Recent months have proven to be nothing short of
an evolving period of crisis for the American
food industry, dealing first of all with the
nightmare of contaminated spinach. Soon
afterwards, deadly microbes began showing up in
peanut butter, of all things. And, then came the
contamination of tomatoes and imported melons.
But, this latest outbreak, involving tainted pet
food has not only contributed to the illness or
death of reportedly thousands of family pets,
more importantly, it's revealed a food safety
system in America that's remarkably dysfunctional.
Confidence in the FDA couldn't be lower. What we'
ve depended upon to be our first line of defense
in protecting the safety of our food has instead
revealed itself as an agency that's chronically
under-funded and forced to utilize severely
outdated methods of scientific research and
analysis. But, even more disappointing is the
realization that it actually has very little
enforcement authority, even within its own poorly
structured regulatory framework. So, it comes as
no real surprise that today's "post 911" FDA is
only geared toward reacting to situations, with
nothing in place to stop them from occurring in
the first place.
Former FDA chief, Dr. David Kessler in testimony
before the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee, was quoted as saying "We have no
structure for preventing food-borne illness in
this country. The reality is that there is
currently no mandate, no leadership, no resources,
nor scientific research base for prevention of
food safety problems. There is no one in the
executive branch with the clout and Authority to
prevent food-borne illness".
Many argue that we're using our pets as guinea
pigs, testing the safety of ingredients and
unknown additives imported for the production of
pet foods. The greater concern should be that
much of those same ingredients are finding their
way into foods consumed by us humans. Not
surprisingly, I have an increasing lack of
confidence in the suggestions of "experts" or
food labels advocating "Safe For Human
Consumption". Precisely who is it that I'm
supposed to trust?
As concerned Americans, this has to be our wake-
up call. It's time to strengthen the FDA's
ability to ensure the safety of our food supply
by providing the desperately needed resources and
by unifying and elevating food safety leadership
between the FDA and the Department of Health and
Human Services. It's time to once and for all
put an end to the growing number of high profile,
and deadly breakdowns in the nation's food
inspection system.
We can't bring back the beloved pets we've lost,
as a result of the current lack of oversight, but
we can take measures to prevent the tragic
consequences of future outbreaks. Our message to
Congress should be that it's no longer "ok" to
rely on a broken system with the embarrassing
capacity to inspect only 1 to 2 percent of our
increasing levels of cheap imported food products.
And, we need action now, before our concerns
once again, begin to erode with the passing of
time.
For additional information and important
resources, please visit Wag Central
Copyright 2007 Harry Monell. All rights reserved.
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