New OIG report on CBP ag inspections

Here is the link to a report by the Office of Inspectors General that critiques the Custom and Border Protection agriculture inspection activities. The report is 59 pages in a PDF file.

Here is a blog entry from The Hill authored by Sen. Tom Harkin on the OIG report. Harkin writes:

Nearly one year after the Government Accountability Office found significant gaps that could allow agricultural diseases into the U.S., a report released Friday by the offices of the Inspector General for both the Departments of Agriculture and Homeland Security confirmed our ports and border are still porous. The offices released a report citing 13 recommendations that would defend the border and ports of entry from dangerous foreign pests and diseases such as the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza and foot and mouth disease. While some recommendations from this report have been implemented, USDA and DHS should implement all of them immediately.


TK: Industry leaders in Florida and California have raised concerns about the government's commitment to keep out invasive pests, and the OIG report certainly provides more ammunition for those arguments.

A dangerous turn

Even before the FDA's expected final report about farming practices on the San Benito County field that has been linked to E. coli on spinach, this news report speculates about the safety of organic food versus conventional food. This angle may be explored even more in the weeks ahead, and organic marketers have no doubt been bracing for it since the identification of the transitional organic field.
Here is an excerpt from the story "E. coli Find Sparks New Criticism of Organic Foods", published by Cybercast News Service, which is a right-leaning media outlet:

A California farm in transition to organic status has been identified as a source of the E. coli outbreak in spinach last year, a discovery likely to add to existing concerns about possible safety issues surrounding organic foods.While skeptics of organic foods are stepping up criticism, the discovery should be considered in proportion, said Craig Minowa, environmental scientist for the Organic Consumers Association."If you look at the history of food-borne illness in the U.S., it almost all comes from conventional farms," Minowa told Cybercast News Service. "That's not to say we couldn't run into problems on organic farms."The California Department of Health Services confirmed last week that a 50-acre field in San Benito County farm -- two-thirds of the way through a three-year process of moving towards being officially organic -- was one source of the E. coli outbreak last year that killed three people and sickened 200. The findings affirm what critics have long believed about organic foods, said Alex Avery, director of research and education at the Center for Global Food Issues at the free-market Hudson Institute."No system of farming can assure food safety," Avery told Cybercast News Service. "This, at best, shows organic food is no safer than other foods. At worst, it shows they are significantly less safe than other foods.


TK: Familiar sources like the right winger Dennis Avery and food safety lawyer Bill Marler are quoted in this story. Whether or not the question of "organic produce safety" gets heavy play in the mainstream press, it is hard to say now. One question - how does the industry... United, PMA, or the joint Produce Safety Center, if you will - get in the middle of this story? There had better be a plan to be proactive about speaking with one voice, conventional and organic, on the issue of produce safety. At the same time, the industry has to listen to what FDA says about farming practices with an open mind and be prepared to respond.

CNN transcript

The Packer's Susie Cable passes along this link to a CNN broadcast transcript that addresses produce safety that aired March 7. You will find the discussion about food safety about halfway down the page.
Here is how the story opens:

S. O'BRIEN: There's e. Coli in your spinach. There's salmonella in your peanut butter. There's listeria in your chicken. So, you have to wonder just what's going on in the food supply, and just what is safe to eat. You might be surprised that while we're hearing more about contamination, federal funding for food inspection is actually down. AMERICAN MORNING's Greg Hunter has been doing a little fact checking on this story for us. He's with us.



TK: Funding for FDA is the big issue addressed here, but irradiation was also mentioned as a possible remedy to food safety troubles. This report tries to make the made for TV quick connection between declining food safety inspections and a higher incidence of foodborne illness outbreaks.