State Health Departments Need
Increased Level Of Competence
Without a doubt the most prescient person in this whole Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak is Jim Gorny at UC Davis. At an early stage in the outbreak, he wrote a piece for us which we published under the title, Tomato/Salmonella Situation Cries For Improved Epidemiology. Dr. Gorny foresaw that the focus would move quickly to traceback, […]
Reasonable Suggestions For
FDA And Industry Methodology
Several Congressional hearings will be held this week related to the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. The hearings will focus on various things — trace back, how the FDA has spent a supplemental appropriation, the current state of food safety in the produce industry, etc. An important subtext of the hearings, though, is to attempt an analysis […]
With FDA/CDC Protected By Sovereign Immunity, Compensation For Losses Looks Bleak Says Professor Richard Epstein
Back in the spinach crisis of 2006, many spoke of the importance of efforts to get compensation for innocent spinach farmers who had been crushed by the FDA’s action. Industry leaders emphasized how important it was to establish the principle that those producers who do the right thing should not be penalized, that penalties should […]
Food Prices Not As High As We Think
With publications filled with reports on food prices and scarcity, it is useful to come across some sanity from Steve Malanga, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute: The Good News You Missed on Food Prices Within the last few days, stories of a worldwide food crisis have given way to alarm in the media […]
Perishable Thoughts
When we started our Perishable Thoughts section, we figured it would be fairly simple. We knew we would get lots of great quotes in from readers and figured we could publish most of them with just a little commentary. Now that the quotes are flowing in we are finding it is a big job. Why? […]
Pundit’s Mailbag — USDA Opposes
Current ANSI Effort To Define Sustainability
I am a food industry environmental lawyer and love your writing, which I only recently discovered at a conference in California. In particular, you’ve done a stellar job of covering the “hot news” and public debate in the ANSI sustainable ag standard… In case you did not see this while you were digging into the […]
Publix Greenwise Concept
Puts Home-Meal-Replacement
Revamp Into Perspective
We are out at PMA’s Foodservice Conference and the focus is on the glamorous world of TV chefs — with Cat Cora, the first female Iron Chef from the Food Network’s Iron Chef, and Tom Colicchio, head judge of Bravo TV’s Top Chef, appearing as headliners. Yet with economy as it is today, the industry […]
Whether It’s One Pepper
Or More, FDA’s Lack Of
Transparency Is Unacceptable
Our piece, FDA Finds One Jalapeno With Salmonella Saintpaul And asserts Authority To Bankrupt Innocent Parties As Part Of FDA’s Pursuit of Vague “Public Health” Goals, pointed out that coincidence is not causation and the mere fact that one pepper was found to be contaminated does not prove or even indicate that this jalapeno pepper […]
Perishable Thoughts
The FDA and CDC are in control right now. With letters from the Florida Tomato Exchange and especially the one from Senator Tom Harkin, the message is going forth that this industry shall be heard. It reminds us of the first speech Benjamin Disraeli made in the House of Commons. He was a novelist and […]
Pundit Mailbag — Irradiation Safety
Clearly Demonstrated
We’ve run many pieces on irradiation, including one specifically on tomatoes, entitled Irradiation Holds Promise For Tomato Pathogen Reduction, which featured an interview with Dr. Anuradha Prakash at Chapman University. It was, however a mention in our interview with Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH that brought this note: I was pleased to read the frank […]
