Safe Food_ Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism - Marion Nestle [51]
FIGURE 6. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s safe-handling instructions for raw meat products, as annotated by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). This illustration appeared in Nutrition Action Healthletter, September 1999. (Courtesy of Michael Jacobson. Reprinted with permission.)
THE POULTRY INDUSTRY VERSUS PERFORMANCE STANDARDS: A USDA SECRETARY’S DOWNFALL, 1993–1994
Whether or not Mr. Espy’s support for food-handling labels indeed constituted a personal crusade, the industry’s actions to oppose his efforts illustrate some of the less savory aspects of food safety politics in action. As noted earlier, President Clinton had appointed Mr. Espy, then a fourth-term member of the House of Representatives (Dem-MS), as USDA Secretary in 1993. Mr. Espy’s measures to overhaul the inspection system for meat and poultry appeared quite serious, and they worried the industry. Beef producers objected and, among other complaints, accused the USDA of favoring chicken producers by holding that industry to less stringent safety standards. Perhaps in response, the USDA moved to require freshly killed poultry to be treated with sterilizing solutions of trisodium phosphate and acids before chilling the meat. The USDA was also working on rules that would require poultry companies to test for microbial pathogens. As might be expected, the poultry industry opposed both suggestions.32
Soon after Mr. Espy took office, his staff warned him that federal conflict-of-interest rules applied more strictly to agency officials than to members of Congress or Mississippi legislators, and that he must be especially careful not to accept gifts or favors from people working for companies that might be affected by USDA regulations. This warning derived from interpretations of provisions of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act, designed originally to prevent corruption of meat inspectors. The law made it a federal crime to do anything to exert undue influence on an inspector. A later law, the Bribery, Graft and Conflicts of Interest Act of 1962, set penalties for anyone who offered “anything of value” with the intention of influencing a public official. Although intention was the crucial issue, federal lawyers have interpreted this law to mean that officials of government agencies should refuse any gifts—no matter how seemingly in-consequential—from representatives of companies with matters under USDA regulatory review.
Despite the warnings, Mr. Espy accepted a variety of favors from lobbyists for Tyson Foods, then the world’s largest chicken-processing company (and now the largest producer of beef as well). Early in 1994, federal investigators accused Mr. Espy of violating the Meat Inspection Act by accepting—or permitting a companion to accept—airline travel, tickets to sporting events, a small scholarship, and other gifts worth about $12,000 from Tyson Foods, plus similar gifts from other meat and poultry companies. The results of that investigation forced Mr. Espy to resign from his position as USDA secretary, and a later investigation by a special prosecutor led to his indictment by a federal grand jury. Eventually, Mr. Espy was acquitted of all charges, largely because