Merge the USDA and FDA?

[bmags]

I thought I knew what most of these government agencies did, until I had to research a couple. I'm not certain if I necessarily agree with the scope of what they are tasked with, but most are pretty damn amazing with all they do.

 

I'm learning about the FDA in my drugs and behavior class, it's a pretty astounding level of trust with the public they are in charge of. That said I know less of USDA, but if they can merge and work better, that would be a good thing. But, I'd like to see a report on it.

[Texsox]

I'm learning about the FDA in my drugs and behavior class, it's a pretty astounding level of trust with the public they are in charge of. That said I know less of USDA, but if they can merge and work better, that would be a good thing. But, I'd like to see a report on it.

 

Our society is based on trust. We do not know the people who produce our food, clean our water, etc. From checking out the websites, I picture the FDA in labcoats and clean rooms, I see the USDA in muck boots on a farm.

[kapkomet]

My experiences in dealing with the FDA tells me that they are different then the USDA. A lot different. However, I do get the "duplicity" issue on food interactions, etc. and that part should go into one or the other (probably USDA) rather then FDA.

 

The drug part of the FDA needs to stay on its own.

 

[farmteam]

I'm fine with keeping drugs separate, but food definitely needs to be merged.

 

Food regulation can be a mess in this country -- no one talks, outdated technologies, overlapping reports. For example, take a pizza factory -- there could be five different agencies looking at those pizzas, depending if there's meat on it, etc. We need a single food agency.

[Texsox]

Is adding a lab at the USDA going to save us anything? Remember, reportedly, the agribusiness industry is happy with the way things are now. I guess the FDA lab would, in theory, now be smaller.

[Balta1701]

Is adding a lab at the USDA going to save us anything? Remember, reportedly, the agribusiness industry is happy with the way things are now. I guess the FDA lab would, in theory, now be smaller.

I'm sure they are. They've got a nice track record lately of poisoning people.

[southsider2k5]

Is adding a lab at the USDA going to save us anything? Remember, reportedly, the agribusiness industry is happy with the way things are now. I guess the FDA lab would, in theory, now be smaller.

 

I am guessing they are happy with things the same way that Bernie Madoff was happy about the SEC. They are worried that a more effecient agency will mean more inspections, more scrutiny, more recalls etc. Just because they want the status quo, doesn't mean the status quo is good for consumers.

[Texsox]

I am guessing they are happy with things the same way that Bernie Madoff was happy about the SEC. They are worried that a more effecient agency will mean more inspections, more scrutiny, more recalls etc. Just because they want the status quo, doesn't mean the status quo is good for consumers.

 

Good point. Sometimes having two agencies to worry about is easier than having one to worry about. The USDA does meat and eggs, the FDA all others. Which do you want to move to the other?

[southsider2k5]

Good point. Sometimes having two agencies to worry about is easier than having one to worry about. The USDA does meat and eggs, the FDA all others. Which do you want to move to the other?

 

In my world, it would be all under the same roof.

[Texsox]

In my world, it would be all under the same roof.

 

It does seem that way, and it probably should have been that way from the start. But now it feels like an increase in size overall. Either adding the boots and hat set to the FDA or adding white coated scientists to the USDA. Sounds expensive.

[southsider2k5]

It does seem that way, and it probably should have been that way from the start. But now it feels like an increase in size overall. Either adding the boots and hat set to the FDA or adding white coated scientists to the USDA. Sounds expensive.

 

That's the opposite of what I want to happen, and it is more likely with separate agencies. Put together as some sort of a consumer protections agency it makes sense to me, I am sure there are some other agencies that could fit in there that I can't think of at the moment.

[Texsox]

That's the opposite of what I want to happen, and it is more likely with separate agencies. Put together as some sort of a consumer protections agency it makes sense to me, I am sure there are some other agencies that could fit in there that I can't think of at the moment.

 

I think your idea would be better than shuffling from one to another. Interestingly, NOAA does a lot for farmers as well. When people think of consumer protection they also think about UL (which is not a government agency).

 

None of this would have stopped the peanut issue, unless we provide every factory an inspector on a daily basis.

 

It seems like the FDA focuses on what is in the market and the USDA focuses on how it got there. Perhaps that would be a better alignment.

[Balta1701]

I think your idea would be better than shuffling from one to another. Interestingly, NOAA does a lot for farmers as well. When people think of consumer protection they also think about UL (which is not a government agency).

 

None of this would have stopped the peanut issue, unless we provide every factory an inspector on a daily basis.

 

It seems like the FDA focuses on what is in the market and the USDA focuses on how it got there. Perhaps that would be a better alignment.

Well, without touching on this exact issue, I would like to point out that every time there's one of these outbreaks, the country is hurt by a number of things. First and foremost, there is no centralized or computerized tracking system for food. Remember the salsa related outbreak a year ago or so? How it started with tomatoes, then they thought it was cilantro, then they eventually found a contaminated pepper somewhere? A big reason why these things stay under the radar for so long is that there are very limited documentation requirements for food shipping and storage, even stuff coming from overseas. So you get people being sickened by Salsa, you start looking at the ingredients, then you realize that all of the ingredients have been thrown basically in to giant piles in warehouses without any record of what was put where other than a few sheets of paper that you spend a week tracking down, and by the time you actually figure out where things have come from 15 more people are dead.

