Food Safety an Issue in President Obama's First 100 Days

When people began to sicken and even die from eating contaminated peanut products, President Obama said that he "immediately thought of my 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, who has peanut butter sandwiches for lunch probably three times a week," according to Reuters. Food is a personal issue for him, as it is for all of us. But for the president, it's also a matter of national policy.

What has President Obama been able to accomplish in the areas of food and agriculture during his first 100 days? Obviously his agenda has been packed with both foreign and domestic policy issues, including the important Recovery and Reinvestment Act. However, his administration has made some progress on food issues.

First, he appointed Margaret Hamburg as chief of the Food and Drug Administration and Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. He's also established a cabinet-level food safety panel, to be headed by Vilsack and the incoming Secretary of Health and Human Services (Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius is the nominee).

Also in food safety, Secretary Vilsack has established new rules governing meat inspection and the disposition of non-ambulatory (downer) cattle. According to the USDA, under these rules non-ambulatory cattle which are slaughtered must be disposed of appropriately and not used for human consumption.

Finally, the Obama family has broken ground on an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn. It's the first vegetable garden at the White House since First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden. This is lauded as a symbolic gesture in favor of sustainable home gardening and organic gardening for everyone.

It's not a lot, but it's a start. The Obamas are providing leadership in the areas of food safety and home gardening. I'd like to see, in the near future, reforms to agriculture policy to encourage family farms and organic and sustainble practices, rather than large factory farms. We still have a long way to go.

SOURCES
Lisa Richwine, "Obama picks FDA chief, starts food safety panel", http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-BarackObama/idUSTRE52D0KJ20090316
USDA, "Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Announces Final Rule for Handling of Non-Ambulatory Cattle", http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2009/03/0060.xml
Kate Barrett and Brian Hartman, "Foodies Celebrate White House Veggie Garden", http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=7110660&page=1