30/09/2020
Written by Michael Demos
As seen in Food Inc the documentary, there is an epidemic happening across the United States and Internationally: how can governments properly regulate food in order to protect the safety of their citizens. Food Inc pulled at the hearts of Americans by showing the story of Kevin and his mom Barbara Kowalcyk. This story goes in depth about how Kevin, a young boy, ate a hamburger while on vacation and unknowingly became infected with E. Coli. Twelve days after eating the burger he was dead, however, it wasn't until a month later that the meat Kevin had eaten was recalled. Barbara went on to become an advocate against the meat industry and the increase of regulations.[1] This story is just one of many that points to the lack of food regulations within the United States. While people’s stories are unique and individualized, the problem across the United States affects many; the government needs to recognize the issues in the food production industry and protect us-- the masses of Americans and European that trust the system to keep them healthy and safe.
The Meat and Poultry Pathogen Reduction and Enforcement Act of 2003 aka “Kevin’s Law” was never put into place because the committee did not report on it. In 2011 there was a win for regulating food dispersal signed by Obama, this Law, entitled the Food Safety Modernization Act, contained several pieces of Kevin’s Law and strengthened the right of the US government to intervene with the food supply of meat and poultry. This law protects the actual processes of creating food and helps limit the number of diseases created and distributed across the states. By enforcing this law the United States is decreasing the risk of having to do recalls on the meat and poultry industry.
Even with this Law, I still feel as though the government is not doing enough to protect the consumers. The government must intervene more often and with more serious consequences because the producers are not changing their ways. These changes have to happen quickly or else food will continue to be distributed and produced with too few disease controls, and soon it could affect you or anyone you know around the globe. The more people that support the changes in the food industry the more pressure the government will have to enforce the new laws appropriately.
The problem of contaminated food began when the farmers felt pressured to produce more food than a natural growth rate could provide. Farmers started to feed their livestock food that they were not supposed to eat in order to produce extra large cows and chickens in record time: for example, corn. Farmers grew so much corn that the food industry had to find something to do with it all, and, therefore, they fed it to animals that are meant to eat grasses or other natural resources. This additional corn in the animals diets has been proven to increase the likelihood of E. Coli that is acid resistant. When the farmers finally raised enough livestock, they ended up rushing to process it. Along the way, the farmers skipped some key steps in sanitizing and maintaining a healthy environment for the live and dead animals. Millions of people around the world rely on the farmers to produce quality meat at huge quantities. These people also expect the government to be properly regulating their food source, and if they fail then the whole country is at risk of contracting deadly diseases. The government has tried before with laws that implement strict food regulations, but these have failed because of the scale of the food industry. Billions of pounds of meat gets shipped around the nation daily and the government was not willing to spend the adequate amount of money and time to properly check each round of shipments. This lack of attention to the food industry has led to the producers being even more careless and more recalls occurring.
Therefore, I propose we put more restrictions and guidelines on food companies in order to make sure we can stop the spread of food-based diseases, such as E. Coli and Salmonella. I also believe the government should fund research projects on how the diets of the animals we eat are affecting meat products. In 2018, the “FDA cited 188 of the 874 food facilities for not properly monitoring sanitation conditions and practices with sufficient frequency.”[2] These are not the only citations that FDA put out this past year, though. There were still other problems with pests, packaging and processing controls, maintenance, and personnel. These citations resulted in fines to the corporations and in some cases resulted in shutting down a site, but they were not enough to force the big businesses to change.
Bigger fines and more visits and inspections from the FDA are just a start. I would propose fines from one to five million dollars per infraction. These companies need to take safety seriously and the only way to do that is to ensure fines constrict their profits. The safety of the public is worth this money and more. In order to know when a bad product is shipped out, the FDA should perform more frequent visits to the plants, I propose 24 scheduled visits to each plant each year, as well as 50 random visits throughout the year to ensure that the high standards of the United States are being upheld. Rotating FDA employees ensure that companies will not become comfortable with their representative and that there will be no favoritism across the states.
My proposed law would not just punish those who commit habitual infractions, but it would also reward those companies and employees who have been shown to go above and beyond regulatory statutes and demonstrate a desire to produce the safest and highest quality food products possible. The rewards would be distributed to deserving companies that have passed 90% of all local, state level, and federal level inspections during a year. Half of all the rewards would go directly to the rewarded company, and the other half would go to the local community to help invest in the local food economy.
This problem does not exist within just the United States. Because of increased trade between the European Union and the United States, regulations in the United States have to be increased in order to keep up with the EU. According to Spiric, “The food sector has become the third most regulated sector in the EU behind automobiles and chemicals... Food Safety Modernization Act is America’s response to stringent EU food law, as well as the need for improving food safety and food trade security in the US.”[3] The lack of food safety laws in the United States could quickly become detrimental to trade with Europe. The United States is currently playing catch up to the strict European laws on food.
