Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Max Baucus (D-MT)
- Michael Bennet (D-CO)
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Bob Casey (D-PA)
- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Pat Leahy (D-VT)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Mike Johanns (R-NE)
- Dick Lugar (R-IN)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Pat Roberts (R-KS)
- John R. Thune (R-SD)
Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
- Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA) *=House Organic Caucus member B=Blue Dog Democrat
Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA) *=House Organic Caucus member
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
- Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)
P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC) P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
THIS is what I've been waiting for. The dirty details on the egg operations that sold the tainted eggs. Bill Marler got to it first, in case you want to check out what he had to say. I've got excepts below on what - exactly - the feds found when they checked out the egg factories that sold the tainted eggs.
In short, at Wright County Egg, they found holes in the buildings where other animals could get in, wild birds, standing water, rodents (a MAJOR risk factor for salmonella), escaped chickens, live and dead flies, live and dead maggots, and lots of poop (piles of manure 8 feet high!).
There were also some problems in the feed mill, which makes sense if the salmonella came from the feed. Birds were all over the place in there, and there were holes in several food containers. Plus some "avian like feces." No surprise, the FDA tested for salmonella and found plenty of it in there.
The report for the Hillandale, the other farm (the one not owned by DeCoster), was much less exciting. There's still a bit of manure, rodents, open holes in the structures, standing water, and lack of record keeping, but it's clearly not as bad as the DeCoster operation.
Today, the FDA issued inspection reports on the two egg farms involved in a recall of half a billion eggs for salmonella contamination, Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. Conditions were, shall we say, less than optimal.
The inspectors found manure piles up to 8 feet high, holding doors open and giving wildlife access. "Wildlife" included live rodents, wild birds and a plague of flies, live and dead, including their larvae (maggots). "Additional problems included overflowing manure pits, improper worker sanitation and wild birds [a potential source of avian influenza] roosting around feed bins," reports the New York Times.
The investigators also found salmonella bacteria in chicken feed and in barn and walkway areas, and in water used to wash eggs at a Hillandale facility. It isn't clear, yet, which came first: the salmonella or the egg.
With less than 2 weeks notice and during the peak of planting season, the FDA held a listening session in San Antonio, Texas, on the issue of produce standards.
Michael Taylor, FDA's Senior Advisor, was there along with TX Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture Drew DeBerry and TX Associate Commissioner of State Health Services, Ben Delgado. After comments from Mr. Taylor about the FDA's plans to propose regulations for how farmers grow and harvest crops, an industry panel spoke for about an hour. Notably, there was not a single small or organic farmer or representative on the panel. In contrast, the public comments that followed were almost entirely from small farmers.
A young intern videotaped the comments, and we've got about 7 posted on YouTube:
Michael R. Taylor, J.D., was named Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on Jan. 13, 2010. He is the first individual to hold the position, which was created along with a new Office of Foods in August 2009 to elevate the leadership and management of the Foods Program.
I don't know if this means he's got any change in job responsibilities, since this already was his basic function at FDA. It seems to me he's just got a new job title and a revised org chart to go along with it.
Previous studies have found BPA in the urine of 93% of Americans tested. But Wednesday's study is the first to find it in the cord blood of U.S. newborns.
"It's alarming," Janet Gray, director of the Environmental Risks and Breast Cancer project at Vassar College, said of the study results. "What more evidence do we need to act?"
More than 6 billion pounds of BPA are used each year to make polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. The chemical is used in thousands of common products, including the lining of nearly all food and beverage cans and as coating for carbonless paper receipts.
FDA was supposed to complete their latest 'review' on the use of BPA on Monday, but the decision has been postponed. Since we're already into December, I'm assuming the decision will not be made until well after the New Year. Or, just like their first decision in 2008... maybe they'll sneak the news that they plan to do nothing into another end-of-the-week news dump sometime around, say, December 23 or 24? Pardon my cynicism.
Homer called it "liquid gold." Olive oil has been more than mere food to us Mediterraneans: it's our way of life. The olive tree, symbol of abundance, glory and peace, gave its leafy branches to crown the victorious in both friendly games and bloody war. Olive crowns and olive branches, ancient emblems of benediction and purifiation, were ritually offered to deities and powerful figures but it is only in recent times that modern scientific research has proven over and over what the peasant wisdom knew a long time ago: its wonderful taste and health properties.
