Obama Tackles FDA, Picks Chief
March 14th, 2009 at 3:09 am - by Tom Prout
On Saturday, March 14th, President Obama announced his selection of food safety and biological and nuclear threat expert Dr. Margaret Hamburg to head the Food and Drug Administration. The release also included a pledge to improve food safety laws following a string of scandals, and a proposal for a new cabinet-level group to work on the issue.
In recent months, there has been a debate on Capitol Hill as to whether a new, unified body to oversee food safety inspection would replace the current, fractured system comprised of 11 agencies. In a bipartisan effort by congress, fundamental new laws had been proposed in order to better ensure high standards in U.S. food production; the latest announcement by President Obama, which puts forward plans for a new Food Safety Working Group including the secretaries of health and of agriculture, is indicative of the approach to be taken.
The Food Safety Working Group will, Obama explained, serve as an advisory to the President regarding alterations to present laws and regulations, enforce standards across the industry, and foster coordination with other federal agencies. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said last month that the incident where the FDA issued a Class 1 Recall on a large amount of Salmonella-tainted peanut products “is a grand opportunity for us to take a step back and rethink our approach.”.
The 2010 budget set forth by the Obama administration proposes $1 billion be used to refine food-safety, in order to reduce the 76 million reported cases of food-related illness annually, by more vigilant inspections, closer surveillance, upgraded laboratories and illness prevention efforts. Last year, less than 5% (7,000) of the 150,000 domestic food processing plants were inspected, and with a growing number of imported goods from over 216,000 foreign plants entering grocery stores the exact inspection figures are questionable.
When citing recent food scares: spinach, peppers, and peanuts among them, Obama evoked an image of his daughter taking peanut butter sandwiches to school: “No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch,” he said. The President believes that the dramatic increase in food safety incidents has been caused in part by outdated legislation, and a slip in inpection standards.
“In the end, food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your president, but as a parent,” — U.S. President Barack Obama
In selecting Hamburg, who has battled many public safety threats in her former capacities as New York City health commissioner and head of Institute of Medicine panels, the message that strict regulations are going to be the FDA’s top priority is being communicated thoroughly; Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein will serve as Hamburg’s deputy.
Obama also spoke of a new rule preventing sick and injured cattle from being slaughtered, in the interest of preventing mad cow disease. The hope amongst officials is that with new FDA leadership and a cabinet-level group responsible for the oversight of food production, the number of outbreaks will decrease as a single, more cohesive inspecting body is put in place.
