FDA Authority over growers

Here is a link to a resource that United Fresh president Tom Stenzel provided me on the question of FDA's authority over growers. With various food safety legislative solutions being bandied about in Congress and at the FDA, a foundational question is exactly how much authority does the FDA have over growers of fresh produce right now? What are the implications of legislation that would explicitly expand that authority? What are implications of the industry asking for federal oversight of produce, and does that request imply a request to expand FDA authority over growers?

The FDA and United's legal counsel believes the FDA already has authority over growers. United doesn't believe additional legislation is necessary to explicitly expand FDA authority, though legislation by Sen. Tom Harkin and others may seek to accomplish that. I'll have some additional posts this week about this topic....

Here is an audio link with Sebastian Cianci, FDA spokesman, on the issue of the FDA's authority at the farm level.