Obama: Food Safety System A Health Hazard
President Barack Obama says the nation's decades-old food safety system is a "hazard to public health" and in need of an overhaul, starting with the selection of a new head of the federal Food and Drug Administration.
Mr. Obama used his weekly radio and video address to announce the nomination of former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg as FDA commissioner, and his choice of Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein as her deputy.
The president also said he was creating a Food Safety Working Group to coordinate food safety laws throughout government and advise him on how to update them. Many of these laws, essential to safeguarding the public from disease, haven't been touched since they were written in the time of President Theodore Roosevelt, he said.
President Obama said the food safety system is too spread out, making it difficult to share information and solve problems.
He also blamed recent underfunding and understaffing at FDA that has left the agency unable to conduct annual inspections of more than a fraction of the 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses in the country.
"That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable. And it will change under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Hamburg," President Obama pledged.
Hamburg, 53 (pictured left in a 2004 file photo), is a well-known bioterrorism expert. She was an assistant health secretary under President Bill Clinton and helped lay the groundwork for the government's bioterrorism and flu pandemic preparations.
As New York City's top health official in the early 1990s, she created a program that cut high rates of drug-resistant tuberculosis.
She is the daughter of two doctors. Her mother was the first black woman to earn a medical degree from Yale University, and she credits her Jewish father for instilling in her a passion for public health.
Sharfstein, 39, is a pediatrician who has challenged the FDA on the safety of over-the-counter cold medicines for children. He also served as a health policy aide to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who plays a leading role in overseeing the pharmaceutical industry.
Both are doctors and outsiders to the troubled agency who will face the daunting challenge of trying to turn it around.
Hamburg's appointment requires Senate confirmation; Sharfstein's does not.
President Obama said while he doesn't believe government has the answer to every problem, there are certain things that only government can do such as "ensuring that the foods we eat and the medicines we take are safe and don't cause us harm."
"Protecting the safety of our food and drugs is one of the most fundamental responsibilities government has," he said.
President Obama cited a string of breakdowns in assuring food safety in recent years from contaminated spinach in 2006 to salmonella in peppers and possibly tomatoes last year. This year, a massive salmonella outbreak in peanut products has sickened more than 600 people, is suspected of causing nine deaths and led to one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history.
These cases are a "painful reminder of how tragic the consequences can be when food producers act irresponsibly and government is unable to do its job," Mr. Obama said, noting that contaminated food outbreaks have more than tripled to nearly 350 a year from 100 incidents annually in the early 1990s.
The FDA's work will be part of the larger effort undertaken by the Food Safety Working Group.
Downer cattle are already mostly banned from slaughter, but the new rule would end an exception or loophole that allowed some "downer" cattle into the food supply if they passed an additional veterinary inspection.
President Obama's action finalizes a rule announced last year following the nation's largest beef recall, which involved a slaughterhouse in Chino, Calif., where downer cows entered the food supply.
Mr. Obama said he takes food safety seriously not just as a president, but as the parent of daughters 10 and 7 years old.
When he learned of the peanut product recall, Mr. Obama said he immediately thought of his younger daughter, Sasha, who eats peanut butter sandwiches several times a week.
"No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch," he said.
For more info:
Transcript of President Obama's Address
By Associated Press Writer Darlene Superville; AP writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Mr. Obama used his weekly radio and video address to announce the nomination of former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg as FDA commissioner, and his choice of Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein as her deputy.
The president also said he was creating a Food Safety Working Group to coordinate food safety laws throughout government and advise him on how to update them. Many of these laws, essential to safeguarding the public from disease, haven't been touched since they were written in the time of President Theodore Roosevelt, he said.
President Obama said the food safety system is too spread out, making it difficult to share information and solve problems.
He also blamed recent underfunding and understaffing at FDA that has left the agency unable to conduct annual inspections of more than a fraction of the 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses in the country.
"That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable. And it will change under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Hamburg," President Obama pledged.
(AP PHOTO)
As New York City's top health official in the early 1990s, she created a program that cut high rates of drug-resistant tuberculosis.
She is the daughter of two doctors. Her mother was the first black woman to earn a medical degree from Yale University, and she credits her Jewish father for instilling in her a passion for public health.
Sharfstein, 39, is a pediatrician who has challenged the FDA on the safety of over-the-counter cold medicines for children. He also served as a health policy aide to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who plays a leading role in overseeing the pharmaceutical industry.
