Who Determines the Safety of Our Nation's Salad? An Insider Look Posted by Tim at 10/01/09 05:00 PM

By: Elisa Odabashian, Director of the West Coast Office and State Campaigns for Consumers Union

Last Wednesday, I testified on behalf of Consumers Union before the USDA at a hearing to consider the adoption of a national Leafy Green Vegetables Marketing Agreement (LGVMA), a proposal put forward by the leafy green industry. Consumers Union opposes the use of voluntary marketing agreements to develop safety standards, as this mechanism allows industry both to develop and oversee the implementation of its own safety standards without public input. It is my belief that consumers are rarely benefited when industry polices itself. Because safety standards often add to production costs, the same entity that has a stake in reducing production costs should not be the one setting safety standards and ensuring their implementation.

I have testified at numerous hearings over the last sixteen years for Consumers Union—in front of the California Legislature, FDA, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. This USDA hearing on the LGVMA was very different from all of the previous hearings at which I have testified. Unfortunately, the hearing seemed less like other federal hearings where public input is gathered, and more like a trial of those who disagree with this industry proposal. The hearing included an administrative judge officiating (he actually said little), a six-person USDA panel asking what I felt were not always neutral questions of testifiers, a four-person industry panel with two attorneys bent on poking holes in the testimony and credibility of the individuals and organizations with which they did not agree, and an attorney hired by the small and organic farmers to represent the opposition’s side (who also said little).

I felt the hearing was more than a little lopsided in favor of the leafy greens industry—which is proposing a voluntary, rather than mandatory, approach to produce safety standards. The hearing afforded the industry a platform to showcase the alleged successes of the California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (we disagree) and the alleged inclusiveness with which that agreement was adopted (again, we disagree—it was a closed process here in California, rushed through without public input, and continues to be controlled by industry).

I watched as industry attorneys “cross-examined” individuals and organizations that opposed the marketing agreement—some were questioned for over an hour. One industry attorney asked the judge to “strike from the record” a consumer organization’s petition with over 7,000 signatures opposing the LGVMA because it had a few duplicate names (the judge overruled). I, myself, was told by an industry attorney that my reference to a San Francisco Chronicle article in which bad outcomes for small and organic farmers were reported, was “double hearsay.”

This is disappointing and contrary to a truly public process where USDA should be gathering relevant and important information and comments from a wide array of farming practitioners, experts, academics, and governmental and non-governmental groups. Unfortunately, the industry attorneys were given the opportunity to pounce on testifiers who oppose their proposal. We appreciate that industry is thinking about ways to improve leafy green safety and consumer confidence in produce, but we feel strongly that neither a voluntary marketing agreement in which industry develops and oversees its own safety standards largely behind closed doors, nor an unfriendly hearing that seems to favor proponents of the industry plan, are the appropriate ways to achieve these ends.

comments (3)

1 Posted by cozmcdust at 10/02/09 03:22 PM

We quit purchasing bagged salad after the last E. coli outbreak. Now we buy leaf lettuce, wash it in the colander, drain it, bag it and keep it in the fridge. It stays fresh longer and it's a lot cheaper.

2 Posted by ocdgirl2000 at 10/06/09 03:46 PM

BIG agriFOOD spends a great deal of money lobbying congress and senate as well as funding election campaigns. They will go to great lengths to protect the interests of those who line their pockets. See opensecrets dot org and see the sectors agriculture marketing food, manufacturing, grocery, and you can see who gives to who. You'll get a good idea why no one cares about the nations' safety or health, for that matter. Our citizens are under the illusion that the health care changes can fix this. But the commercial food produced it this country is the real cause.

3 Posted by Sylvia at 10/22/09 10:22 AM

I'm afraid that the USDA will iradiate my leafy greens which are more nutrient dense than any other food. If they are irradiated, they will lose their nutrition and so will we. The real cause of the contamination is the run off from the dirty and unhealthy practices of agri-business. Instead of irradiating our food, clean up the real problem-agri-business!!!!!! Keep away from our greens!