Citizen Advocates Reforming Food Safety Posted by Tim at 10/19/09 05:40 PM

Peter Hurley lives a double life. By day he is a Portland, Oregon police officer and lives in Wilsonville with his 3 kids and wife Brandy. He considers himself to be a pretty typical middle class American, and middle if not right leaning politically. He likes common-sense laws. However, when not being a police officer, dad, and husband he has been waging a personal war to reform food safety in this country.

Peter’s son Jacob , an energetic, creative 3-year-old fond of playing with his friends and his sisters, came down with flu-like symptoms in January 2009. Neither Peter nor his wife had any idea at the time that their active toddler was actually sickened by Salmonella in his favorite comfort food – peanut butter crackers.

When his parents noticed blood in Jake’s diarrhea, they took him to the pediatrician. When the lab results came back a few days later, they were stunned to learn their son was infected with Salmonella – and, with two other young children at home, they were even more worried because they had no idea what food had made Jake sick, and whether it might sicken their other children. What they did know, was that 5 or 6 people across the country had died in an outbreak of foodborne illness linked to peanut butter – but the only brand listed as a source was King Nut Peanut Butter, which they didn’t have at home. As Jake’s diarrhea continued, his parents were given the green light by their pediatrician’s office for him to eat his favorite comfort food: Austin Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter. But they were devastated to find out shortly thereafter that they had unknowingly been continuing to feed him the very food that had poisoned him in the first place.

Jake was sick for 11 days in all. His parents were extremely vigilant in cleaning to ensure that Alyssa, Jake’s 7-month-old sister, would not also get sick. Had the infant girl gotten sick, “there is a good chance that we would be one of the families who lost a loved one,” says Peter. Luckily, Jake has recovered with no initial indication of any lingering side effects, but the Hurley family is determined to fight for changes that will better protect our food supply against dangerous contamination.

“It sickens me to no end that a company and its employees could knowingly allow tainted product to go out the door and into the nation’s food supply,” says Peter. “On behalf of all Americans, my whole family and Jake, I ask that our government put our public health and food safety first. We were lucky – it could have been very different for us, and we cannot let that happen to anyone else.”

Peter has testified before Congress, lobbied his US Senators and Congressmen in DC and in Oregon, and forged relationships based on passing a common sense law regardless of political standings. As a testament to Peter’s efforts, Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon spoke about Jacob’s story on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and proposed that the pending food safety bill to be renamed ”Jacob’s Law”.

Peter and Jacob headed to DC one more time. This time focused on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee members. This committee has a bill before them that would reform food safety and help prevent the tragedy that happened to Jacob from happening to others. Please take the time to help us by contacting your U.S. Senator and telling them to support Senate bill S.510, The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.

To learn how you can join Peter in the fight for a safer food system go to www.notinmyfood.org.

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