Grassley questions federal oversight of Iowa egg farms

WDCPIX.COM

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley wants to know if the U.S. Department of Agriculture followed due diligence in its monitoring of two Iowa egg farms now embroiled in a massive national egg recall.

Grassley, an Iowa Republican, sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack Tuesday requesting to know if the agency received complaints and, if so, what process was used to investigate them. He also wants to know what the role of Food Safety Inspection Service was at the farms.

The questions, he indicated, followed media interviews of former workers who claim their complaints were ignored by federal officials that were supposed to be providing oversight of the agricultural operations.

Caleb Weaver, a spokesman for the USDA, told the Associated Press that employees from the agency worked near areas where roughly 7.7 million caged hens laid eggs at the two farms, but their duties involved “grading” the eggs and not seeking out health problems. Weaver also added that employees who performed grading did not recall anyone raising health concerns. The USDA workers were rotated between farms on a regular basis.

The two former employees who have made the allegations, Robert and Deanna Arnold, worked at Iowa egg farms for several years, on and off, between the early 1990s and early 2009, when they left to seek other work. The couple now manage a hog farm near Garrison and raise their own chickens, selling the eggs directly to consumers.

Many of the allegations leveled by the Arnolds were similar to the filthy farm conditions noted by federal officials when inspections of the Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms sites were completed last week. To date, more than half a billion shell eggs tainted with Salmonella have been voluntarily recalled by the companies, and the official number of people believed to have been made ill by the eggs has risen nearly to 1,500, although the unofficial number could be several times that many.

Enforcement of food safety is not a process undertaken by one federal or state agency. Instead, duties related to food safety are scattered between agencies — at least 15 at the federal level. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which only sends inspectors following a problem, is responsible for shell eggs. Once those eggs are cracked, however, the USDA takes on safety for the liquid contents. And eggs are far from the only confusing division of oversight.

Although the FDA implemented new rules governing egg farms in July, it remains unclear if following the new rules would have been sufficient to prevent the Salmonella outbreak.

New regulations that would increase the number and frequency of inspections of all U.S. food producers — as well as split the FDA into two agencies, one that would regulate safety in the food supply and another that would focus on medical devices and drugs — have been stalled in the U.S. Senate for months, languishing under Republican filibuster tactics that require a 60-vote approval to bring the regulations to the floor.

The bill, which was passed by the U.S. House in July 2009, also passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, led by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), in November 2009. According to Bob Barr, a former Republican member of the U.S. House and a 2008 Libertarian presidential candidate (and a native of Iowa for the trivia buffs reading), the bill has languished due to additional language that would at least partially ban bisphenol A, or BPA, which is used to coat the interior of metal cans to prevent rust and bacterial contamination. That language, Barr wrote recently in a Politico guest opinion, stemmed from California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who has subsequently penned her own opinion piece to refute the allegations.

Federal investigators revisited the Wright County Egg sites, one of many pieces within the DeCoster family’s agribusiness interests, last week, but would not provide clear context as to the magnitude of the ongoing investigation. In addition, Austin “Jack” DeCoster, the family patriarch who is well acquainted with state and federal regulators, and Orland Bethel, owner of Hillandale Farms that has previous connections to DeCoster, have been called to provide testimony before a U.S. House panel.

The full text of Grassley’s letter to Vilsack appears below:

The recent egg recalls due to a Salmonella outbreak at Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms in Iowa have troubled consumers and weakened confidence in our nation’s food supply. When Americans visit their local grocery stores, they should be able to trust that the food they are purchasing to feed their family is safe to consume.

Recent media reports indicate that former company employees reported food safety problems they had observed while working at Wright County Egg. While I understand that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authority over shell eggs, has issued the egg recall and is involved in the investigation of the Salmonella outbreak, USDA does have primary jurisdiction over egg product safety and has non-food safety employees located at farms including Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) graders.

In light of the complaints raised by these individuals, please answer following the questions:

1. Did USDA receive complaints from company employees and if so, what was done to investigate these concerns?
2. What were the Food Safety Inspection Service’s (FSIS) responsibilities in relation to these two farms? When was the last FSIS inspection conducted?
3. Is there an established process so that USDA employees (such as AMS graders) or company employees and other individuals can report possible food safety violations to FSIS?
4. Is there an established process for USDA employees to report food safety concerns to the FDA when they fall outside of USDA’s jurisdiction?
5. What is USDA doing to counter deficiencies in food safety communication within the USDA and between the two agencies? How are USDA and FDA coordinating to best address food safety concerns and ensure that food safety problems do not fall through the cracks?

Thank you for your prompt response to this important issue.