CongressDaily's Jerry Hagstrom reports (subscription) that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today he favors a single food safety agency, but he has not decided whether it should be located in USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, the FDA or an independent agency.
Commenting on the salmonella peanut butter scandal, Vilsack told the U.S. Rice Federation that the issue of centralization is key because food safety is both a human health and market issue. "We are the only industrial nation to have two systems," Vilsack said, a reference to USDA's responsibility for meat, poultry and eggs and FDA's responsibility for most other food products.
Vilsack's statements have come as something of a surprise to lawmakers and lobbyists. Agribusiness has opposed the idea vigorously in the past, and lawmakers have found the job of reorganizing the food safety system daunting.
For more on this story, read CongressDailyPM.
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