International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) BB #:378962 shoots the moon, or shoots the moon (whichever idiom you prefer).
He published a policy statement entitled Snapshot of Fruits and Vegetables: Recommendations of the International Fresh Produce Association.
The statement contains eight main recommendations aimed at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, which is scheduled to take place in September.
One proposal concerns the innovative idea of writing medical prescriptions for products, which would allow health insurers to subsidize better food choices for their customers.
Recommendation 7 is interesting: “Establish a Cabinet-level National Director of Food and Nutrition to coordinate food and nutrition security research across government departments.”
Rationale: “Currently, nutrition research is conducted in 27 institutes, centers, and offices within the federal government and lacks dedicated federal leadership to coordinate, communicate, and ensure that research effectively influences public policy and drives population change. Leadership coordination of nutrition research is critical in preventing or reducing the risk of diet-related chronic diseases, as well as in treating these conditions.”
This has some similarities to legislation introduced in Congress last week for the proposed Food Safety Administration Act, which proposes to separate food safety regulations from the incompetent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and create a separate body.
Those two proposals are not the same. Congressional legislation deals with food safety, and IFPA’s proposal relates only to food research.
In fact, the IFPA is lukewarm on the proposed Food Safety Authority. He posted a comment saying, “IFPA, along with many stakeholder groups, are concerned about how FDA is currently handling food safety. We remain optimistic that the commissioner will implement changes at the agency without intervention from Congress.”
Nevertheless, both the congressional and IFPA proposals point to similar goals: improving the quality of the food supply by streamlining federal oversight.
In short, they point towards the Food Department, something I suggested in this column.
Such a department would manage food and nutrition safety research.
In the current congressional climate, where lawmakers seem to have reached a state of learned helplessness, no agenda with such a far-reaching agenda has a chance of passing.
But such large measures always move slowly. I think the United States will eventually create a Food Department, although it will probably take a decade. Government is like a big oil tanker: you can’t turn it around right away.
