Perdue's Consolidation Pt 1
I'm Bob Larson. Making the very complicated world of food safety oversight just a little bit stronger and more efficient for farmers and ranchers is a goal for Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue. He was in Richland recently at a Farm Bureau meeting with Washington producers to talk about their concerns.Perdue says there's a lot of unnecessary crossover between federal agencies that just makes life more complicated ...
PERDUE ... "Regardless of where it resides, in USDA or FDA, don't you think it would be better for our customers, who have to comply, to have a single agency rather than try and do this?"
Perdue says everybody's seen or heard of the silly examples, but that's how the federal government works ...
PERDUE ... "If you take a pizza, a cheese pizza, that FDA's responsibility. I you put pepperoni on it, that's USDA responsibility. If you take a hotdog wiener, that's USDA responsibility. If you put it in a bun, it becomes a hotdog and that's FDA responsibility. I you take a chicken, we're responsible for that. If it lays eggs, that's FDA. If we crack that egg and make an omelet, that's USDA. So, that's the problem there that is, laughter and applause, is the problem. So, that's what we're trying to resolve is having a single agency."
Last month, as part of his consolidation efforts, Purdue announced the alignment of the USDA Harmonized Good Agricultural Practices audit program with the FDA's Food Safety Modernization Act's Produce Safety Rule.
Listen tomorrow for more on how Perdue hopes to make things easier for producers.