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Food safety lab vital
| Tuesday, Oct 10 2006 10:30 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Oct 10 2006 10:34 PM
What is it about lawmakers that replaces common sense with an anti-spending ideology that defies even some of their supporters' wishes?
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There is no better example than Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, who killed a $1 million regional food safety lab at UC Davis. That's $1 million from a $100 billion Agriculture appropriations bill.
How do you spell E.-c-o-l-i, s-p-i-n-a-c-h and l-e-t-t-u-c-e?
Despite events, Doolittle says he made the right decision to block the lab spending due to budget pressures from the war and hurricane disaster costs. Some people also allege that a campaign contributor opposed the lab.
But virtually every expert says that had the lab been operating, the infection that caused fatalities and kidney failures would have been found earlier. Better preventative measures also could be found.
The issue takes on even more urgency with the voluntary recall of lettuce packed by the family-owned Nunes Co. of Salinas following the spinach crisis. President Tom Nunes said the company took the action when it detected E. coli bacteria in irrigation water, even though no contamination was found in the lettuce itself. There are many strains of E. coli, some of which are benign or even helpful.
But Nunes made a critical point in announcing the possibly unneeded recall that reinforced experts' arguments in favor of the lab. Industrial scale processing, packaging and shipping of perishable items often leads to consumer consumption faster than regulatory agencies can react.
The regional food safety labs bring together experts from the federal and state governments, as well as industry, whose work is complementary rather than wasteful competition.
The lab would not have been a duplication of effort. It would have been similar to regional labs in Illinois, Maryland and Mississippi.
There's a notable absence in these regional labs. No such lab is in the West.
Here's another notable absence. None of the other labs specialize in produce and fruit. Gee, what's California famous for? (Hint: "Salad bowl of the nation.")
That is why the California Farm Bureau and the California Grocers Association, among other groups, supported the lab.
There. Let's hope others in Congress can get the money.