Clark Wolf is the host and organizer. The panel—on food and politics—includes me, talking about my memoir, Slow Cooked, An Unexpected Life in Food Politics; Chloe Sorvino, author of Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat; Alex Prud’homme, author of Dinner With The President: Food, Politics and the History of Breaking Bread at the White House; and Tanya Holland, author of Tanya Holland’s California Soul. Free, but register here. It starts at 5:00 p.m. and lasts one hour.
by Marion Nestle
Mar
14
2009
Obama on food safety!
President Obama had quite a lot to say about food safety this morning and I’m happy to say that it sounds like he gets it: the present system is outdated (it was developed a century ago), too spread out, under-resourced, and hazardous to health. He’s going to appoint a committee to make recommendations and promises that all will be fixed “under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Hamburg.” I hope she knows what she’s gotten herself into.
In the meantime, here’s his radio address and lawyer Bill Marler’s take on it. And thanks Bill for posting the entire text of the speech.
And while I’m at it, how about the USDA’s new plan to test the meat at hamburger packing plants four times a month? Is this an improvement or a clear effort to make sure nobody ever finds anything wrong? Here’s Brian Hartman’s discussion of that question at ABC News.