As well as making our regulations more strict, I believe we should try to find the reason behind the increase in outbreaks across the US. In 2013, Salmonella, other bacterial toxins, viruses, and parasites had over eight hundred strong evidence outbreaks in the United States alone.[4] In comparison, the Europe Union had a noticeably smaller number of outbreaks -- just under 650. If we can stop these causative agents from infective the living animals by studying the effects of their diets then, in theory, there should be fewer outbreaks caused by food than before.
The government should take its citizens health and safety seriously and invest in their protection. By studying the diets of the animals we eat, we will then know what is being pumped into our own bodies as well. Food Inc states, “Corn is the main component in feed ingredients for chickens, hogs, cows, you name it. Increasingly we’re feeding corn to fish… cows are not designed by evolution to eat corn they are designed by evolution to eat grass and… corn makes them fat quickly… There is some research that indicates that high corn diets result in E. Coli that are acid resistant, the more harmful E. Coli.”[5] With even soft evidence like this being discussed back in 2002, there must be ways we can research further into this. There will, of course, be resistance to switching livestock back off of a corn diet because of the cost to farmers, but I believe that it may be necessary to keep the health of Americans as our government’s top priority.
Resistance to these changes will come from the big processing companies as well as the leaders of the FDA who used to be executives of the same or similar companies that they now investigate. In order to break this cycle of regulators becoming lobbyists and vice versa, my proposed law would prohibit former government regulators from having any financial or personal connections with those companies that they are assigned to regulate going back at least 10 years. On top of that my proposed law will require regulators to serve no more than three consecutive five-year terms, thus to make help prevent corruption of regulatory bodies.
My proposed law would also create a new oversight council to oversee both the FDA and USDA and any other regulatory agency that either directly or tangentially impacts food safety in America. Although this will cost America more tax dollars, in the long run, it will become more beneficial to the citizens because there will be less contaminated food in the market. This new council will serve to aggregate data, streamline regulatory inspections, set national priorities, and distribute funding to research food safety. From a public relations perspective, this will also show the American people that food safety is a top priority for the American government. Members who serve on this council will also be limited to serving no more than two consecutive five-year terms.
Food safety regulation, unlike some other aspects of government regulation, has a direct and visible impact on every American. Therefore, the potential to have the American people be more involved in pressuring food companies to take food safety seriously cannot be overstated or overlooked. To that end, I propose that this legislation also includes funding for robust public education and outreach programs. For example, money generated from fines can be put into public commercials that provide the American public with knowledge about modern food production methods and how companies often don’t use these modern methods. Part of this public outreach campaign will also include annual or semiannual surveys to selected groups across the nation to collect data about food habits. For example, approximately what percentage of your food budget is used by food products labeled organic. The American public can help with improving our system by standing up to and discussing the current food industry processes. Help us make it known to the industry that we do care about how and where our food is processed, and more importantly show the companies that it is important to take American’s health into consideration when producing the billions of pounds of food that keep us alive.
I believe the use of stricter and more frequent inspections, harsher fines, and the use of rewards will pressure companies to invest in food safety and view having unsafe food products as too great a risk, and therefore, companies will begin to regulate themselves. However, for the companies that decide to not regulate themselves effectively, the combination of new research and oversight from the federal government will ensure that they will follow these new regulations. These first two steps will work hand in hand to ensure the food industry will take their distribution and processing processes seriously for the American people. In addition to supporting and enforcing proper safety from the companies, the public outreach component of my proposed law will energize the public to understand and demand proper food safety in the processing and distribution plants. This is an important step in my proposed law because it will lead to accountability from both food companies and the government itself to ensure a safe, healthy, and secure food economy.
[1] 29:02 Food, Inc. By Robert Kenner, Richard Pearce, Eric Schlosser, Melissa Robledo, William Pohlad, Jeff Skoll, Robin Schorr, Diane Weyermann, Elise Pearlstein, Kim Roberts, Michael Pollan, Gary Hirshberg, Joel Salatin, and Mark Adler.
[2] "Report Details Most Common Violations at FDA-regulated Food Facilities." Food Safety Magazine. Accessed February 17, 2019.
[3] Spiric, Danka, Dragana Radic Jovanovic, Vesna Pantic Palibrk, Sanja Bijelovic, Olivera Djuragic, and P. Gopal Reddy. "Convergence on EU and USA Food Safety Regulation Approach, regarding Foodborne Outbreaks." Sciencedirect. Accessed February 17, 2019.
[4] ibid
[5] 23:51 Food, Inc. By Robert Kenner, Richard Pearce, Eric Schlosser, Melissa Robledo, William Pohlad, Jeff Skoll, Robin Schorr, Diane Weyermann, Elise Pearlstein, Kim Roberts, Michael Pollan, Gary Hirshberg, Joel Salatin, and Mark Adler.
