According to reports from congressional staff, the Senate is set to take up its version of a food safety bill next week. It is a popular bill that is not expected to cause too much grief. Last year the House passed a bill similar in philosophy, but there remains a substantial difference in the funding mechanisms each chamber uses to increase the FDA??s budget.
The Grocery Manufacturer??s Association (GMA) has led the way in providing valuable input concerning better regulation of our nation??s food supply. The main difference in the House and Senate bills is that the House bill imposes a user fee on producers, manufacturers and processors and the Senate bill relies on appropriations to raise revenue for new inspections.
A few other issues will be worked out on the Senate floor next week including traceback and record-keeping requirements for farmers and small producers. Also, an amendment from Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) concerning the ban of chemical commonly known as BPA, which is used in almost all types of food containers, could force GMA to remove its support for the bill.
The FDA is already conducting a safety assessment of the chemical and the results from that test should show whether or not claims that BPA harms the neurological development of infants and young children are true.
NACS worked to secure provisions that help protect small retailers in the House version of the bill.
NACS Staff Contact: Julie Fields
Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) announced a formal unveiling of their long-awaited climate change bill for April 26. Negotiations have been ongoing between Democrats and Republicans and affected industry and environmentalist groups. A consensus has certainly not been reached yet but this is the Senate??s last chance at passing a bill before the mid-term elections. A group of mid-western Democratic senators sent Kerry, Graham and Lieberman a letter outlining their concerns for their region and the manufacturing sector.
NACS Staff Contact: John Eichberger
The House Agriculture Committee??s Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry held a hearing on access to healthy food and programs and proposals that could expand the availability of healthy food in areas with limited access.
Subcommittee Chairman Joe Baca (D-CA) commented: "Better access to affordable, healthy and fresh foods is absolutely critical to addressing the obesity epidemic in many of our underserved communities. First Lady Michelle Obama has done a great job of bringing awareness to the issue of childhood obesity, and I am pleased our subcommittee was able to explore the connection between poor food access and obesity. With obesity related health care costing our nation over $147 billion annually, we must tackle this problem now or face the devastating fiscal and public health consequences later."
According to a press release from Baca the subcommittee heard testimony from U.S. Department of Agriculture officials as well as from prominent chef and cookbook author Rocco DiSpirito, Food Network chef and nutritionist Ellie Krieger, and from witnesses who have developed innovative and successful initiatives to expand access to healthy food in underserved areas.
Jeffrey Brown, CEO of Brown's Super Stores Inc., testified how his company is providing new job opportunities and healthier food choices through an innovative grocery business model. Witnesses from the farm community also spoke about efforts they are making to close the gap in the country??s healthy food supply.
The underserved areas that are referenced when trying to address the epidemic of poor nutrition are often called "food deserts." To see if you are in an area classified as a food desert, check out the United States Department of Agriculture??s food atlas at ers.usda.gov/foodatlas.
NACS Staff Contact: Julie Fields