The Top 10 Food Safety Stories of 2009

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Dec 30, 2009 at 00:15:44 AM PST

Bill Marler's Food Safety Naughty and Nice List 2009

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 21:10:22 PM PST

From China, with (deja vu) Melamine Love.

by: Asinus Asinum Fricat

Sat Dec 12, 2009 at 11:17:56 AM PST

Three people from the Shaanxi Jinqiao Dairy Co, in northern Shaanxi province, have been detained and accused of producing and selling toxic food, Chinese state media reported yesterday. The police operation comes just over a year after a nationwide contamination scandal involving the lacing of milk powder with the industrial chemical killed six and sickened an estimated 300,000.

I wrote extensively on this last year having lost my girl Labrador, Bessie, to renal failure. Though this time, one year on, it seems that China is attempting to do a house cleaning but we must remain vigilant. I for one will eschew Chinese food products for quite some time.

Food Safety Comes Home For Harry Reid

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Sep 20, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

H.B. 2749 is now in the U.S. Senate, assigned to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.  The HELP Committee is now taking up both H.B. 2749 and S. 501 introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL).

Senior Democratic staff to the HELP Committee last month said with the focus on health care reform, it was unlikely the committee would get to food safety legislation this fall.  Durbin, who is Majority Whip, does not want to wait that long and from Reid's letter, it appears the Majority Leader now agrees with him.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) is the new HELP Committee chairman.  He says he wants to take up a "modified" version of Durbin's bill.

H.R. 2749 is the food safety bill that passed the House. Durbin's bill, S. 501, is the Senate version of H.R. 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act. A major difference between the two bills is that H.R. 2749 assesses fees to food facilities to fund increased inspections by the USDA. I had assumed that the Senate was moving slowly on food safety because they are so focused on health care, but it looks like food safety may happen after all. I am looking out for good talking points for us, but for now it would suffice to write your Senators, saying that you wish to have safe food but not at the expense of sustainable agriculture and small farmers. Ask your Senators to make sure the bill that moves forward protects the needs of small farmers and sustainable/organic agriculture.

Food Safety News is a new site by internationally recognized food safety lawyer Bill Marler.

The Kickass Bill Marler Says Food Safety Reform Will Lower Health Care Costs

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 08:43:30 AM PDT

In Room 519 of Kindred Hospital, Linda Rivera can no longer speak.

Her mute state, punctuated only by groans, is the latest downturn in the swift collapse of her health that began in May when she curled up on her living room couch and nonchalantly ate several spoonfuls of the Nestlé cookie dough her family had been consuming for years. Federal health officials believe she is among 80 people in 31 states sickened by cookie dough contaminated with a deadly bacteria, E. coli O157:H7.

The impact of the infection has been especially severe for Rivera and nine other victims who developed a life-threatening complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome. One, a 4-year-old girl from South Carolina, had a stroke and is partially paralyzed.

Last week, I met with legendary food safety lawyer Bill Marler in his office in Seattle. Not to distract from the serious topic at hand, I must mention that the view from his office is AMAZING - a 66th floor view of Puget Sound out of two windows of his corner office that take up most of their respective walls. Marler was incredibly nice in person, as he is online, but he was also intense about the topic of food safety (as you'd expect). After you meet people like Linda Rivera and her family who suffer so much from tainted foods, there's just no way to be casual about the subject.

As you can read on Marler's blog, he says that food safety reform must be part of health care reform. Consider: 76 million Americans are sickened by food poisoning each year, 325,000 are hospitalized, and at least 5,000 die. Every one one of those illnesses is preventable, as are the lost life, productivity, and health care costs. That's an awful lot of money.

McHepatitis A (Would You Like Fries With That?)

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Jul 20, 2009 at 05:10:00 AM PDT

Pot Luck: Pullman Takes Back Pollan, Marler Money Matters

by: JayinPortland

Wed May 27, 2009 at 19:03:24 PM PDT

But [WSU President Elson] Floyd announced Wednesday that a private donation has brought the program back to life. The money comes from Bill Marler, an attorney who served on the WSU Board of Regents from 1998 to 2004.

Bill Marler has this to say at his blog.

(h/t to La Vida Locavorean rossl, who mentioned it here before I even got the Food Democracy Now and Comfood emails...)

What's on your mind?  Use this diary as an open thread...

