According to federal data, each year, one in six Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases. These figures are likely to be far higher, as most food illnesses go unreported. The most five common pathogens causing foodborne illnesses resulting in hospitalizations are: salmonella, norovirus, Campylobacter, toxoplasma gondii, and E. coli 0157.
Almost every week brings more news of food contamination or foodborne illness outbreak. What’s going on? Our industrialized food system is the root cause of many of these outbreaks.
Industrialization of the food supply
One likely cause is overcrowded conditions on factory farms, where animals get sick and pass the disease on to other animals. Another factor is our wide distribution system, in which contaminated food is transported across the nation. Also, we are increasingly relying on imported foods with unknown safety standards. (For example, 60 percent of our seafood is imported.) Adding to this perfect storm is government deregulation and inadequate funding for inspections and oversight.
Another critical food safety problem is the thousands of chemical additives Americans consume every day. Thanks to industry influence over the approval process, the long-term safety risks for most of these substances are unknown.
For example, for years science has pointed to chemical food dyes as a significant contributor to child behavioral problems. And yet the federal government still denies this connection. In addition, we’ve seen a huge increase in food allergies in children in recent years, but without much explanation of the causes. Clearly, more research is needed into how the industrialized food supply may be impacting our health in ways that are less obvious than foodborne illness.
Political influence
Nothing about food safety takes place in a political vacuum. For decades, the food industry has lobbied to ensure the status quo. And when we finally do get a rare policy victory, such as the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (passed in 2010), the game switches to “starving the beast” – limiting the funds for government to adequately carry out the legislative intent.
Powerful trade groups such as the American Meat Institute lobby against common sense policy improvements, such as expanding required testing for deadly bacteria in ground beef. Another important political factor is international trade. Other nations get upset when theU.S.government demands higher scrutiny of imports. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration, despite having jurisdiction over most of the food supply, is constantly under-funded, limiting inspection and enforcement actions; again, thanks to powerful lobbyists who like it that way.
What can we do about it?
President Obama has pledged a complete overhaul of our food system. The Center for Food Safety believes this will require elevating food safety within government to be a cabinet level agency. The mission of this new food agency must be to evaluate how best to regulate food production to prevent the greatest food safety hazards caused by large industrial agriculture and processed foods and while also protecting and supporting smaller, family, and diversified farms. But such an overhaul can only be successful by removing politics from food safety.
Additional Food Safety Resources
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
United States Department of Agriculture
Food and Drug Administration
FoodSafety.gov
