by Stephen J. Hedges

Despite persistent fears of mad cow disease in Canadian beef, the Department of Agriculture has failed to properly track hundreds of Canadian cattle coming into the United States, the department's inspector general has concluded.

An audit, completed in March but only recently made public, said that some of the imported cattle did not have proper identification or health records despite federal regulations requiring them.

The audit did not say how many cattle were improperly brought into the U.S. and inspector general spokesman Paul Feeney said auditors are not sure of that number. The report said that a lack of records meant that "it cannot be determined" whether shipments other than those discovered "have bypassed inspection or whether this is a systemic problem."

About 1 million cattle were imported into the U.S. from Canada in the fiscal year ending in September 2006, the period covered by the audit.

The audit mainly faulted Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service for failing to properly check records as the cattle crossed the Canadian border.

"APHIS does not adequately track live animal imports and, if problems are detected, does not collectively analyze import violations," the report said. "Additional controls are needed at northern ports-of-entry to obtain stronger assurance that all animal shipments are inspected."

Mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a disease that attacks a cow's nervous system. Medical researchers also believe that humans who eat meat infected with BSE can contract a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is fatal.

When mad cow was first discovered in Canada in 2003, the USDA cut off all Canadian cattle imports, as did many other countries.

But despite years of precautions, Canada continues to discover cases in which cows have BSE. In June, Canada discovered its 13th BSE case.

Read the full story about the USDA and imported cattle in today's Chicago Tribune.

by Stephen J. Hedges

Call it the smoking jalapeno. After nearly two months of mystery, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified a jalepeno pepper that is contaminated with the same strain of Salmonella saintpaul that has sickened more than 1,237 people in 43 states.

It's the first time during this outbreak that a test has found the salmonella strain in a piece of produce.

The discovery, which will be announced shortly by FDA, was made at a packing plant in McAllen, Texas, according to a source familiar with the issue. The pepper was grown in Mexico, the source said, but was sent to the U.S. for sale. Authorities are not sure where it was contaminated with salmonella.

It is also not clear whether the same packing plant, which has not been named by the FDA, also packs tomatoes. The FDA first suspected tomatoes as the cause of the salmonella outbreak and warned consumers on June 7 to avoid certain types of tomatoes. It lifted that warning last week.

Because people continued to get sick after the tomato warning, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shifted their investigation to jalapeno and Serrano peppers, which sick people had reported eating.

For the FDA, which was under public and political pressure to find the cause of the salmonella outbreak, the discovery of a smoking pepper is a big breakthrough.

by Stephen J. Hedges

The Government Accountability Office released an audit Monday suggesting at least six other countries and the European Union have better food safety systems than the United States.

The 97-page audit was requested by two of the most vocal food safety critics in Congress, Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, (D-Conn.).

Both have pressed for a single food safety agency instead of the dual system in the U.S. right now - the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates most foods, while the Department of Agriculture is responsible for meat, poultry and egg safety.

"I hope today's report serves as a wake-up call for the Administration and others in Congress," Durbin said. "We need a thoughtful overhaul and reorganization of America's food safety system."

The audit examined how six countries, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the E.U., reorganized food safety systems to work more efficiently. The GAO found that those nations do things better by taking a "farm to table approach."

by Frank James

Another example of how tough it is to be president. You can get in trouble for complimenting the local vegetables when on a foreign trip without causing a controversy.

The Wall Street Journal has a small story about domestic asparagus growers being ticked off after President Bush lauded German asparagus during a June visit to Germany during which the president described the Teutonic version of the missile-shaped vegetable as "fabulous."

The Journal reports that this resulted in the president receiving a shipment of American asparagus:

"Anyone who enjoys asparagus is missing out if they haven't tried the asparagus we grow in Washington," said Rep. Doc Hastings, a Republican. To make sure the president wasn't missing out, he and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray shipped 10 pounds of domestic asparagus to the White House.

But interesting as that is, it's not the best part of the story. That would be this bit of information which will no doubt come as news to many people. It was certainly news to me:

American asparagus farmers have been struggling in recent years against cheaper imports. Shipments from Peru and Mexico now account for almost 80% of America's fresh-asparagus market by volume. Imports of Peruvian asparagus had increased to 87 million pounds by 2006 from four million pounds in 1991. The U.S. in the early 1990s began subsidizing Peru's asparagus industry and eliminated import tariffs to encourage an alternative crop for coca growers, hoping to stem the flow of Andean cocaine.

