| A major event in US food safety went largely unnoticed last week: Elizabeth Johnson, the Under Secretary for Food Safety of USDA, resigned her post with no official announcement. Sure, Ms. Johnson was probably going to be replaced by President-elect Obama, but with food safety currently in crisis mode, it's more than alarming that there's now no-one officially driving the proverbial tractor.
2008 is perhaps the worst food safety year of the decade. There's been a food borne disease or contamination recall each week this year, and these have run the gamut from meat to dairy to produce, from seafood to processed foods and pet foods. Some of these recalls have been nationwide, as in the case of Salmonella Saintpaul in peppers and tomatoes last summer; some have been regional, as in the case of the E. coli lettuce outbreak in the midwest this fall; some have been persistent and ongoing, as in the case of ground beef contaminated with listeriosis, E. coli, etc. And some recalls will be with us for months (possibly years) into the future, across the foodchain, as in the case of melamine, for which USDA won't even begin testing until a week from now (if ever). With our current food safety system in wild disarray, citizens can be exposed to harm at every point between plow and plate, whether food is conventionally or organically grown.
Obama, thankfully, is now being heavily lobbied to pay attention to food and food safety. Last Thursday, in an open letter to Obama, a collective of high-profile watchdog and environmental groups issued a joint statement urging the President-elect to make food safety a top priority for the USDA, the FDA, and the new Secretary of Agriculture. The groups signing include Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumers Union, Safe Tables Our Priority, Food & Water Watch, the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention, the Government Accountability Project , and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Separately, on Friday, the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies of Science, released a report calling for a revamp of the USDA and FDA, stating that both need to updated in order to meet that challenges of emerging food safety issues. A host of media outlets have recently run editorials on the importance of food safety, and last week, New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof also called for a revamp of the very idea of a Secretary of Agriculture, stating that what we really need is a "Secretary of Food." PETA's Bruce Friedrich is appealing for big changes in food safety, too. And close to ninety notable foodists recently sent a letter to Obama calling for an ethical/sustainable Secretary of Agriculture, which speaks directly to the importance of a safe food supply. All of this is building on writer/activist Michael Pollan's open letter to the President-elect, Farmer in Chief, published in NYT in October.
It's encouraging that food safety is now getting more attention in the media (if not from those who currently micromanage it). But the truth is, for all the excellent goals and aspirational ideas being publicly aired and petitioned for, the President-elect is facing unprecedented challenges in every sector of his stewardship. Everyone's desire for immediate and swift change in food safety and agriculture must be tempered by the fact that Obama's got huge problems across the board. Realistically, changes in food safety will come in the way change usually does in government--slowly. Thus it's crucial to appoint visionaries who can work through the long process of change toward a common goal, sustainably and transparently.
Still, there are opportunities for swift and dramatic change, particularly in food safety. If the USDA fulfilled even half of its already existing mandate, we'd have a far cleaner and safer food chain. Elizabeth Johnson's now-vacant post as Under Secretary for Food Safety needs to be filled by an inspired, activist leader, someone with both a long institutional memory, and a firm grasp on how to rapidly change what's so terribly wrong with our system. There's one individual in the food safety world who is the most uniquely qualified candidate to take on such a huge challenge: Attorney Bill Marler, the foremost food poisoning authority in the country (pictured).
A founding partner of Seattle's Marler Clark law firm, Marler is an extremely activist consumer advocate and champion of change in food safety policy and practice, both in the US and abroad. His focus on food safety began in 1993, when he won a landmark settlement against Jack in The Box for E. coli contamination. Since then, Marler's firm has become a powerhouse of food borne illness litigation, garnering close to half a billion dollars in settlements for injured clients.
Marler himself is now the leading US expert in institutional and agricultural structures for food safety, and he regularly works with farmers and major corporations to change/create safety practices (most recently, he persuaded global conglomerate Conagra to dramatically alter their policies). He's repeatedly testified before Congress on food safety, and has been a vociferous and much-published critic of government policies and practices (including the ongoing labeling fights over "organic"). His Marler Blog is the best internet source for food safety information, and as the years have gone by, Marler has devoted more and more of his professional life to non-profit consultations on food safety and security around the world. Under the umbrella of Marler Clark's non-profit organization, Outbreak, Marler consulates with foreign food agencies, producers, and governments on how to better protect the public from poisoned food, and how to create safe food systems. This is crucial for any Under Secretary for Food Safety, because America imports a huge part of our food supply each year. Marler has not only been an activist on getting foreign producers to focus on safety, but he's also intimately acquainted with exactly what goes on in international markets.
Marler's wealth of practical, theoretical, and scientific knowledge about every aspect of food safety from plow to plate--including bioterrorism--makes him an ideal candidate for Under Secretary for Food Safety. Even better, while Marler has long-standing relationships with producers and government policy makers, he is completely free of any kind of connection to lobbying entities. As Under Secretary for Food Safety, Marler's scrupulous ethics will permanently change USDA's notorious history of bowing to the profit motives of large corporations. And to add a happy sidenote to his phenomenal food safety credentials, Marler is also well-schooled in sustainable, ethical, organic practices for food. He grew up in a small rural community in Washington state, and he and his wife are raising their family with locavore values. Marler's philosophical approach to food would dovetail perfectly with even the most radical & sustainability oriented Secretary of Agriculture, but he knows exactly how to deal with Big Ag and corporate intrusions into farming. And if Tom Vilsack is, in fact, Secretary of Agriculture, there's simply no better choice for a food safety mentor than Marler. If Vilsack's as beloved by Big Ag as he's purported to be, Marler's the man to make sure Big Ag isn't poisoning the world.
Bill Marler as Under Secretary for Food Safety is where the fork hits the field, so to speak, and his appointment would ensure that major changes can--and will--occur in food safety using the existing legal framework, without waiting years for new policies to be legislated. |
