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hearings 
Fri Jul 02, 2010 at 12:42:42 PM PDT
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Yesterday, the House Education and Labor committee held a hearing on school lunch. You can read about the first half here. The second half of the school lunch hearing featured a panel with many speakers:
Tom Colicchio, Chef and Restaurateur
Major General Paul D. Monroe, U.S. Army (Ret.), Executive Advisory Council Mission: Readiness
Dr. Eduardo J. Sanchez, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas
James D. Weill, President Food Research & Action Center (FRAC)
Robert Rector, Senior Research Fellow
Welfare and Family Issues The Heritage Foundation
Details below. Also, you can see a press release on the hearing or a blog post by Rep. Woolsey for more info.
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Thu Jul 01, 2010 at 18:17:38 PM PDT
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Today the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on school lunch and child nutrition. The big news for me from the first half of the hearing is that Rep. Kucinich has an absolutely BRILLIANT idea to pay for healthy school lunch and Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is an idiot.
Below is my write-up of the first half of this hearing. I'll soon post a diary on the second half.
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Thu Apr 22, 2010 at 13:25:29 PM PDT
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Today the Senate Foreign Relations committee held a hearing on the Global Food Security Act (S.384), which, as I have documented on this blog before, Monsanto HAS been involved in lobbying on. The bill first came to my attention about a year ago, when the same committee held a very similar hearing about the same bill. In the year since then, I've become increasingly knowledgeable and outraged about the issues surrounding global food security. In the meantime, the Obama Administration took the lead on the issue of global food security from the Senate, and USAID is doing quite a bit already (in partnership with the World Bank and private organizations and companies) to really f*ck things up worldwide.
One of the clauses in the bill specifies that the U.S. should promote biotechnology in its efforts to combat global hunger. After a year of lobbying to ask them to remove this, they still haven't. Lugar made a point today in saying how necessary he thought GMOs are. My very inadequate transcription of his remarks are as follows:
The average African farmer's yield per acre is 1/2 that of an Indian farmer, 1/4 that of a Chinese farmer, and 1/5 of an American. [Something about Bill Gates' piece in the Wall Street Journal today] The role of GMOs in agriculture development is a matter of contention. Europe's rejection of GM has pressured African governments for fear they will lose export markets. Others argue safety is not proven despite 2 decades of safe use of GMOs. This ensures that much of the continent [Africa] will lack the tools to deal with changing climate in the long run. We may not be able to double food output by 2050. I ask to what extent does USAID support a full range of technologies? To what extent do the strategies encourage biotech?
Here's the thing. The "double food output by 2050" figure is one that was created by idiots. Or just very greedy assholes. It assumes that the rest of the world will want to eat much more grain-fed meat (like Americans do now). Unfortunately, Mother Nature does not operate like a market with supply and demand. A diet of grain-fed meat means increased diet-related chronic illnesses for those who eat it. And it means continued and worsened environmental degradation and climate change for the planet. Our species existence on this planet is contingent on us NOT increasing grain-fed meat consumption (and in fact, on DECREASING it). Therefore, the Senate, USAID, and Bill Gates are all aiming for a false goal.
More below.
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Tue Mar 02, 2010 at 20:44:24 PM PST
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Today, the House Education & Labor held a hearing on child nutrition before the full committee. You can see the entire hearing on an archived webcast here. The biggest take away I got from the hearing was the idea that when a school has a certain percent of kids who qualify for free or reduced cost lunch, it's cheaper to just give every kid in the school free food instead of paying for the administration and paperwork required to certify each kid who qualifies for the lunch. Sure, some kids will get food who don't qualify, but the school saves money overall while also making sure that everyone who needs to gets fed. Additionally, when every kid gets free food, then no kid has to deal with the stigma of receiving a handout because he or she is poor.
I've written up a summary of the hearing's content below.
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Thu Jan 28, 2010 at 22:48:04 PM PST
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Here's the second half of this week's House Ag Committee panel on federal nutrition programs. (See part 1 at the link.) If nothing else, I recommend reading through my summary of Jessup's testimony because it is AWESOME.
