December 22, 2007

Editorial

The Price of Food Safety

Americans can be forgiven for wondering if anything these days is safe to eat. Recent food scares have involved such all-American staples as spinach, peanut butter and hamburger meat. A stomach-churning article in The New York Times recently made it clear that some imported seafood, the stuff that is supposed to be good for the heart, can be heavy with pesticides, veterinary antibiotics and other unhealthy extras.

President Bush and his administration need to be doing a lot more to protect America’s food supply — whether it comes from the farms and factories in America or the fetid aquaculture pools in China. That will not be possible unless Mr. Bush provides more financial and political support to the agencies in charge of food safety.

The White House has expressed great public concern about food and other imports in recent months and has negotiated a way to screen some seafood coming from China. That is a very modest start. Administration representatives argue in their latest policy proposals that changes would have to be made with the presently available resources. That’s a problem since presently the Food and Drug Administration has very few resources. The agency is one of many regulatory agencies that has been depleted or “hollowed out” during the Bush years in the name of protecting industry from so-called big government.

Now, however, even the industry has recognized that everybody needs a Food and Drug Administration that really works. Food industry lobbyists and the most fervent public health advocates — normally bitter rivals — have joined forces in Washington to help push the White House and Congress to grant more power and funds for the F.D.A. The consumer-industry coalition wants food-related spending to increase more than $100 million over this year’s budget.

Michael Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the F.D.A., told a Senate committee recently that he has asked the White House to go for “substantial additional resources” in the 2009 budget. It is not yet known whether the White House will back those “substantial” increases for the F.D.A.

What extra funds the agency squeezes out of this year’s budget should be spent as soon as possible on inspectors and up-to-date computer technology. The agency still uses handwritten reports of food problems, and the data collection system runs at horse-and-buggy speed.

As for imports, everyone recognizes that the government cannot inspect every crate of raspberries that comes into the country. What makes sense is to find a workable way to refuse goods from the worst actors. As part of such a system, the F.D.A. needs more inspectors at the nation’s ports and more laboratories certified by international standards. It seems the least President Bush could do to protect the nation’s food supply.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/opinion/22sat2.html