So American asparagus growers have been sacrificed to the drug war? Think on that the next time you're in the produce section checking out those spears.

(Photo: Scott Olson/AFP/Getty Images)

by Frank James

As the Food and Drug Administration tries to determine the cause of the tainted tomatoes that have sickened hundreds and been implicated in at least one death, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington advocacy group, has already determined the culprit -- the FDA.

According to a statement attributed to CSPI staff attorney Sarah Klein, it's FDA malfeasance that's behind the outbreak:

The Food and Drug Administration deserves any rotten tomatoes thrown its way in the wake of this latest outbreak.

Since 2006, CSPI has been urging FDA to require all farms that feed the American public to have written food safety plans, but the FDA has not done that. Instead, the agency and the Bush Administration rely on voluntary, and obviously ineffective, industry programs. The result is yet another produce outbreak, sickening consumers and dealing another setback to another important industry, which includes many growers who have implemented food safety measures.

It's not clear how "written food safety plans" would have stopped the tomatoes from being infected by salmonella. The CSPI also cites the need for on-farm inspections in its statement, suggesting such inspections could've stopped the outbreak. But that's by no means certain either.

by Stephen Hedges

Bad food could be a good thing for congressional Democrats.

Since they took back control of both the House of Representatives and Senate in 2006, members of both chambers have highlighted the number of food recalls - 313 in the last year, according to one congressional tally - and pressed for more money and management changes for the nation's two premier food safety agencies -- the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

They've mainly made their case through six House committee hearings, bringing food companies executive and government regulators to Capitol Hill to explain the high number of recalls, and why the tainted food wasn't discovered early enough to prevent illnesses.

Whether focusing on bad food will translate into good politics will become clear in November, when members of Congress who made more stringent food regulation a priority face re-election. But the hearings allow members to return home to districts and tell voters that they've been working to improve food safety. And nobody's in favor of bad food.

So far the chief food enforcer has been Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who revived his reputation as a Congressional pit bull when he gained control of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce two years ago.

That job allows Dingell's aggressive investigators to poke into all kinds of issues. His latest foray into the food world comes in a series of letters that his committee recently sent on May 1 to 10 private labs that conduct tests for food importing companies to make sure their products meet FDA standards.

Dingell's committee sent similar letters on May 8 to 50 multi-national food companies.

The idea, aides say, is to get records to determine just how widespread the bad food problem is, not just in grocery stores, but deep inside the food production chain. The companies and labs said they have set up comprehensive safeguards, and that they're willing to work with government regulators to cut the number of food contamination outbreaks.

But Dingell and his chief deputy, Rep. Bart Stupak, also a Michigan Democrat who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, have argued that the agencies need to put food manufacturers and importers on a shorter leash.

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, file)

by Frank James

There appears to be growing buyer's remorse on the part of many Capitol Hill lawmakers over ethanol mandates passed by Congress which many lawmakers are contributing to higher food prices.

Meanwhile, other lawmakers are defending ethanol, insisting the corn-based fuel is getting too much blame for the rising costs.

At this morning's hearing on higher food costs being held by Congress's Joint Economic Committee, the split was clear.

Sen. Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat, pointed to the corn being diverted into fuel instead of food, as a major cause for food-price increases.

Meanwhile, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, a major farm state, said not so fast. Corn can't be blamed for wheat-price increases since corn generally doesn't displace wheat but soybean acres, he said.

Plus, if ethanol mandates were reduced, fuel prices could shoot up 15 percent, Brownback said.

by Stephen Hedges

Two things that members of Congress excel at is spending money and pointing fingers. In the case of the 2007 farm bill, now under tortured consideration the U.S. Senate, finger pointing is blocking the money spending, and that’s begun to anger people.

The $286 billion 2007 farm bill would sustain the generally high level of subsidies that farmers receive from the federal government. It also funds a market basket of other federal programs, everything from the food stamp program to school lunch snacks and foreign hunger relief. The House has already passed its version.

The Senate version of the bill, however, is stuck in a pre-school like squabble over amendments and thinly-veiled political accusations.

Democrats complain that the bill would be law by now if Republicans would only stop offering irrelevant amendments. So far, according to chief finger-pointer Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the bill has 255 amendments attached to it, a “ridiculous” number, he said.