 

I'd say that increasing the penalties on these sorts of mistakes might also provide a market-based reason for the quality of service to improve. A lot of times, when a contaminated product is traced to one factory, they shut down for a couple days, change their name, re-register themselves, and they're putting their product back on the market a week later with very little punishment. That may well have been related to the decisions of the people in charge of the regulatory agencies under, let's say, their previous leadership, but I think it seems like we're barking up the wrong tree here. There are methods that could be significantly more useful and effective ways of improving the quality of the U.S. Food distribution system than reorganizing the agencies who run it.

[southsider2k5]

I think your idea would be better than shuffling from one to another. Interestingly, NOAA does a lot for farmers as well. When people think of consumer protection they also think about UL (which is not a government agency).

 

None of this would have stopped the peanut issue, unless we provide every factory an inspector on a daily basis.

 

It seems like the FDA focuses on what is in the market and the USDA focuses on how it got there. Perhaps that would be a better alignment.

 

It seems there are 15 agencies who have responsibilities here... This sounds exactly like how we "regulate" the financial sector. Too many agencies, not enough cooperation.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Whos-minding...f-14448757.html

 

Who's minding your food? Surprise! It depends

Chew on this: Food inspection a convoluted affair of dueling bureaucracies, overlapping jobs

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- So, a guy walks into a restaurant. Who makes sure his food is safe?

 

It depends on what he eats.

 

A cheese pizza that arrived at the restaurant frozen? The Food and Drug Administration is in charge of inspecting it.

 

A frozen pepperoni pizza? That's the Agriculture Department.

 

A fresh pizza, made at the restaurant? Both departments would be responsible for the original ingredients, if the pizza has meat on it. What if he eats eggs? It depends whether the eggs are inside the shell, in liquid form or have been processed. Fish? Some fish is inspected by the Commerce Department.

 

The FDA bears the brunt of food safety oversight, a mission called into question in the wake of a massive recall of peanut products. But at least 15 government agencies have a hand in making sure food is safe under at least 30 different laws, some of which date back to the early 1900s.

 

It's a convoluted system.

 

"There is no one person, no individual today who is responsible for food safety," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. "We have an immediate crisis which requires a real restructuring."

 

DeLauro and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have been proposing an overhaul of the nation's food safety structure for more than a decade. There might now be the political will to do something following the outbreak of salmonella traced to peanuts blamed for sickening 600 people and killing at least nine others.

 

They may be making headway. President Barack Obama's new agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, said he supports creating a single, combined food safety agency. It's a major break from his predecessors.

 

"You can't have two systems and be able to reassure people you've got the job covered," Vilsack said.

 

Such a radical overhaul would be difficult. Many in the food industry have long opposed any changes, fearing increased oversight could cut into profits. Allies in Congress have resisted new laws.

 

But resistance appears to be softening, the result of high-profile outbreaks of foodborne illness from domestic and foreign food sources.

 

Industry is open to change, said Scott Faber, a top lobbyist for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents large food and beverage companies.

 

"The food industry recognizes that we need to give FDA new powers and new resources to address new challenges," Faber said.

 

Businesses are concerned about reorganizing the entire system. The priority should be strengthening the current agencies before rearranging them, he said.

 

The old system is an overlapping patchwork of inspections. Both the Agriculture Department and the FDA inspect shipments of imported food at 18 U.S. ports of entry. Sometimes, the FDA stores products at Agriculture Department warehouses, where they wait to be inspected by the FDA because agriculture employees aren't allowed to inspect them.

 

The two agencies also differ on how frequently they inspect businesses. Meat inspectors visit processing facilities daily in most cases, while FDA inspects much less frequently.

 

Most manufacturers of prepackaged, open-faced meat sandwiches, for example, are inspected daily by the Agriculture Department. But add a second piece of bread to make it a traditional sandwich and the FDA takes over. That means inspections probably happen once every five years, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office.

 

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, recommended two years ago that Congress re-examine the system. It said 76 million people are sickened by foodborne illness each year and 5,000 die.

 

But few changes have been made. And despite the salmonella outbreak, even the lawmakers urging changes say a streamlined new agency is unlikely any time soon.

 

A flurry of food safety bills have been introduced in Congress. Many would strengthen FDA's oversight rather than creating a single lead agency. DeLauro's bill would not combine agencies onto one. It would divide the FDA in two, separating the agency's drug oversight and food safety duties.

 

"We have a crisis at the moment. Let's try to address that," DeLauro said.

 

Gateway to Government Food Safety Information: http://www.foodsafety.gov/fsg/fsggov.html

[Texsox]

I don't believe they should be merged, but perhaps the FDA should concentrate on drugs and the USDA on food. There will be huge upfront costs, but I now believe you are correct, there would be savings down the road.