Personal Injury Law

Food Safety Nice List Follows Yesterday's Naughty Entries

By Bill Marler

Food Safety News, the web-based newspaper that covers all things food safety, today released the second part of its 2009 Food Safety Naughty and Nice list. The web-based newspaper's 'Naughty' list was published yesterday and included food safety missteps, missed opportunities, and downright dirty deeds. But it won't be all coal in Food Safety stockings this year – the 'Nice' list is full of good ideas and hard work, which will certainly mean lots of (very safe) treats for the following:

• Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand for being consumer champions and persistent advocates of food safety reform.
• Food & Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg for improving public access to information, including 'Warning Letters' and 483 Reports.
• Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for USDA's new outreach programs, like 'Know your farmer, know your food.'
• New York Times writer Michael Moss for his Pulitzer-worthy article on the dark origins of ground beef and the terrible impact of E. coli O157:H7.
• The quick work of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose members worked quickly and got their hands on incriminating email traffic between the PCA executives, who took the Fifth Amendment when called to testify.
• President Obama for setting up the Food Safety Working Group.
• The public, for an outpouring of support for WSU's Common Reading Program (hat tip, Food Democracy Now).
• Sen. Dick Durbin for being the driving force behind food safety legislation in the Senate and the HELP Committee for passing S. 510 out of committee with bipartisan support.
• The makers of Food, Inc, who introduced the country to the underside of food production, and made a very watchable – if frightening – film about it.
• Michele Obama, for planting a kitchen garden at the white house, and getting kids involved in (very) local food and for getting a local DC farmer's market through the red tape.
• FDA for getting a guilty plea by Mark McAfee of OPDC to criminal charges of misbranding raw milk and selling across state lines as "pet food."
• Marion Nestle for, among other things, her persistent and common sense critique of how junk food and soda is marketed to children.
• Mike Taylor and Don Kraemer at FDA for boldly putting public health ahead of Gulf Coast oyster industry profits.
• That consumer and public health groups have joined with produce growers and food processors and retailers to support FDA reform legislation, making its passage possible.
• Dedicated writers whose excellent articles gave insight and context to food safety issues: Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post for her piece on Linda Rivera's struggle with E. coli O157:H7 from cookie dough, Peter Eisler, Elizabeth Weise, and others of USA Today for their reporting on school lunches, and Nick Grube of the Daily Triplicate for his three-part series on Mari Tardiff's struggle to recover from the Campylobacter infection and ensuing Guillain-Barre Syndrome she got from drinking raw milk.
• Food Bloggers – Simple, Good and Tasty, Cold Truth, Ag and Food Law, Civil Eats, Grist, Weaversway, Food Politics, Ethicurean, La Vida Locavore, Obamafoodorama, Food Shield, efoodalert, Fanatic Cook, Fresh Talk, Center for a Liveable Future, Chuck Jolley, Food Law, Buy Safe Eat Well and Barf Blog.

Make your comments over at www.foodsafetynews.com.

Full post as published by Marler Blog on December 24, 2009 (boomark / email).