Let’s Hear It for a Stronger FDA to Restore the Food Chain

Am I being paranoid when I see there’s a newly prominent Washington organization with the name, "Coalition for a Stronger FDA" and it makes me think dark thoughts? 

It’s the handiwork of several former secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, so it looks all blue ribbony. It’s getting a lot of attention because of the handwringing about E.coli getting into our vegetables with increasing frequency.  

So here are some of the dark thoughts I think. First off, it’s being mentioned in the context of a growing clamor for more regulations covering the handling of produce, as if this is the magic bullet to solve the problem of people being infected with E.coli. Yet when I think of more regulations, I somehow find myself envisioning federal agents policing farmers markets, closing down stands because the produce isn’t wrapped correctly, or kept cool with a commercial system. Maybe even sting operations to catch small farms using the wrong kinds of knives or disinfectants. This is before we even talk about the causes of the E.coli outbreaks and the best ways to address the problem.

Then I think about the organizations sponsoring this coalition. They all look perfectly respectable. The American Heart Association. The National Kidney Foundation. The Parkinson’s Action Network. Now I don’t know a lot about these organizations in particular, but I do know–and here I’ aware I’m treading into dangerous territory–they all want to see Big Pharma come up with miracle cures for the diseases they represent. Perhaps more than they want to see a focus on holistic approaches to prevention. Of course, The Biotechnology Industry Organization is a pretty transparent sponsor–it wants a bigger FDA so as to get its new drugs approved more quickly.

And finally, I just think about the mindset whereby an organization that tramples the rights of small farmers, holistic practitioners, and producers of nutritional products–despite whatever budget cuts it’s endured–is going to solve the problems of an imploding food chain. Isn’t that a little like adding more foxes to guard the chicken coop?