Panel II:
Guillermo Valenzuela, MD
Arrowhead Regional Medical Center
Webster Wong, MD
Arrowhead Regional Medical Center
Matthew Sharp, Senior Advocate
California Food Policy Advocates, Los Angeles, California
Edie Jessup, Program Development Specialist
Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Project of Central California Center for Health and Human Services, Fresno, California
Mathew Marsom, Director of Public Health Policy and Advocacy
Public Health Institute, Oakland, California
Claudia Page, Co-Director
The Center to Promote HealthCare Access, Oakland, California
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Thu Jan 28, 2010 at 17:44:24 PM PST
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The House Ag Committee held a hearing on Federal Nutrition Programs on Monday of this week (January 25, 2010). There were two panels. This diary covers the first panel, which mostly focuses on food stamps (SNAP) and the USDA and other agencies' efforts to increase participation among those who are eligible.
Panel 1
Lisa Pino, Deputy Administrator
USDA's Food and Nutrition Service
Christine Webb-Curtis, Chief
California Department of Social Services, Food Stamp Branch
Nancy Swanson, Director
Human Services Transitional Assistance Department of San Bernardino, CA
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Fri Jun 05, 2009 at 03:20:03 AM PDT
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This is the second half of the June 3 food safety hearing discussing Waxman's new food safety bill (You can see part 1 here). While Part 1 featured Margaret Hamburg from the FDA, Part 2 features representatives of industry and non-profits.
This part hearing included testimony from:
- Michael Ambrosio, Food Marketing Institute, Vice President Quality Assurance Division, Wakefern Food Corporation
- Pamela G. Bailey, President and Chief Executive Officer, Grocery Manufacturers Association
- Caroline Smith DeWaal, Safe Food Coalition, Food Safety Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest
- Tim F. Jones, MD, State Epidemiologist, Tennessee Department of Health
- Thomas E. Stenzel, President and CEO, United Fresh Produce Association
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Wed Jun 03, 2009 at 15:34:02 PM PDT
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The House Energy & Commerce Committee subcommittee on health held a hearing today covering the Food Safety Enhancement Act, a bill by Henry Waxman. They released a draft of the bill about a week ago, and they will mark up the bill in the near future. While some major food companies are actually FOR the bill, others are (predictably) against it. Companies that were hit by the peanut recall that have since tightened up their own food safety standards are for the bill because they don't want unfair competition from other companies who can cut costs by easing up on food safety. Those against it, obviously, just plain old don't want to be regulated.
This hearing included testimony from:
- Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration
- Michael Ambrosio, Food Marketing Institute, Vice President Quality Assurance Division, Wakefern Food Corporation
- Pamela G. Bailey, President and Chief Executive Officer, Grocery Manufacturers Association
- Caroline Smith DeWaal, Safe Food Coalition, Food Safety Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest
- Tim F. Jones, MD, State Epidemiologist, Tennessee Department of Health
- Thomas E. Stenzel, President and CEO, United Fresh Produce Association
This diary covers the first part of the hearing, with the very many opening statements made by members of Congress and the first witness, Margaret Hamburg.
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Fri May 29, 2009 at 21:45:06 PM PDT
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This is the second diary on the April 23 hearing on food safety at the USDA. My apologies for not posting it sooner... it's a long story that involves my internet breaking, but this is still timely as the Ag committee has yet to do anything with a food safety bill. Note that the food safety bill I've been writing about recently covers the FDA only and is currently in the House Energy & Commerce Committee. The House Ag Committee, on the other hand, has jurisdiction over the USDA. Several food safety bills have been assigned to their committee so far but there's no talk yet of anything passing or even moving forward.
The first diary covered the testimony from the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). This diary covers the second panel, which consisted of a number of factory farm representatives. You can basically skip reading what they actually had to say if you want because it can all be summed up as: We're so glad to have the safest food supply in the world and we're committed to food safety. The government's regulatory system is very strict already and it's working - we don't need stricter regulation. Please fully fund the USDA and the FDA. And really, no more regulation.
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Sat May 23, 2009 at 16:26:19 PM PDT
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As previously reported here, there are tiny but detectable amounts of mercury in HFCS. It happens because some chlor-alkali plants use mercury to make caustic soda. Caustic soda is then, in turn, used in the manufacturing process for HFCS. But the good news is that the House has a bill that will fix the problem. And they held a hearing on it in the Energy & Commerce committee on May 12.
The manufacturing process for chlorine and caustic soda also emits mercury pollution into the atmosphere, where it gets into our waterways and our fish. While this bill entirely fixes the mercury in HFCS problem, it will only reduce the amount of mercury in fish. But - that's better than nothing and it's an important step in the solution.
