lab.

Let's be sure to identify the broken pieces so that we fix the correct elements.

I give Obama marks for at least paying attention to the food safety issue. Wonder whether McCain would co-sponsor the bill?

Phyllis