One tablespoon of olive oil contains 120 calories and 14 grams of fat, but the fat is mostly monounsaturated and has a beneficial effect on blood cholesterol levels. It is no wonder that Mediterranean countries where olive oil is consumed extensively such as Greece, France, Italy and Spain, there is a low incidence of cardiovascular diseases. It also protects the body's digestive tract.
A research paper published in the September issue of Pediatric Nephrology reveals that current limits on trace amounts of melamine in baby formula increase the risk of pediatric kidney disease, therefore are too high. Melamine is the industrial chemical that hospitalized thousands of Chinese children in 2008 when it was intentionally added to milk in large amounts.
Researchers found that cases of pediatric nephrolithiasis nearly doubled with when infants were exposed to less than 0.2 mg/kg per day of melamine. That is the World Health Organization's recommended "tolerable daily intake" (TDI) for infants. That finding also calls into question the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's somewhat lower limit of 0.063 mg/kg for infants because we do not know how much lower than 0.2 mg/kg one has to go to reach a "no observed adverse effects level" or NOAEL. Another finding, that the risk from melamine increases "with the duration of exposure," calls into question FDA's limit for adults and older children, also. So far, however, the FDA and the Department of Agriculture (which share food safety responsibilities) and the news media have been silent about the study.
All companies that manufacture, process or distribute food for people or animals to eat must now report any problems that could lead to food-borne illness within 24 hours, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday.
Notification must be made using the online Reportable Food Registry, which was mandated by Congress two years ago in the hope of speeding up the process of alerting the FDA of contaminated foods and cutting down on the distribution of such food.
Here's the bit about this from the FDA website. According to the press release, this was announced by the FDA in June and a comment period followed.
Meanwhile, both HHS and the USDA (the FDA is under HHS) jointly announced a new food safety website, which they have brilliantly named FoodSafety.gov. From the press release:
Consumers can sign up in one easy place to receive email and RSS alerts on recalled or potentially unsafe food and hear from the top scientific experts across the government on food safety. Later phases of the site to be launched will include recall feeds for texting and mobile phones. The site will also feature a foodsafety.gov widget that the public and the media are encouraged to download and promote on their Web sites and social networking sites. The widget will instantly update viewers with the latest food safety recalls and will be a valuable public health and safety tool.
I hate to say it, but I think we have Michael Taylor (the FDA's Food Safety Czar and Monsanto's former lobbyist) to thank for this.
FDA announced on Monday that they expect to rule by November on bisphenol A (BPA)'s safety for use in food and beverage containers. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg will make the decision following the completion of a review by government scientists of all available studies on BPA, including over 100 new studies on the chemical, many of which have been covered here over the past year.
The timeline was criticized by some environmental activists who say the government has had more than enough time to consider the chemical's effects.
[...]
The FDA ruled last August that BPA was safe for all use. The FDA's own advisory board rejected the ruling, noting that it was based on two studies, both of which had been financed by the plastics industry.
Canada and a handful of US States and localities have already banned use of the substance in baby bottles, and others are currently considering doing so.
Bisphenol A is a known endocrine disruptor commonly used in the production of many household items, from baby bottles to plastic food containers to soup cans to dental fillings; and exposure via tap water and house dust is now also thought possible. Many studies have linked long term, low-level BPA exposure to everything from increased risks for obesity by triggering fat-cell activity, to diabetes, heart disease in women, fertility defects and an increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life from fetal exposure.
Lucky us! The FDA has just issued draft guidelines for safe leafy greens, tomatoes, and melons. I have a hunch we'll be talking about these guidelines much more in the near future - as soon as organizations like the Cornucopia Institute, Organic Consumers Association, and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition get a good look at them and start telling us how we can properly comment to the FDA. So stay tuned...
(Thanks to Bill Marler - the man who SHOULD be our next USDA Under Secretary For Food Safety - for this! - promoted by Jill Richardson)
I began my career as a food safety attorney because Lauren Beth Rudolph died on December 28, 1992 in her mother's arms, due to complications of an E. coli O157:H7 infection - Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome. She was only 6 years, 10 months, and 10 days old when she died. Her death, the deaths of three other children, and the sicknesses of 600 others, were eventually linked to E. coli O157:H7 tainted hamburger produced by Von's and served at Jack in the Box restaurants on the West Coast during late 1992 and January 1993. I met Roni Rudolph, Lauren's mom, when I litigated the case against Jack in the Box. We've been friends in the ensuing sixteen years.
