It's been a rough summer for anyone paying attention to food safety in America. Every few days, it seems, we see new headlines about new recalls and foodborne illness outbreaks. And the media is paying a lot more attention to them on the heels of the big summer cyclospora outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce (which is now the largest foodborne outbreak we’ve had in three decades!) What’s going on? Is this the Trump administration to blame here, or has the system been broken for a long time? And what can we eat?
To sort through it, we sat down with Bill Marler, widely considered the top food safety plaintiff's attorney in the country (and a thorn in the food industry’s side). Marler is also the founder of Food Safety News (where Helena used to work pre-2013) and is an outspoken advocate for stronger food safety regulations in the U.S.
Marler's read on the current moment isn't exactly what you'd expect from an outspoken, left-leaning lawyer who spends his days suing food companies: he blames not just this administration, but more so Congress's decades-long unwillingness to stay on top of food safety policy and the funding needed to make real reform a reality.
Highlights:
– Roughly 32,000 people (by state counts) have been sickened by cyclospora this summer, and CDC estimates suggest the real number could be dramatically higher
– Why the CEO of Taylor Farms is calling Bill Marler these days
– Why cyclospora is so much harder to trace than E. coli or Salmonella
– Marler connects the dots between the FDA's delayed food traceability rule, agency staffing cuts, and how long it took to identify Taylor Farms as the source
– Fifty infants were hospitalized for botulism linked to contaminated infant formula last November, and it still hasn't gotten a single congressional hearing
– Helena and Bill's takes on personal risk: how they each shop for produce
Where to find Bill Marler:
Marler Blog
billmarler.com
Mentioned in this episode:
Food Safety News
Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food (Netflix)
Stay in touch:
Sign up for Helena’s must-read weekly newsletter: Food Fix.
Follow American Dish on Instagram and YouTube.
Send ideas and feedback to info@foodfix.co
Check out Forked, the food politics podcast Helena co-hosts with the Food & Environment Reporting Network.
Credits: This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz. Original music by David Bottemiller.
