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By Root 1112 0

Kelli Ranieri for office life support. Dean Ann Marcus granted sabbatical leave, and Deans LaRue Allen, Gabriel Carras, and Thomas James granted much else in the way of encouragement. I recognize and very much appreciate the unusual level of care and attention given to Safe Food by the production and design teams at the University of California Press and BookMatters. Preparation of this book was supported in part by research development grants from New York University and its Steinhardt School.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

APHA

American Public Health Association

APHIS

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (of USDA)

BGH

Bovine growth hormone (see bST)

BIO

Biotechnology Industry Organization

BSE

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease)

bST

Bovine somatotropin (see BGH)

Bt

Bacillus thuringiensis

CDC

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (of DHHS)

CFSAN

Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (of FDA)

CJD

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

CNI

Community Nutrition Institute

CSPI

Center for Science in the Public Interest

DHHS

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid

EC

European Commission (of the EU)

EMS

Eosinophilia-Myalgia Syndrome

EPA

Environmental Protection Agency

ERS

Economic Research Service (of USDA)

EU

European Union

FDA

Food and Drug Administration (of DHHS)

FIFRA

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1988

FSIS

Food Safety and Inspection Service (of USDA)

Additional abbreviations are defined in the Notes.

GAO

General Accounting Office (of Congress) (since 2004, the Goverment Accountability Office)

GM

Genetically modified

GMO

Genetically modified organism

HACCP

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point

IGF-I

Insulin-like growth factor-I

IOM

Institute of Medicine (of the National Academies)

NAS

National Academy of Sciences (now National Academies)

NFPA

National Food Processors Association (since 2005, the Food Products Association)

NIH

National Institutes of Health (of DHHS)

OMB

Office of Management and Budget (of the White House)

OSTP

Office of Science and Technology Policy (of the White House)

OTA

Office of Technology Assessment (formerly of Congress, now defunct)

rBGH

Recombinant bovine growth hormone (see rbST)

rbST

Recombinant bovine somatotropin (see rBGH)

USDA

U.S. Department of Agriculture

vCJD

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

WHO

World Health Organization

WTO

World Trade Organization

INTRODUCTION

FOOD SAFETY IS POLITICAL

FOOD SAFETY IS A MATTER OF INTENSE PUBLIC CONCERN, AND for good reason. Food “poisonings,” some causing death, raise alarm not only about the food served in restaurants and fast-food outlets but also about the food bought in supermarkets. The introduction in the 1990s of genetically modified foods—immediately dubbed “Franken-foods”—only added to the general sense of unease. Finally, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon further heightened such concerns by exposing the vulnerability of food and water supplies to food bioterrorism.

Discussions of food safety in the media and elsewhere tend to focus on scientific aspects: the number of illnesses or deaths, the level of risk, or the probability that a food might cause harm. Such discussions overlook a central fact: food safety is a highly political issue. Preventing food-borne illness involves much more than washing hands or cooking foods to higher temperatures. It involves the interests of huge and powerful industries that use every means at their disposal to maximize income and reduce expenses, whether or not these means are in the interest of public health. Like other businesses, food businesses put the interests of stockholders first. Because food is produced, processed, distributed, sold, and cooked before it is eaten, its safety is a shared responsibility, meaning that blame also can be shared. Any one company in the food chain can deny responsibility and pass accountability