No spinach aid in supplemental bill

Washington lobbyists tell me today there is no spinach aid in the conference report for supplemental appropriations for Iraq. This report from The Hill confirms, and also indicates that the bill will likely be vetoed anyway because of Democratic language on putting a date on U.S. troop withdrawal.
From the story:

The Iraq supplemental will not be as “clean” as President Bush demanded, but Democratic appropriators yesterday agreed to eliminate two domestic-spending projects that Bush and the GOP have criticized and to remove the fixed timeline for troop withdrawal.The House-Senate conference committee on the supplemental, which Democrats have trumpeted as the first open conference in years, agreed to replace the binding timetable in the House’s original version with a redeployment goal of April 1, 2008. Conferees also removed $25 million in relief for spinach farmers, $40 million for the Christmas-tree industry, and $74 million in peanut-storage money from the bill.

Johanns to discuss farm bill legislative language

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns indicated he will discuss legislative language for the Administration's Farm Bill proposals during a conference call with reporters tomorrow afternoon. Stay tuned.

Raw product and end product testing

The House oversight hearing on food safety is fascinating. A lot of questions whether FDA needs more authority to institute recalls and impose regulations, of course.

Representatives of Menu (pet food) ConAgra (peanut butter) and Natural Selection (spinach). Charles Sweat, president of Natural Selection LLC, told the committee about raw product and end product testing at their packing facility. Sweat said that the testing has revealed pathogens on raw product lots from California, Arizona and Mexico but no pathogens on end product.
To date, Sweat said 23 raw product samples have tested positive for pathogenic E. coli, and 16 tested positive for salmonella. All those lots were destroyed in an incinerator, he said.

Sweat said Natural Selection, as far as he knows, is the only company doing raw product testing for E. coli in California. However, he said that Natural Selection does not want to use food safety as a competitive advantage, but is sharing their experience with other firms and associations.

I would have to say that Natural Selection's testing for pathogens - modeled after the meat industry's testing for E. coli - is far-sighted and seems to be an obvious path for the industry.

House and Senate Hearings

There are simultaneous Congressional hearings today and I've tuned in both Web casts on my computer, though I can only listen to one at a time. The House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee is ongoing as I write this, with testimony from some of the families who have been affected by foodborne illness. Later industry representatives will testify. One GAO representative pointed out that FDA gets 20% of funding while responsible for 80% of food supply. The bias in this hearing, from what I can tell, is for more regulation.

Meanwhile, the Senate Agriculture Committee is also Web casting its hearing, and I see Maureen Marshall of United has already testified. More coverage on these important hearings later in the day.

News roundup

From the Google news reel:

Salyer American acquired

GM tomatoes with vaccines

Eating fruits, veggies cuts cancer.

Mackey of Wild Oats interviewed.

Canadian organic produce get new label.