Vilsack Fields Questions
Vilsack Fields Questions. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has been very much in the news lately. He seems to be doing a much better job of communicating with the media when it comes to the many issues facing agriculture today. Yesterday the Secretary held a news conference where he basically spent a minute outlining some of the issues at hand like purchases for federal nutrition programs, another announcement due out today on milk payments and finally an extension to the sign up for the
VILSACK: I want to make sure that I’m clear about this, I think it is very important to the process whether you do it through a regulatory process or whether you do it through the passage of legislation that we do everything we possibly can to incorporate the input of those who have concerns about mandatory ID so that we can create a product that will be one that is followed and one in which there is compliance and not necessarily a focus on day to day enforcement.
Was that a yes or a no? Vilsack continued to not answer the question directly but went on to say:
VILSACK: What I don’t want is a circumstance where this is mandated and then people spend a great deal of time trying to figure out how to get around it. That doesn’t do anyone any good.
The subject of food safety was brought up and the Secretary had this to say:
VILSACK: The President has indicated a real concern about our food safety system by the establishment of a working group that USDA and the US Department of Health and Human Services will co-chair. There have been staff meetings already notwithstanding the fact that the FDA Commissioner and the Health and Human Service Secretary have not yet been confirmed although they have been nominated. When those two individuals are confirmed it is my intention to sit down with the Commissioner and the Secretary and talk about next steps in terms of the working group. I think it is fairly clear that we need to discuss the philosophy of food safety whether or not we can reach agreements that the philosophy should be driven by the need to prevent food borne illness has best we can as opposed to or solely looking at mitigating it.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
