Eat at your own risk? TALKING POINTS

Food Safety Concerns

• Unsafe foods cause an estimated 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.

• In 2006, E-coli from bagged fresh spinach sickened 205 people and killed at least 3 in a national food illness outbreak.

• E-Coli sickened 152 people who ate at chain restaurants Taco Bell and Taco John in 2006.

Center for Science in the Public Interest report on Produce safety

• Only 1.3% of imported fish, vegetables fruit and other foods are inspected by the FDA.

• The U.S. is expected to import around $70 billion in agricultural products in 2007, about double the $36 billion in agricultural imports in 1997.

• About ¼ of fruit (fresh and frozen) is imported. About ½ of our tree nuts are imported. More than 2/3 of fish and shellfish come from overseas.

• As the amount of imported food increased over the last few years, the percentage of inspections of food has declined from 1.8% in 2003 to 1.3% this year and expected 1.1% next year.

• A recent Government Accountability Office report found that most of the $1.7 billion of federal funding for ensuring the nation’s food supply is safe goes to the USDA, which oversees just 20% of the food supply. The FDA gets about 24% of the total amount spent on food safety, but is responsible for 80% of the food supply.

• Imports account for about 13% of the annual American diet.

MSNBC Report

• Imported toothpaste from China was seized in the Dominican Republic because it contained diethylene glycol, an industrial solvent. Toothpaste with the same chemical was found in Panama and Australia.

New York Times Report

• Seafood Imports are inspected by the FDA, however the FDA only inspected less than 2% of the 860,000 imported seafood shipments in 2006, of which only 0.59% were inspected for contaminants in a laboratory.

Food and Water Watch

• Consumer confidence in the FDA plummeted by 25% in the last 6 years, with 20% of that decline occurring between 2004 and 2006.

Center for Science in the Public Interest Report

• Risk assessment by the FDA for melamine contamination in poultry, fish and pet food (link is below). Some critics feel the FDA did not test enough samples before releasing fish and poultry back into the market. Only 2 fish were checked for melamine (both negative), but 7 fish feed samples were tested with 5 positive and 2 negative for melamine contamination. Meat from 6 chickens was tested, with all samples testing the level of detection at 50 parts per billion of melamine. All poultry was released back into the market after these tests.

Melamine Risk Assessment by FDA

Resources for buying local and changing the Food System

Find Farmer’s Markets, Community Supported Agriculture and family farms in your neck of the woods:

Local Harvest

Find out the value of buying locally grown food and look into where your food comes from:

Food Routes

Policy proposals for changes in the Farm Bill to support more sustainable, organic, locally grown foods:

Community Food Security Coalition

OldWays Food Issues Think Tank focuses on the traditional aspects of food and health.

OldWays Preservation Trust