The Shutdown: How Government Furloughs Could Affect Our Food

By Ethel Tiersky

Oct 03, 2013

people eatingIt's often quoted as "a pox on both your houses," but, to be precise, in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the dying Mercutio said, "A plague o' both your houses."  Either way, the curse seems a natural response to the government shutdown caused primarily by the two houses of Congress.  If you also partially blame Obama, you need to add a third house, the White House.  Whomever you want to blame, if the partial shutdown drags on and on, it's likely to have a partial adverse effect upon our food supply.

 

Even if there is a temporary compromise on the budget, when we get to the question of raising the debt ceiling in a few weeks, we could be facing another government shutdown. These threats to our food supply and health are receiving much media attention.  Let's investigate the specifics.

 

Our food supply is safeguarded primarily by the FDA and the USDA. The FDA is responsible for overseeing 80% of our food supply. The USDA inspects all meat, poultry, and egg products sold in interstate commerce. The USDA also re-inspects imported meat, poultry, and egg products to be sure they meet U.S. safety standards.

 

As a result of the shutdown, the FDA will be forced to stop most of its food-safety operations including establishment inspection, enforcement activities, monitoring of imported foods, and laboratory research related to public health. (Most of its food inspectors have been classified "nonessential.") The USDA will keep thousands of inspectors checking meat and poultry facilities. However, produce (the major source of outbreaks caused by contaminated food) will not be checked, nor compliance enforced, because this is part of the FDA's domain. 

 

The FDA isn't given enough money to do an adequate number of inspections in the best of times.  With the partial shutdown, the situation is truly worrisome.  According to the Huffington Post, "The Food Safety Modernization Act actually requires U.S. inspectors to check almost 35,000 facilities a year, but funding has not been provided to meet that mandate."  Recently, the FDA has been inspecting about 80 per day. "If the shutdown lasts until October 17, 960 facilities may go without U.S. inspections." (By that date, the debt ceiling must be raised, or the government will run out of money needed to pay its debts.)

 

Eliminating routine food inspections because of government shutdowns is not good, considering the small percentage that are inspected normally. The website Politico points out that, in the 2012 fiscal year, the FDA inspected only about 10,000 of the 167,000 domestic food manufacturers.  Abroad, the agency inspected only 1,300 of the 254,000 food facilities that were registered with the FDA. 

 

Possible negative effects: 

  • ŸFurloughed government employees may have difficulty putting food on the table.  Some families live from paycheck to paycheck, and, if there's no paycheck, there's no money for groceries. 
  • On military bases, commissaries at which members of the armed forces can buy food at lower prices than regular grocery stores charge, are now closed.  Shopping where the rest of us shop will be a bigger expense.
  • Nutritional programs for women, infants, and children could be temporarily discontinued if the shutdown lasts more than a week.  Funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children will be cut off during the shutdown.  The WIC (Women, Infants and Children), run by the USDA, will probably run out of federal money after a week or so and will be able to continue only until the end of October, thanks to state aid.   WIC "helps pregnant women and new moms buy healthy food and provides nutritional information and health care referrals to those who need it," says the Washington Post. The program serves some 9 million people. 
  • ŸThe "Meals on Wheels" program provides meals to people in need. Some pay $7 for the service; for those who can't afford that charge, the food is free.  The program is largely federally subsidized, so the government shutdown may force some programs to start charging the indigent; if the shutdown continues for awhile, it could cause the shutdown of some Meals of Wheels programs.

 

Some good news:

 

 

Source(s):

 

washingtonpost.com "The nine most painful impacts of a government shutdown" 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/01/the-nine-most-painful-consequences-of-a-government-shutdown/

 

abcnews.go.com "DC Businesses Offer Helping Hand to Federal Employees Amid Shutdown"

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dc-businesses-offer-helping-hand-federal-employees-amid/story?id=20436552

 

about.com "The US Food Safety System"

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/consumerawareness/a/The-Us-Food-Safety-System.htm

 

huffingtonpost.com "FDA Food Safety Inspections Suspended During Government Shutdown"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/fda-food-safety-inspections-shutdown_n_4025487.html

 

 
 

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