Fundamental reform of the nation's essential yet tradition-bound food safety program requires presidential leadership.

Mr. President, I recommend that you organize a bipartisan effort to design the food safety system of the future and implement it in a way that builds on current strengths but prepares the system for future success. 

Michael Taylor on
modernizing the food safety system

While the U.S. food safety system has many strengths, over the century plus of its existence it has become organizationally fragmented, bound by obsolete statutes, and unable to make the best use of its scarce resources to protect the safety and security of the American food supply.

To meet the persistent challenge of foodborne illness and the new challenges posed by the globalizing food system -- illustrated by increased dependence on imports, the emergence of mad cow disease, and the threat of bioterrorism -- fundamental reform is required.

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This reform should do several things: focus the system more effectively on prevention of foodborne illness; improve accountability across the system for meeting science-based food safety performance standards; establish an integrated food safety strategy and leadership structure; and emphasize risk-based resource allocation.

Michael R. Taylor analyzes and seeks ways to improve U.S. policies and programs that affect agriculture and food security in Africa, and he works with a consortium of universities to develop analytical and decision tools for risk-based food safety priority setting. Taylor, an attorney, was administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service and deputy commissioner for policy at the Food and Drug Administration.

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