Talking about. . .Food Vs Fuel, COOL, FDA

“We used to have a food economy and an energy economy – two separate entities. Now suddenly, they’re beginning to merge and what is happening is the world price of grain is moving up towards its oil equivalent value because any time the food value of a commodity is less than its fuel value, the market will move that commodity into an energy commodity.”
(Source: FOODweekonline.com –Australia, July 16, 2007)
Lester Brown, founder and president of the US-based Earth Policy Institute, speaking at the CIES World Food Business Summit in Shanghai.
>PS: He was sounding the alarm about an impending “ethanol shock” that ties the price of food to the cost of a barrel of oil.

“Ethanol is getting a bad rap, because people aren’t looking at all the other factors that are involved in food prices.”
(Source: The Voice of Agriculture, American Farm Bureau, July 16, 2007)
Terry Francl, Farm Bureau economist, claiming little evidence that rising food prices have been affected significantly by higher corn prices.

"Comments should be submitted online at regulations.gov. Additional means of comment submission are via e-mail to cool@usda.gov; by mail to Country of Origin Labeling Program, Room 2607-S, Agricultural Marketing Service, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Stop 0254, Washington, DC 2025-0254; or by fax to 202-720-1112. Additional information on this and the COOL program can be found at www.ams.usda.gov/cool."
(Source: SeattlePI.com, July 15, 2007)
Parker Wilde, Tufts University professor, instructing his blog readers where to send their comments about COOL.
>PS: After five years, this is still in play? Time to make a decision and stick with it.

"I want to make it very clear; [the closures] are for one purpose and one purpose only: to bring the FDA laboratory infrastructure into the 21st century. It's going to be very painful, but we are not closing labs with the idea of eliminating functionality."
(Source: Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2007)
Andrew von Eschenbach, FDA Commissioner, claiming his spectacularly ill-timed announcement suggesting the closing of 7 of their 13 food testing labs ‘was getting an early bad rap.’
>PS: The FDA is swamped with food quality problems, overrun with bad press, wasting away from a lack of funds and personnel and he decides to announce a ‘cut-and-run’ policy? Let’s just hope he’s playing hardball with the U.S. Congress in a bid for decent funding.

(Outbreaks of food-borne illness in 2006 and 2007) “Underscore the need to develop new multidisciplinary and integrated food safety strategies.”
(Source: New York Times, July 18, 2007)
Andrew von Eschenbach, FDA Commissioner, telling the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that closing labs would make the agency more efficient.
>PS: Reducing the head count and resources at an already grossly overworked government agency that can’t even begin to keep up with its duties and obligations will make it more efficient? That’s the kind of fuzzy logic that only works inside the beltway. See previous von Eschenbach comment.