United call-in

I missed it this morning, as I had a short interview with Rep. Rosa DeLauro (watch for coverage in The Packer). In any case, what was the takeaway or gist of the teleconference? Any impressions out there, from United staff or members?

Speaking of DeLauro, she has put out a statement about the new USDA policy in regard to releasing names of retailers involved in a recall. The bottom line: not good enough. From the office of Rep. DeLauro:


Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) issued the following statement regarding the announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that the list of retail stores and school districts that received food products subject to a USDA recall would only be available for the recalls that pose the highest risks. Because the rule would only apply to class I recalls, this information would not have been made available during the Hallmark/Westland recall of 143 million pounds of beef.

DeLauro has fought for consumer access to this information – introducing The Food Safety Recall Information Act, which would require the USDA to list all the retail stores and school districts that have received food products that were subjected to a USDA recall. Additionally, when the previous rule, which would have applied to all recalls, was stalled by the USDA and the Office of Management and Budget she pressed for the rule to move forward (to view the 2/21/08 letter to USDA click here, to view the 3/12/08 letter to OMB click here, to view DeLauro’s statement when USDA testified before the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, which she chairs, click here, and to view the 3/17/08 letters to USDA and OMB click here).

“I am very disappointed that this new rule would apply only to Class I recalls. This rule would not have applied to the historic recall of beef products from the Hallmark-Westland plant earlier this year, which was the largest meat recall in our history. If we are serious about protecting consumers from unsafe foods, it is critical that this information be provided for all recalls.

“Listing the retail stores that may be selling beef or poultry subject to a Class I recall, which involve products that pose the highest risk for foodborne illness, should be viewed as only the beginning. The next step should be to apply this rule to all recalls, as well as requiring the department to list the school districts that may have received products subject to a recall.

“I commend Dr. Raymond for his efforts in moving this initiative forward despite resistance from within the Department and the Administration.”

ERS Farm worker report

Bringing the statistic that half of all hired farm workers are unauthorized, here is a link to the 2008 report on hired farm workers from the USDA ERS. From the report's summary:


Profile of hired farmworkers: a 2008 update
Current estimates indicate that more than 1 million hired farmworkers are employed in U.S. agriculture. Economic and demographic trends have elicited an increased interest in hired armworkers, including the impact they have on U.S agricultural production. While productivity gains have gradually reduced the total agricultural labor force, hired farmworkers continue to play an important role in this industry.
What Is the Issue?
Hired farmworkers make up a third of the total agricultural labor force and are critical to U.S. agricultural production, particularly for labor-intensive sectors such as fruits and vegetables. the hired-farmworker labor market is unique because it includes a relatively disadvantaged nd sometimes mobile workforce, a large proportion of whom lack authorization to work in the United States. Although agriculture employs less than 2 percent of the U.S. labor force, recent economic and demographic trends such as agricultural production methods that permit year-round employment, expanding immigrant populations in nonmetropolitan counties, and growing concerns over U.S. immigration policies have increased interest in hired farmworkers.

What Did the Study Find?
• In 2006, an average 1.01 million hired farmworkers made up a third of the estimated 3 million people employed in agriculture. The other 2.05 million included self-employed farmers and their unpaid family members.
• Productivity gains have gradually reduced the total agricultural labor force and the number of hired farmworkers within it.
• Expanding nonfarm economic opportunities for farmers and their family members have increased farmers’ reliance on hired farm labor.
• Despite new patterns of Hispanic population settlement in rural areas, the geographic distribution of farmworkers has not changed signifi cantly in the past decade. California Florida, Texas, Washington, Oregon, and North Carolina account for half of all hired and contracted farmworkers.
• Hired farmworkers are disadvantaged in the labor market relative to most other U.S. wage and salary workers. On average, hired farmworkers are younger, less educated, more likely to be foreign-born, less likely to speak English, and less likely to be U.S. citizens or to have alegally authorized work permit.
• According to the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), which offers the most precise data available on farmworker legal status, half of all hired crop farmworkers lack legal authorization to work in the U.S.

Big deal or no big deal

Is the salmonella outbreak, which has sickened over 1,000 - and made many tomato handlers substantially poorer - a big deal? Here is an interesting take passed on by Doug Powell of the Food Safety Network from NextGov on comments by David Acheson.

As of today, nearly 1,000 people have been sickened, one person has died, and at least $150 million has been lost by tomato growers and sellers (and probably more now that peppers, onions and cilantro are becoming suspects) because of a salmonella outbreak as of yet unknown origin.

Not to worry, though. It isn’t a big deal.

To quote Dr. David Acheson, food safety chief of the Food and Drug Administration, “We’re a nation of 300 million people who eat two-to-three times a day. To have 800 people sick is not that big of a deal.”

OK, Acheson has a point: 1,000 out of 304,554,835 (according to theUS Census population clock as of this post) is only 3.2834809534381550698415278811778e-6 percent, if my fingers hit the calculator correctly. [Which they didn't the first time - it should be .00003% - which a sharp reader caught - see comments below.]

But that perspective leads, of course, to the question of what does the FDA believe is a BIG DEAL?

Is it 3,000 people sick? 100,000? Even a million is only a statistical blip.

Or how about deaths? About 5,500 people die every day in the United States. One person dying from salmonella over a couple months is not a Big Deal either to the FDA, I gather from Acheson’s comments.

So, exactly what is the level necessary for the sick or dying to be considered a Big Deal?

Of course, not only do we need to know what a Big Deal is in relation to a single event, but also from a multiple event perspective.

Over the last decade, there have been 13 salmonella outbreaks from tomatoes alone. And this count doesn’t include other food-borne problems, like E. coli or Hepatitis A. (Remember spinach and green onions?)

Once we know what FDA's Big Deal risk threshold is (and what's the Agriculture Department's as well for meats and dairy products -- remember Taco Bell?), we can then start to figure out the true cost/benefit to putting in a food tracing system that Allan Holmeswrote about.

In fact, we may find that we don’t even need an FDA, as the late Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman argued.

Obesity map, updated

Sorry about that Miss. and W. Va - trying mixing in more f/v. We've all seen the obesity map. Now the 2008 version has arrived. From Calorie Labs.

West Virginia passed Alabama to become the second fattest state in 2008. The four states of Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, and Louisiana have obese populations that exceed 30 percent over a three-year average and two-thirds of the citizens of Mississippi and West Virginia were either overweight or obese by CDC standards in 2007.

Also not faring well this year was Delaware, which rose eight places to tie with North Dakota as the 21st fattest state, from last year’s 29th placing. Delaware’s 3-year obesity rate rose 2.4 percent.

Thinnest States

Colorado repeats as the slimmest state, despite a slight increase in obesity of 0.8 percent over three years. Last year Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado told CalorieLab, “[W]e’re not spared from the national obesity epidemic, and we must remain vigilant in order to guard against it. We’re doing all we can to encourage Coloradans — especially our kids — to take advantage of the natural resources our state offers in order to stay fit, healthy and happy.”