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Bob Weeks began his publishing career in the early 1970's and served in several different capacities with Bill Communications and Freed Crown Lee Publishing before becoming Publisher of Dairy Foods and Prepared Foods magazines at Gorman Publishing. In 1991 he set out on his own, establishing Weeks Publishing Company with the successful launch of Food Product Design Magazine which subsequently became and remains today the preeminent food development and R&D focused publication/information source. Bob continued as Publisher of Food Product Design as well as Culinology magazine after being acquired by Phoenix-based Virgo Publishing LLC. in 2005. His 23 years in food publishing have established Bob as one of the foremost thought leaders in the food industry.

06/03/2009

Big Brother Waxman

It is possible that before the July 4th Congressional Recess the latest version of The Food Safety Enhancement Act could very well be in consideration before the full House of Representatives. Engineered by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, with assistance from Reps. Dingell, Pallone, Stupak, DeGette and Sutton, the now-revised bill, if passed, would burden the food industry with a $1,000 per facility registration fee, new requirements for "cradle to grave" electronic records on all food and food ingredients, and new labeling requirements on country of origin for all ingredients. Of course, the cost of all of the above items is to be borne by the food industry, and ultimately passed on to the already overburdened consumer public in increased cost of foods.
While these items are reason enough to strongly oppose this legislation, perhaps the strongest reason that most industry organizations are actively lobbying against its passage is the obvious conflict of interest inherent in asking or requiring an industry to fund its own government inspections. Will we ever learn?
Let's hope some further reflection on these issues will result in a more industry-friendly,  and more fair, final version of Big Brother Waxman's vision of the future.

 

Comments

1

Ed 08/04/2009 01:21

I agree with you Bob about the importance of being industry friendly. But I also realize that our government leaders have a balancing act to safeguard the consumer in a cost-effective way since there are always a few business people who cut corners and cause additional government scrutiny and oversight.
2

DominicT 06/11/2009 12:17

In these times of recession, it is important for governments to be more industry friendly, after all that is where the real growth is
3

domjoel 06/10/2009 19:54

Exactly! What's the point of paying the government to inspect your own facility. That is already the government's responsibility!
4

suja tha 06/04/2009 04:18

I love that you blogged about this!


suja
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