I'm not sure what the chances of this passing are because the Energy & Commerce committee has a LOT on its plate (most prominently, the climate change bill, which it just passed out of committee, and also food safety legislation). But the chair of the committee, Henry Waxman, is a bulldog ("the mustache of justice") so maybe he'll get something done on this issue.
Details about the testimony heard is below.
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Fri May 15, 2009 at 13:00:00 PM PDT
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Rep. Maurice Hinchey called out Vilsack for supporting factory farms yesterday!
Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., told Vilsack at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that livestock are "jammed together" in "very, very nasty circumstances." ...
Hinchey asked Vilsack if there is an effort to "reform" livestock farming to "stop these animals from coming so close together."
Vilsack's response? A very diplomatic statement about how most farmers care very much about their livestock and that the USDA is looking into it. Mmm hmm. This is the same thing we hear from factory farmers and their lobby groups constantly. They talk about how well they treat the animals and they frequently use the words "wholesome" and "high quality." What's so wholesome about animals standing shoulder to shoulder, ankle deep in their own manure?
This hearing was on the 2010 budget for the USDA. Vilsack provided testimony outlining the Obama administration's budget requests. I'm going to turn to the experts to understand the budget, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Highlights from their email on the budget are below.
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Thu May 07, 2009 at 09:00:00 AM PDT
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In today's swine flu hearing, two messages were dominant: 1) The FDA is on track and full steam ahead to prepare for the worst, just in case and 2) It's OK to eat pork. Or, as Sen. Grassley put it, "U can't get swine flu fr eating pork. Eatup. Regardless of epidemic."
Utah Senator Robert Bennett drove this point home even further, specifying that you don't need to avoid bacon wrapped burgers from Wendys. I'd just like to remind Sen. Bennett that perhaps he should avoid bacon wrapped burgers, and not because of swine flu. After all, swine flu won't kill you but heart disease will.
The hearing was held by the Senate Ag Appropriations subcommittee, and there was no mention of any concern over unhealthy conditions on factory farms brought up. They noted that no swine are known to be ill in the U.S. or Mexico and that the sick pigs in Canada were infected by a human. Whether or not this particular flu outbreak came from factory farmed pigs, I think it's a good opportunity for us all to examine the health risks associated with factory farming, yet the Senate committee had no interest in doing that. Their only concern is that Americans and U.S. trading partners continue buying pork.
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Wed May 06, 2009 at 19:30:31 PM PDT
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( - promoted by JayinPortland)
Many people involved in the local foods movements are aware of NAIS, the National Animal ID System, which, if implemented in full as a mandatory program, will require anyone, large or small, commercial, homesteader, or hobbyist, to register with their state, ID their animals either by group or individually, and report all animal movements to privately or publicly held databases. Large producers will get to ID and report by lot, small producers, hobbyists and homesteader will get to ID and report individual animals and their movements. It's all going to cost, both in money and in time. There will be mistakes made and it isn't going to be the magic bullet in the event that a foreign animal disease (FAD) is found in the USA, especially not if that FAD happens to be something as potentially devestating as foot and mouth disease (FMD), the boogeyman dujour. Now don't get me wrong, FMD is a very, very bad thing, especially if it ever gets back into this country. It hasn't been here since 1929, Harold knew somone, when he was still in California, who lost his whole herd during that outbreak. If FMD ever gets back into this country we're going to have problems like no body's business, especially if animal movements are still allowed during an outbreak. Which brings me to the topic I'd like to discuss today.
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Thu Apr 30, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT
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Last week the House Ag Committee held a food safety hearing. Their distinguished guests included a representative from the USDA and a zillion reps from factory farms. Nice, huh? The purpose of the hearing was to examine food safety at the USDA only (not the FDA, which is under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee).
This diary covers the testimony from the USDA, who spoke on the first panel. I will post a follow-up diary with summaries of the testimony from the meat industry.
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Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT
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I'm a bit late in reporting on it but Tom Vilsack testified before the House Ag Approps subcommittee on March 31. His testimony was unremarkable if you've been following Vilsack all long. Below, I list highlights from his testimony and then notable excepts from newspaper coverage of the hearing.
For me, the most important take-away from the hearing was about a mandatory national animal ID system (NAIS). Rosa DeLauro is strongly supportive of a mandatory system. Vilsack wishes to meet with opponents of NAIS before pushing ahead.
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