USDA says government ready for food supply threat
Date: 26-Oct-01
Country: USA
Author: Randy Fabi
Federal and state farm agencies have been on heightened alert, especially for foot-and-mouth disease and other highly contagious livestock diseases, since the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
"Should we see any unusual activity, we have the protocols in place to respond quickly," Veneman said at a meeting with Republican lawmakers. She refused to elaborate, except to say there have been no specific threats to the U.S. food supply.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told Congress earlier this week that the nation's food supply could be the target of a terrorist attack. Thompson urged lawmakers - many of whom have balked in the past at spending more on food safety - to authorize hiring hundreds of additional food inspectors.
Former President Bill Clinton recently received more than a dozen vials in the mail tainted with salmonella, one of several diseases carried by food that can be fatal. Authorities said yesterday, however, that they saw no connection to a string of anthrax attacks in New York, Washington and Florida.
At no time did Clinton come into contact with the substance, Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin said.
Nearly 1.4 million cases of salmonella poisoning occur in the United States each year from eating contaminated beef, pork, poultry, eggs and milk.
U.S. meat and poultry is inspected by the USDA, while other processed foods and imports are under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration. Several other government agencies, including the Commerce Department and Environmental Protection Agency, are also involved in food safety policy.
Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who for years has pressed Congress to spend more on food safety, has recently renewed his call to create a single U.S. food safety agency.
Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas earlier this month proposed spending $1.1 billion next year to improve security for the nation's food supply.
Food safety is also a concern for American farmers. Several foreign farm diseases - such as foot-and-mouth, mad cow, African swine fever and soybean rust - would have a costly, long-term impact if they infected U.S. livestock or crops.
The American Farm Bureau, the nation's biggest farm group, has urged the White House to appoint a food safety specialist within the new Office of Homeland Security to help safeguard agriculture.
USDA recently received $45 million for food security to upgrade its research facilities in New York and Iowa and improve training of local and state veterinarians.