The fact that there remains no one in charge of food safety at the
USDA has become a sick sort of joke among food policy types. It’s true
that there is a second in command, Jerold Mande—but he’s a cancer
doctor with no food safety background and, at best, a caretaker. He has
no authority to make policy or initiate reform. Bill Marler’s Food News
website has the latest on the search:

Though the administration continues to look for a candidate, a high-level
USDA
official downplayed the importance of having a Senate-confirmed under
secretary, indicating that USDA leadership has confidence in the
progress FSIS [Food Safety and Inspection Service] is making towards
the President’s Food Safety Working
Group recommendations…

Last June, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack cited conflict-of-interest concerns to
explain the delay in selecting a nominee. Vilsack told the Government
Executive that the administration “has had a hard time finding a candidate who has not engaged in lobbying…”

Lynn Silver, assistant commissioner of the New York City Health
Department’s Bureau of Chronic Disease and Prevention, and Caroline
Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the
Public Interest are rumored to be on top of the administration’s
shortlist.

I’ve confirmed with my own sources that those two are indeed on the
shortlist—and that’s definitely good news. Both would represent a major
improvement over previous potential candidates for the job like meat
industry-funded scientist Michael Osterholm or Pennsylvania’s
(blessedly) former Ag Secretary Dennis “no rBST labeling!” Wolff. And
yet, it’s all left me with an empty feeling. Not to needlessly cast
aspersions on DeWaal Smith or Silver, but I have to say that if this is
victory it may prove an empty one.

Word is that the real head of food safety right now is the FDA’s
Food Safety Advisor Michael Taylor. He has been involved with Team
Obama going back to the transition and is himself a former FSIS leader.
He’s known among progressives more for his status as a former Monsanto
executive than for his food safety reforms while FSIS head—though some
have argued that he made real attempts in the past to improve safety at
slaughterhouses. And his “shadow leadership” of national food safety
might explain the reference in the Food News piece to the President’s
Food Safety Working Group, which Taylor unofficially leads. While you
can game out a scenario where the administration unofficially unifies
food safety under one roof (as many advocates prefer) through the PFSWG
with Taylor as its unofficial head, it may not be enough to ensure
meaningful reform. The main indication we have of the Working Group’s
intentions—its recent “Key Findings” report [PDF]—spent
little time discussing changes to dangerous meat industry practices
like high line speeds and low staffing levels and unionization rates or
to inspection frequency and intensity. Instead it spent lots of time
talking about general improvements to procedures and tracking.