I wish I could do this one in Spanish, but it will be in English. The preliminary program for the meeting is here. Register for it here.
FDA funding for food safety increases, by a little
Thanks to the Hagstrom Report for this item. It revealed that The Alliance for a Stronger FDA has produced a chart of the changes to the funding levels for the FDA in the Agriculture appropriations bill.
The group reports these increases for food safety funding:
▪ $5 million for innovation and emerging technology
▪ $7 million for advancing FSMA (the Food Safety Modernization Act)
▪ $8 million for strengthening response to foodborne outbreaks
▪ $3 million for dietary supplements
▪ $5 million for imported seafood safety
▪ $2 million for CBD activities
▪ $500,000 for antimicrobial monitoring system
▪ $1 million for standards of identity
These are drops in a very large bucket of need for FDA funding.
Please note that the FDA, a public health agency, gets its funding from agricultural appropriation committees, not health committees.
This is an unfortunate accident of history, but goes a long way to explaining why the FDA is so consistently underfunded.