Workers outside a Topps Meat Co. plant in Elizabeth, N.J., Friday, Oct. 5, 2007, after Topps announced it was going out of business following a recall of frozen hamburger patties. Credit:Mike Derer/ AP Photo.

by Stephen Hedges

Sen. Richard Durbin has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to explain why a recent large recall of hamburger meat took so long to enact, and whether USDA has adequate controls in place to prevent more food contamination in meat plants.

In a letter sent today to USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, Durbin, a Democrat, states, “It is alarming that, following several years of reductions in the number of cases of E. coli infections, we are now witnessing a sharp rise in both the number of incidents requiring a recall and the number of people infected by this harmful bacteria.”

That rise, Durbin writes, includes 16 recalls this year due to E. coli bacteria in beef, or a total of 28 million pounds of ground beef.

“This spike,” the letter states, “warrants additional attention.”

Posted by Frank James at 2:22 pm CDT

First pigs, then chickens, now the Food and Drug Administration is saying that some farm-raised fish were contaminated by the compound melamine which was used by one or more Chinese manufacturers to make it appear that the wheat gluten they exported was higher in protein than it actually was.

Here’s part of an Associated Press story.

By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Farmed fish were fed meal spiked with an industrial chemical linked to the ongoing recall of pet foods, though the contamination level was probably too low to pose a danger to anyone who may have eaten the fish, federal health officials said Tuesday.

The Canadian-made meal included what was purported to be wheat gluten, a protein source, imported from China. The material was actually wheat flour spiked by the chemical melamine and related, nitrogen-rich compounds to make it appear more protein rich than it was, officials said.

Posted by Steve Hedges at 4:30 pm CDT

Amid a rising storm of concern over the safety of imported food, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it was establishing a new position, the assistant commissioner for food safety, to ensure more protection for consumers.

The post, which will be immediately filled by the FDA’s chief food safety medical officer, David Acheson, comes after the FDA’s own finding that pet food and livestock feed ingredients imported from China may have been tainted with melamine, a nitrogen rich chemical that is used in plastics.

In his new job, Acheson will work with other FDA offices and “coordinate FDA's food safety and defense assignments and commitments,” the agency said in a statement.

Posted by William Neikirk at 6:30 a.m. CDT

The next time President Bush tries to deal with the epidemic of obesity in America, you should know what he's been serving his guests. For instance, let me tell you about the official visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife.

Let's put it like this: Abe carries great weight in his country. And when he goes back to Tokyo, he could be carrying a lot more of it as a result of his dining experiences with the Bushes.

After a Thursday White House dinner of duck and crab dishes followed by a moist almond cake, the prime minister sits down with President Bush at Camp David, Md. today for a real American pig-out.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Tuesday, July 25, as collected by the Associated Press.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continues her journey through the Mideast seeking an end to the Israeli warfare with Hezbollah.

President Bush is meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Posted by Andrew Martin at 3:10 pm CDT

Okay, so it’s not the Thrilla in Manila. But in the insular world of agriculture, it has the potential to be a legendary bout.

Ken Cook, the rabble-rousing president of the Environmental Working Group, has challenged former Congressman Larry Combest (R-Texas) to a series of debates on farm policy, including one in Combest’s home turf in west Texas.

Posted by Andrew Martin at 9:36 am CDT

The author of the best-selling “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal” has a new book out for kids that covers some of the same stomach-churning ground.

This time, the agriculture and food industry is attempting to fight back.

In a response to Eric Schlosser’s new book, “Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food,” the food and farm industry has sponsored a web site, www.BestFoodNation.com, that attempts to refute many of the claims in Schlosser’s books.

“Some of the information contained in this book is inaccurate and misleading,” says Janet Riley of the American Meat Institute in a press release launching the web site.

Posted by Andrew Martin at 1:10 pm CST

It seems as if everyone in the dairy business is out to stop Hein Hettinga, a prosperous dairy farmer who just happens to sell about the cheapest milk in the nation.

First the U.S. Department of Agriculture passed regulations, effective April 1, that would effectively curtail Hettinga’s business. And now, Congress is considering a bill-called the Milk Regulatory Equity Act-which would do the same thing. It’s scheduled for a vote Tuesday in the House of Representatives, having already passed the Senate.

Posted by Andrew Martin at 4:23 pm CST

A short notice from the United States Department of Agriculture has created a stir-and perhaps a wave of nausea-among the nation’s meat inspectors.

Called “FSIS NOTICE 15-06: Use of Non-Amenable Animal Tissue in Inspected Products,” the notice essentially says that animals that you wouldn’t normally associate with hamburgers can be “included in amenable meat or poultry products produced in official establishments.”