Will budget cuts threaten food safety?
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On page 3 of Tuesday’s Roanoke Times, at the bottom of the wire reports, there was a small agriculture brief titled “Budget cutting leads to facility closings.” This brief was about the fact that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is going to close 259 offices, laboratories and other facilities in the country in order to save $150 million per year.
The brief says, “While the closings and other cost-cutting steps will affect the department headquarters in Washington and operations in 46 states, the savings will be relatively small in the context of the agency’s $145 billion budget.”
It is my opinion that anybody interested in food safety ought to read the entire article by The Associated Press. Click the link to access that report as it ran in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution yesterday.
Here are some highlights:
- “Some of the closures had been previously announced. The USDA said last year it would shut down 10 agricultural research stations, including the only one in Alaska, where scientists were seeking ways to use the vast waste generated by the largest wild fishery in the nation to make everything from gel caps for pills to fish meal for livestock feed.”
- “There will be no reduction in inspection presence at slaughter and processing facilities and no risk for consumers,” [Undersecretary for Food Safety Elizabeth] Hagen said. “Not only do we have a statutory obligation to be in every facility, we have an unwavering commitment to food safety,” she added. “We will still be on the job, in every facility, every day.”
- “The USDA manages a wide array of programs, from emergency aid for farmers to grants for rural development and food assistance programs for the poor. Along with the Agricultural Research and Food Safety and Inspection services, six other departments will be affected by closures, including the Farm Service Agency and Rural Development … The USDA plans to shut 131 FSA offices in 32 states, with [the] largest number of closures in Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas.”
- Bruce Babcock, a farm economist at Iowa State University and director of the school’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development: “The capability to collect data and do the behind the scenes activities that really help U.S. agriculture stay safe, that should be concerning.”
Again, read the entire article for the full context.
Despite assurances that these cuts will not affect the safety of our food system, folks are concerned. Anybody who works for an organization that has slashed staffing knows there is no such thing as doing more with less, and probably no such thing as doing the same with less.
Hopefully the USDA’s efforts to streamline its procedures will help, as Babcock suggests in the article. Hopefully.
What are your thoughts on this development?
January 11, 2012 - 9:28 AM
RSS feed 
I don’t think that the production of food, especially animals, is regulated properly now as it is. Will it get worse? I’m not sure it can get a lot worse.
I’d estimate that if 99% of the posters on here saw a poultry, beef, pork, or fish processing facility, they would refuse to eat that product for the rest of their lives.
I think that all agencies of government could find 10% waste in their operating budgets and continue to carry out their legal accountabilities.
abdnva, I couldn’t agree more. I don’t think the inspection and regulation are stringent enough today, and this will likely make it worse in the long run.
In terms of the meat industry…I refuse to eat pork after growing up not too far from a lot of hog farms. We’re working to get our other meats from local sources that are unlike the large-scale industrials CAFO’s and other similar facilities.
They’re not carrying out their “legal accountabilities” now. These agencies are already underfunded, deliberately. If anything, more funding needs to be directed to these agencies to allow more hiring and a little oversight of the facilities they’re suppoed to be monitoring.
I wonder what USDA offices, if any, will close locally? USDA probably has a lot of facilities in rural areas, and rural areas are generally being ignored by the current federal gov’t / administration.
I haven’t heard about local closings yet, Ken, but I will report back when/if I do.
Since they are closing offices and not laying people off, the quality of service should not be affected as the manpower will still be there. They will just have to travel from another office. (Which doesn’t seem to be that much more economical because they will have to pay travel costs.) I believe 24 offices will be closed in the state of Virginia. Considering how many there already are, I doubt we’ll feel an impact.
Food production facilities are disgusting anyway. The USDA is a joke and power should be vested to the states to monitor food production and power should be returned to the local producer to responsibly harvest food products for public consumption. Let’s borrow a page from the rest of the world and take control of what we eat. There are SIX aisles of frozen food in our local Kroger. How many were there in Italy? ZERO!