U.S. Department of
Agriculture Secretary
view the harsh effects of floods
and freezes on Georgia agriculture. But he saw much more.
Glickman expanded his Georgia visit to include the University
of Georgia campus and the Richard B. Russell
Agricultural Research Center because
“Georgia is clearly a food safety leader.” The UGA
Environmental Sciences
has the largest collection of food safety researchers in the
country.
Advances in food safety and sanitation issues depend on
strong research in food science
and other related areas. Yet the dollars for research are
going down, Glickman said.
“President Clinton made a powerful case for support of
research for health
issues,” Glickman said. “Everyone understands research into
cancer. They know
this research can improve their lives. “
But people don’t know or understand that link between
agricultural research and their
lives,” he said. “Even with all the work on genetic
engineering, technology and
ways of feeding the world, people just don’t see any
relationship of what is being done in
agricultural research to the average American. It affects
everybody’s lives, not just
farmers.”
The one area with big increases in funding, Glickman
said, is food safety. “And
that’s because kids died from E. coli,” he said.
Glickman spoke out in favor of the President’s $101
million initiative for better meat
and poultry inspection, consumer education, risk assessment
and surveillance.
“A big chunk of that $101 million is for an educational
campaign for
consumers,” Glickman said, “It would be a big mistake not to
realize this is a
farm-to-home issue. The consumer has a great deal to do with
his or her own food
safety.”
Although consumers must understand how to properly
prepare and cook foods, the food
processing industry is primarily responsible for producing
safe food, the secretary said.
USDA closed down two dozen plants short-term last year
because they didn’t comply with
food safety and contamination rules. “I call it the atomic
bomb of authority,”
Glickman said. “I can shut down a plant. But that puts
people out of work. I’d rather
have the power to fine and the authority to order mandatory
recall. I can only ask.
“The Consumer Product Safety Commission can recall toys,
but we can’t recall bad
food. You can draw your own conclusions from that.”
Even with these limits, Glickman said, this country has
the safest food safety system
in the world. When Asian markets plummeted from fear of
influenza from poultry and
Europeans cut back on beef during the mad cow disease scare,
American shoppers showed no
signs of fear.
“Consumers have confidence in the American food supply,”
Glickman said.
“Producers know if consumers have confidence, they will
continue to buy.”
