Food Without Fear

Peanut butter can kill you. And spinach. And maybe cookie dough. That's what we've learned so far this year, as contaminated foods have claimed lives, caused permanent disabilities and sent thousands of Americans to emergency rooms. The toll has been immense for some time--on average, 5,000 lives are lost each year and 300,000 hospitalizations are required--but this year's outbreaks of salmonella poisoning linked to bad peanuts and the spread of E. coli bacteria on spinach garnered enough headlines to break a legislative logjam and maybe, just maybe, open the way for the most sweeping reform of the nation's food safety system in fifty years.

That's a big deal, not just for consumers but for everyone who worries about the public health systems undermined by the "Republican revolution" Congresses of the 1990s and the neglect of the Bush/Cheney years. No matter how the mangled healthcare reform debate plays out this fall, the reports of death, disease and peanut butter recalls have created an opening that could make 2009 the year a progressive president and Congress enact landmark public health legislation. On the eve of the August recess, the House approved the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 with a bipartisan 283-to-142 vote. That fifty-four Republicans joined 229 Democrats in backing a relatively good bill bodes well for the possibility that the Senate will back bold reform. How bold remains to be seen, however, as a Senate that should be working to muscle up the House bill is instead coming under pressure to weaken it. That can't be allowed to happen. As Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says, Congress must "give consumers a full loaf when it comes to food safety."

The Senate should act quickly, for reasons of the public good and politics. There is talk about having the Senate put off the food safety debate until after it wrestles with healthcare reform. Bad idea. The outbreak of bipartisanship in the House illustrates that it may be possible to get Democrats and at least some Republicans to stand up to the corporations that want to play politics with public health.

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