Dan Glickman, secretary of agriculture during the Clinton administration, delivered the keynote address at the Red Clay Conference at the law school March 16. Some excerpts:
“The biggest challenge right now, as far as I’m concerned, is food safety. . . . If people have confidence that the regulatory system is independent, and at arm’s length from industry, then they will have confidence in the basic safety of the food system. In our country, by and large, people have that kind of confidence--and by and large in Europe they don’t. One of the reasons we have seen the crises in Europe whenever a problem develops is that there is no EPA, there is no independent Food and Drug Administration, there is no food safety regulatory authority that is independent and science-based and respected. That is the key to keeping public confidence. . . .
“Coupled with that, the pathogens that are out there are actually getting more serious. . . . And we have a multiplier effect today. One hundred years ago, most of the food people consumed was produced near where they lived. Today virtually none of the food that people eat is produced near where they live. So there is a massive transportation network in which there can be a food-safety problem. . . . The potential danger in terms of food safety is much higher than it used to be. . . .
“The other side of that is that the sanitation system is much better than it used to be. . . . So people are doing it better than before, but the problems are more serious, and where there is a problem it could affect a lot more people. . . .”
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