The Center for Progressive Reform works to protect and improve the
quality of public debate on environmental, health and safety issues
by promoting a sound regulatory process. Toward that end, CPR scholars
file comments with regulatory agencies, testify before congressional
committees, publish opinion articles, and prepare white papers and
reports. These products build on the academic scholarship and research
conducted by CPR scholars. CPR's food safety work includes:
- Mad Cow Disease
CPR President Tom McGarity, a professor of food safety law at
the University of Texas Law School, has called for a truly independent
federal agency to oversee food safety enforcement. The 2003-04
Mad Cow controversy, and the Bush Administration's response, laid
bare the problems with an enforcement agency that is first and
foremost a cheerleader for agri-business.
- Read the July 2004 executive
summary to Thomas McGarity's scathing report on the government's
"flimsy firewalls" against Mad Cow disease. Or read
the full report, a large file.
- Read CPR's July 22, 2004 news
release on Thomas McGarity's report on the government's
Mad Cow regulations.
- Read Mad
Cow 'Firewalls' Just a Smokescreen, Thomas McGarity's
op-ed, published by the Center for American Progress, on Mad
Cow disease, July 22, 2004.
- Read Tom McGarity's
reaction to FDA's July 9, 2004 Mad Cow regulatory announcements.
- Read Tom
McGarity's op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman, criticizing
the USDA's assurances that its failure to find further Mad
Cow-infected cattle means the remaining threat is minimal.
- On January 13, 2004, McGarity wrote to Secretary of Agriculture
Ann Veneman criticizing the Department of Agriculture's latest
regulations addressing Mad Cow. McGarity points out that the
regulations have no effective means of enforcement, effectively
leaving it to industry to regulate itself. Read
the letter, here.
- Read the January 14, 2004 news
release about Tom McGarity's letter to Agriculture Secretary
Ann Veneman, criticizing the USDA's new Mad Cow regulations.
- Read Tom
McGarity's op-ed on Mad Cow and the need for a truly independent
food-safety agency, in the January 6, 2004 Dallas Morning
News.
- Protecting the Consumer
The food industry needs a watchdog, and the Department of Agriculture
and the Food & Drug Administration are supposed to serve that
role. But sometimes the police aren't on the beat, prompting CPR
to blow the whistle.
- Biopharming
Are genetically modified crops safe? Many consumers in the United
States and abroad don't think so, and many scientists are worried.
- Read "U.S.
pitches EU a hard ball," by Tom McGarity, an op-ed on
the Administration's "faith-based" approach to the regulation
of genetically modified food crops. Published in the June
24, 2003 Sacramento Bee.
- Read "Trouble
Down on the Biopharm," by Tom McGarity, a March 2003 opinion
column on USDA secrecy as it affects the prospects of genetically
modified crops accidentally corrupting food crops.
- Read "Reckless
Riders," by Tom McGarity, a February 2003 opinion column
on an appropriations rider undercutting federal labeling of
"organic" meat.
- Read CPR's March 10, 2003 editorial
memorandum on the organics rider in the FY 2004 Omnibus Appropriations
bill, passed by Congress and signed into law. The measure
would have resulted in meat raised on chemicals and pesticides
being falsely labeled "organic" in grocery stores.
- Obesity Liability
Should the companies that super-size our food, or that load even
the lowliest vegetable with great quantities of fat be held liable
for the obesity epidemic to which they contribute. The U.S. House
of Representatives is quite sure that question cannot be left
to the courts, and has enacted legislation aimed at stopping such
lawsuits before they start.
|
