From an Op-ed on the Hill this week.  Here is an excerpt:

This week the CDC reported that at least 47 people were stricken with Salmonella, with one death, likely linked to papayas imported from Mexico. In the summer of 2016 came reports of hepatitis A tainted scallops sickening 292 in Hawaii. In that outbreak two died of liver failure complications. And, also in 2016, 143 people, mostly in Virginia, were also stricken with hepatitis A. This time the culprit was hepatitis A-tainted strawberries imported from Egypt.

While most food we consume is still produced in the United States, we rely on imports for some of our most nutritionally important but more risky commodities. And, imported food is increasingly taking a larger “bite” out of our food consumption. We now import over 90 percent of our seafood, 50 percent of our fresh fruit and 20 percent of our vegetables. Canada, Mexico, China and India are our top food trading partners. In 2014, we imported nearly $50 billion of food from just those four countries. Imports from all countries have increased, and that is especially true for China and India.

In 2011, President Obama signed into law the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), one of the few, and perhaps the last, bi-partisan pieces of legislation. A large coalition of food industry groups and consumers agreed that increased scrutiny of imported food was good for the health and confidence of consumers and the economic well-being of the U.S. food and agriculture industries, which were competing in a global economy.

Continue reading…..