The House just passed a major budget increase for the chronically-underfunded FDA. Specifically, the FDA is getting an extra $373 million (and the Wall Street Journal calls it "the largest boost in the agency's history")! To put that in perspective, the FDA's entire 2010 budget is $2.99 billion, so it was a about a 14% increase to their budget.
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) told DeLauro that "We're stealing our grandchildren's future by spending so much money," and introduced an amendment to keep funding levels the same. (Wait - wasn't he the guy who wanted to make 2010 the Year of the Bible? Are we supposed to pray the E. coli away?) DeLauro replied that Broun's proposal "in fact would put this agency back in jeopardy. We just cannot afford to neglet our food safety system any longer." Hell yeah, Rep. DeLauro!!!
(I have an idea for Broun - why don't we save our grandkids' money by no longer buying more F-22 fighter jets for the military... these things are the ultimate pork. They have parts made in 44 different states, so Congress keeps ordering more planes to create jobs in their states even though the military says NO MORE F-22s! The F-22 was made to fight the Soviets - but it's not just that they are outdated. They are also complete crap. They only fly an average of 1.7 hours at a time before breaking down! Let's use the money the House just set aside for F-22s for food safety instead.)
Back to the FDA budget story, here's some more info on the budget from the WSJ:
Much of the increase in funding will target food safety initiatives, an area where the FDA has faced numerous challenges in the last year amid concerns as to how the agency responded to a variety of foodborne health problems involving peanuts, pet food and hot peppers. Rep. DeLauro said it will allow the FDA to review more food that enters the country's borders and hire an additional 1,150 foreign and domestic inspections.
If you were wondering what Michael Taylor, the new food safety guy at the FDA, thinks we oughta do to make our food safer, look no further than his recent testimony before the House Ag Committee on April 2, 2009. Highlights are below.
Taylor previously worked at the USDA from 1976-1981 as a staff lawyer. He left government to work at King & Spaulding, a law firm representing Monsanto.
He returned to government - this time to the FDA - for a stint as Deputy Commissioner for Policy from 1991-1994. According to Marion Nestle in Food Politics:
[At the FDA] he was part of the team that issued the agency's decidedly industry-friendly policy on food biotechnology and that approved the use of Monsanto's genetically engineered growth hormone in dairy cows. His questionable role in these decisions led to an investigation by the federal General Accounting Office, which eventually exonerated him of all conflict-of-interest charges.
In 1994, he moved over to the USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service to serve as Administrator until 1996. Then it was back to King & Spaulding for a little bit, and - in 1998 - over to Monsanto, where he was a senior lobbyist (Vice President for Public Policy).
Most recently, beginning in 2000, he was a fellow for Resources for The Future, serving as Research Professor Of Health Policy at George Washington University. Until this week, that is. Resources for Our Future is quite corporate funded with members of its Board of Directors from BP, Chevron, and DuPont.
And now he's back at the FDA. Great. Thanks Obama. Really.
Inspection reports of 2005, 2006 and 2007 visits to the Nestle plant in Virginia involved in the current recall of cookie dough products are available online at Bill Marler's blog. I read through them and picked out the 'highlights' (posted below the fold), but there's nothing in the reports that would fully explain the cause of this E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. The biggest news from these reports, however, seems to be Nestle's (completely legal for right now) refusal to provide FDA inspectors access to pest-control records, customer complaint files and other records and information -
In a September 2006 visit, for example, managers at the Danville, Va., plant refused to allow a Food and Drug Administration inspector to review consumer complaints or inspect its program designed to prevent food contamination. The inspector found dirty equipment and "three live ant-like insects" on a ledge but nothing severe enough to give the plant a failing grade. [...]
The FDA can [currently] inspect the records if it invokes a bioterrorism law and shows that the agency has "a reasonable belief" that the foods pose serious health threats -- a high bar to cross.
While it may not be perfect, and while we definitely have to continue to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't unfairly harm small, responsible producers when it's clearly these major food companies who are the problem when it comes to food safety in our current system; the food safety legislation currently in Congress will require food companies to provide FDA access to these records, and that's a very good and necessary thing. "Company policy" should never be able to override our regulatory agencies' efforts to ensure that we aren't taking our lives into our hands every time we shop at the supermarket.
Details from the inspection reports, and a bit more, below the fold...
