Food Safety and the Food Animal Veterinarian

What You Need to Know

Abstract

In a world of few certainties, one thing remains as a given. The food safety concerns of consumers, reflected in and fired by the media will not go away. No amount of science education and appropriate communication will blunt the contentions of consumer activist groups and the knee jerk, emotional reactions of state legislatures and our Congress. Example after example bears this out; Alar, DES, cranberries, sulfa in milk and hormones in beef. One has only to review the organic food section of the 1990 Farm Bill to recognize that the general public as expressed through the Congress wants its food supply to be free from chemical residues. A portion of the public is willing to pay more for food that is thought to be free of residues and/or grown naturally. This coalition of consumer activists, environmentalists, and natural food groups possesses sufficient power and appeal to ensure passage of organic labelling and production standards. The concerns about drug residues will not go away. We can't wish it away: we can't legislate it away: we can't educate it away.