UPDATE: Just to be sure we portray this story accurately, please note that Food Democracy Now also played a significant role in the overturning of WSU's decision.

Bill Marler offers $25K to Charity for 25K TwitterFollowers

by: Curtis Abbey

Sun Apr 19, 2009 at 10:09:37 AM PDT

He's come up with a promotion to offer $25000 to charity in exchange for 25000 followers on Twitter. What charity? He's taking suggestions. Please login to twitter now and join "BMarler"

Who's Bill Marler? Here's a video

PCA Shifts From Toxic Peanuts to Toxic Emails

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 16:15:00 PM PDT

You have got to be a money crazy son of a bitch, with a big mouth. People
like you arn't (sic) interested in the problem. You are only trying to feather
your own nest. I hope that some day that I can meet you. You have to be a
real ass hole.... Hugh Parnell

Marler is perhaps the best known lawyer who defends victims of foodborne illnesses. And the peanut company at the heart of the salmonella outbreak this year was the Parnell family business. Guess Hugh's a little bitter.

My own take on Marler is that he DOES legitimately care about the victims of foodborne illness and he's not just chasing ambulances for money. He's seen many heartbreaking stories up close and personal and he truly wants to help the victims and prevent future sicknesses and deaths. After seeing what he's seen, you'd have to be a monster not to care deeply about how to prevent future food safety problems.

Here's a little bit of advice to Hugh Parnell: Next time you're drinking, turn the computer OFF first so you don't send any emails you may regret.

Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Mar 13, 2009 at 16:00:00 PM PDT

• Planning your garden? Check out the Cool Foods Garden Guide for all kinds of useful help! This is the garden guide I think I've needed my whole life. They break it down so easily, I really think I might be able to grow something!! If only I had a yard...

• Bill Marler shares the story of Stephanie Smith. She was a dance instructor when she ate an E. coli-tainted burger at age 20. Now, ate age 21, afer nine months in the hospital (including two in a coma), she hopes to be able to walk again. Wow.

• Set your Tivo for HBO's Death on a Factory Farm, premiering March 16 at 10pm. It's a documentary that follows an animal rights undercover investigator for six weeks on a factory hog farm in Ohio. Just a word of caution - it's pretty graphic.

• Bryant Terry, co-author of Grub with Anna Lappe, has a new book out: Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine. Hmm, I might be interested in this one.

• Alternet says our greatest concern isn't diet or exercise - it's neighborhood. Very interesting comment on Americans' health problems.

• An interesting trend in wine-making: Making the bottles lighter to use less glass and have a lighter footprint on the planet.

• A tax on chocolate? Ohhh, hell no! Fortunately, this wasn't proposed in the U.S. And even if somebody DID tax chocolate, I'd still eat it.

• Will Obama appoint a salmon czar? Some groups are asking him to do so, to coordinate fishing and protect wild salmon so that we can continue to have a sustainable salmon supply.

• Is the banana in trouble? This article takes a look at bananas' lack of genetic diversity. This opens it up to great risk if a disease were to start wiping it out, and it looks like that might happen...

• On the subject of bananas, Chiquita wants a suit against them dismissed. The suit alleges that Chiquita paid off Columbian paramilitary groups that killed a lot of people in Columbia.

Some Fun From the Internet Way Back Machine

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 23:49:07 PM PST

But nothing ever goes away on the Internet. Bill Marler went and found all the fun stuff that I couldn't find myself :) In a post called Where Peanut Butter Web Pages Go To Die he quotes the old site. Here's my favorite paragraph

Safety and Quality do make a difference. We have a remarkable Food-Safety record, developed in an environment committed to continuous training and state-of-the-art Food Safety techniques. From the corporate office to the plant floors, our comprehensive Quality Control program assists us in preventing error, reducing waste, meeting requirements, measuring results and satisfying our customers.

Oh, yes! They DO have a remarkable food safety record. In fact, the entire national press corps is abuzz talking about it! Marler's got a second post of internet fun up here. Also, he mentions that due to the recent bankruptcy of PCA, he's changing all of his lawsuits to name Stewart Parnell as the defendant instead of the corporation. So... nice try Parnell!

If Vilsack's the New Ag Secretary, We Need Bill Marler to hit hard at Big Ag

by: Obama Foodorama

Tue Dec 16, 2008 at 19:16:16 PM PST

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.