Both are doctors and outsiders to the troubled agency who will face the daunting challenge of trying to turn it around.
Hamburg's appointment requires Senate confirmation; Sharfstein's does not.
President Obama said while he doesn't believe government has the answer to every problem, there are certain things that only government can do such as "ensuring that the foods we eat and the medicines we take are safe and don't cause us harm."
"Protecting the safety of our food and drugs is one of the most fundamental responsibilities government has," he said.
President Obama cited a string of breakdowns in assuring food safety in recent years from contaminated spinach in 2006 to salmonella in peppers and possibly tomatoes last year. This year, a massive salmonella outbreak in peanut products has sickened more than 600 people, is suspected of causing nine deaths and led to one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history.
These cases are a "painful reminder of how tragic the consequences can be when food producers act irresponsibly and government is unable to do its job," Mr. Obama said, noting that contaminated food outbreaks have more than tripled to nearly 350 a year from 100 incidents annually in the early 1990s.
The FDA's work will be part of the larger effort undertaken by the Food Safety Working Group.
President Obama also announced a complete ban on the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand on their own, to keep them out of the food supply. So-called "downer" cows are at increased risk for mad cow disease, E. coli and other infections, partly because they typically wallow in feces.
Downer cattle are already mostly banned from slaughter, but the new rule would end an exception or loophole that allowed some "downer" cattle into the food supply if they passed an additional veterinary inspection.
President Obama's action finalizes a rule announced last year following the nation's largest beef recall, which involved a slaughterhouse in Chino, Calif., where downer cows entered the food supply.
Mr. Obama said he takes food safety seriously not just as a president, but as the parent of daughters 10 and 7 years old.
When he learned of the peanut product recall, Mr. Obama said he immediately thought of his younger daughter, Sasha, who eats peanut butter sandwiches several times a week.
"No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch," he said.
For more info:
By Associated Press Writer Darlene Superville; AP writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report
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What a shame that America is reduced to these low standards of output after the nation was created by the efforts and diligence, as well as vigilence, of its farmers.
As long as we have free trade, U.S. companies will never be able to compete with other countries that don't have the food safety, product safety, and workplace safety laws we have here.
All those protections cost money. By refusing to protect U.S. jobs, Obama is forcing the USA to abandon all our protections.
Obama talks big about things like food safety. But he pulls his punches on free trade and job protection.
All talk, no real action.
We just don't enforce them.
The last thing we need is more new laws to ignore. We need to enforce the ones we have.
Except to outlaw sale of food by private individuals. There go our farmers' markets.
This, while the economy continues to go off the rails and his party dines on pork.
Obama is like a butterfly, flitting from flower to flower. He samples each issue and then moves onto the next, never stopping long enough to accomplish any lasting good.
When Bush was president I said we'd be years undoing the damage he did. By the time Obama is done there may be nothing left to fix.
Posted by tootall1014 at 5:42 AM : Mar 15, 2009
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How did they get all those kids then? :)
Take a look at the top 5 ingredients on foods that come in boxes. Carbs are cheap, protein and fat are expensive.
Posted by skyk-2009 at 3:33 AM : Mar 15, 2009
Two months, two terms, two lifetimes, it doesn't matter how long Obama is president, the continued Government profiting from the sale of cigarettes will continue. He himself smokes! So being against the hypocrisy of a US Government Agency whose purpose is to insure the safety of products consumed by the citizens is " radical right " ? The new heads of the FDA and the EPA brag about letting science decide policy. How much MORE science do you need to stop the sale of cigarettes? Not enough, because smokers have a vote.
As long as we still have free trade, we can say goodbye to food safety, product safety, workplace safety, and the many other protections we take for granted in the USA.
All these protections cost money. And as long as we keep spending money the other countries aren't spending, we can't compete in a free trade environment.
Free trade will force us to lose either our jobs or our protections. And we can't eat protections, can we. So guess what loses.
It's a set-up to condemn the U.S. worker to slavery. We have been thrown into the ring with both arms tied behind our backs by free trade. We don't have a chance, unless... unless we give up all the protections we take for granted.
That was the plan from the beginning.
That's why Obama is doing nothing about free trade.
Well, except inviting Gordon Brown to address a joint session of congress and admonish them to avoid protectionism.
I think that says it all about Obama's real position on free trade.
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Obamas COMMUNIST regime a health hazard. OBAMAS Marxist ideology is a matter of national security. We need to get rid of OBAMA from Kenya.