On his Food Safety page, Durbin says:
I have been fighting for improved food safety standards for more than ten years. The recent recalls of tainted peanut butter, spinach, seafood, and pet food are only the latest examples of today's broken food safety system. Authority for regulating our nation's food supply is split among more than ten federal agencies. Most of these agencies lack the resources necessary to ensure the integrity of the food we consume.
I am working to secure increased resources for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food safety program, and I am the lead sponsor of several pieces of legislation designed to improve our food safety system. Among these bills is the Safe Food Act, which would streamline our food safety structure, improving coordination by combining the disparate food safety functions spread across the federal government into a single agency based on scientific principles. We also need to establish a robust system for overseeing the safety of imported food. I introduced legislation to strengthen the FDA's ability to monitor and inspect goods that enter the U.S. from abroad by imposing a fee on companies and countries exporting food products to the U.S. Consumers often take for granted that the food they purchase will be safe whether it originated in the U.S. or was imported, but the standards of other countries and the lack of U.S. food inspectors monitoring imported food too often proves them wrong.
Durbin's farm bill page is out of date and vague:
The Farm Bill is a critical piece of legislation that determines federal policy for farm income support, nutrition, conservation, and many other essential stewardship and land use policies for the next five years.
The last Farm Bill passed by Congress in 2002 made significant improvements in our nations investment in the agriculture sector, conservation, renewable energy, and nutrition. The current Farm Bill debate presents an additional opportunity to expand upon those gains and create the right mix of incentives and support to further propel the agricultural strength of our state and our nation.
I am specifically supportive of efforts to increase funding for conservation, nutrition, and renewable energy programs. I also believe it is important to transition our commodity support programs to a revenue-based model that better targets scarce taxpayer resources and protects farmers from both fluctuations in price and yield.
He supports ethanol... no surprise given how much corn his state grows, but still disappointing. I have no idea what his statement about commodity subsidies means and if it's a bad thing or a good thing.
According to OpenSecrets.org, in the 2003-20008 election cycle, Durbin took $184,000 from agribusiness. That's a lot, but it's nothing compared to almost $2 million he got from lawyers and law firms, $1 million from finance, insurance, and real estate, or even the $408,000 from communications and electronics.
From the agribusiness money, $98k came from PACs. The breakdown is:
$23,500 - ADM, Monsanto, and Friends
$12,000 - Soy, Corn, & Cotton groups
$13,000 - Dairy (mostly from California Dairies Inc)
$7,000 - Livestock (Sheep, Beef, and Pork groups plus Tyson)
$42,500 - Junk food companies (see list below)
List of Junk Food Companies who gave to Durbin: Albertson's, American Meat Institute, ConAgra, Food Lion, Food Marketing Institute, Grocery Manufacturers of America, Heinz, Kellogg, Kraft, Kroger, National Meat Association, Nestle, PepsiCo, Safeway, Smithfield, and Tate & Lyle.
Durbin got over $1.3 million in PAC money, so his Agribusiness PAC money is about 7% of that. He's raised a total of over $10 million in this election cycle, so his agribiz money is even more insignificant when you look at it that way.
Other Positions
Supports updating the definition of "foods of minimal nutritional value" in school lunches (S.771)
Supports adjusting the asset limit for food stamps (SNAP) with inflation and allowing food stamp recipients to save money for education and retirement without losing their benefits (S.591)
Supports capping subsidies at $250,000 per farm
Supports humane slaughter for non-ambulatory livestock (S.394)
Supports establishing a Food Safety Administration |
