Left of Center for Science in the Public Interest

Yes, the Center for Science in the Public Interest could easily be seen by industry as a left-leaning, pro big governent advocacy group. Yet they are an important stakeholder in the debate about food safety. Along with Tom Stenzel, Caroline Smith DeWaal of CSPI testified in Madison at the field hearing of the Appropriations Committee, ag subcommittee.
Here is a link to her prepared remarks.

Here is one except:

Last fall’s produce outbreaks are just the latest symptom of an agency that is overwhelmed by responsibility, but lacks the staff and resources to function effectively. The agency responds to crisis after crisis rather than preventing them. Current FDA funding shortfalls have reached a critical level and budget cuts have left the agency with fewer inspectors, even as their workload continues to increase. In fact, since 1972 inspections conducted by the FDA declined 81 percent. Since 2003, the number of FDA field staff dropped by 12 percent and between 2003 and 2006, there was a 47 percent drop in federal inspections. 18 FDA’s food program has a current funding shortfall of $135 million, which an FDA budget official described as equivalent to a 24 percent budget cut. This means that many other parts of the agency’s responsibilities are just not getting attention – things like obesity, dietary supplements, and appropriate oversight of new technologies. Overall consumer confidence in FDA has plummeted. A Harris Poll has documented that those who thought FDA was doing an “excellent” or “good” job went from 61% in 2000 who to 36% in 2006. Equally important is the fact that the federal agencies’ food safety expenditures are disproportionate to the risk posed by the foods they regulate. USDA regulates 20 percent of the food supply, which causes 32 percent of outbreaks, yet its food safety appropriations are double.

TK: Though one can quibble at CSPI's call for a single food safety agency, I think DeWaal's arguments are convincing here for greater Congressional funding of FDA's food safety duties. Even so, her stated wish that the FDA would "prevent outbreaks" rather than respond to them perhaps reflects a tad too much faith in man made bureaucracy and too little respect for the resourcefulness of pathogens.