Dear President-Elect Obama,

We’ve been saving this letter until we got closer to the inauguration because, with the selection of cabinet members and press conferences, we know you’ve been very busy lately and we didn’t want this note to get lost in the shuffle. Now that we’re less than a month from your first, history-making day as president, let’s get started. First off, we’d like to again say congratulations—the nation really believes in you. Good luck on your first hundred days in the White House.

Now let’s get to the meat of the matter, because, as you already seem to know, you’ve got a lot of work to do. We at KeepOurFoodSafe.org and our readers would like to let you know that you’ve got a big problem you have to solve, and in a word, it’s food.

Over the past several years, we’ve seen a growing number of farm animal welfare challenges and food safety crises. Within the past year alone, we experienced the largest U.S. recall of beef products in American history. Not since the 1960s have Americans been as concerned about their food as they are today. After two Chinese melamine crises in the past two years—first in pet food and then in milk powder and eggs—consumers are deeply worried about imported food stuffs and how they are inspected. While many organizations have been calling for years for a reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies to create a single, centralized food inspection authority, it now falls on your shoulders to make that happen. And it must happen if you’re to be successful in keeping our nation’s food supply safe.

We’d also ask you to take actions to solve the growing shortage of food supply and public health veterinarians. No other profession plays a more crucial role in food safety than veterinarians, and we seem to be running out of them. Currently, dozens of rural, agricultural counties are without a single large-animal veterinarian to treat their livestock and chickens. A recent study forecasts that this shortage will only get worse; the demand for farm veterinarians is projected to increase by 12 to 13 percent annually while the availability of those veterinarians will likely decrease by 4 to 5 percent every year.

There are several proposed federal programs that would address this growing shortage of veterinarians, including two competitive grant programs—the School of Veterinary Medicine Grant Program and the Agricultural Biosecurity Grant Program—that would fund expansions at veterinary colleges to increase their output of public health veterinarians and another—the National Veterinary Medical Service Act(NVMSA)—that would repay the college loans of young veterinarians who choose to work in underserved geographic and professional areas of veterinary medicine. These programs have been authorized by Congress, but need to be funded adequately VPHWEA still awaits the approval of Congress. These programs need to become a reality if we stand a chance of turning the tide.

To make the situation even worse, veterinarians will soon have fewer tools to keep our food supply safe unless you take action. The Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) is expected to close this year due to lack of funding. FARAD offers veterinarians information about the amount of time that drugs, toxins and other contaminants require to be metabolized by farm animals before the animal or animal product like milk is safe for Americans to consume. Obviously, if FARAD closes down, veterinarians will lose a resource that helps them keep Americans safe from contaminated meats. It’s not an expensive program ($2.5 million a year); funding must be found to save FARAD.

There is, of course, more that needs to be done to bolster America’s food safety systems and ensure the quality and safety of our food supplies going forward. We’ll keep you posted on those challenges as they arise. But we are confident that, with your help and support, the solutions we’ve listed in this letter will help us begin to address this critical issue. We at KeepYourFoodSafe.org wish you well. The country needs your leadership.

Sincerely,

KeepOurFoodSafe.org

Alright, folks, it's podcast time again! Now available on our 'Chew on This' iTunes channel and online is the latest food safety podcast. This one we're calling "Hello, Dolly!" and it's about the cloning of livestock and the various food safety issues surrounding the topic.

The science of cloning livestock has evolved rapidly over the past decade, so much that the method is now a viable solution for producing healthy and strong members of food animal families. In the new Chew on This podcast, Dr. Barbara Glenn, Managing Director for Animal Biotechnology at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), discusses whether food from cloned animals is safe to eat and if you should expect to see it at the local supermarket in the near future.

Make sure you return here every couple of weeks for new podcast. If you have ideas for topics we should explore in 'Chew on This,' please share them in the comment section below.

Listen to the new podcast.

We've just uploaded a new podcast as part of our 'Chew on This' food safety podcast series. The latest installment of of 'Chew on This' is The Scoop on Raw Milk.

A lot of people are talking about “raw milk” these days and asking questions about unpasteurized dairy products. Are they safe? Are they healthy?In the new Chew on This podcast, Dr. Raymond Sweeney, Chief Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, discusses the importance of pasteurization and gives us the scoop on “raw milk.

And for those of you who want more background material on "Raw Milk," check out what we wrote about it way back in August.

Just a reminder: new 'Chew on This' podcasts will be released around the beginning and middle of every month. Check back here regularly to make sure you haven't missed anything. We've got a lot hot topics to cover and a lot of experts lined up to talk about them. If you have suggestions for future 'Chew on This' topics, feel free to drop us a line in the comment section below.

Listen to the new podcast now.

Lately, it seems like melamine contamination has been in the headlines more than celebrities. But the government has publically assured the American people that measures are now being taken by both the United States and China to eliminate the contaminant’s presence in our food. In response to the recent melamine discoveries, the United States will hold Chinese imports containing milk until tests prove they have not been contaminated with melamine.

Remember, melamine is a chemical added to products to increase the test results for nitrogen content so that, when tested, the food appears to have adequate or high levels of protein. Melamine was first detected in pet food in 2007, and more recently, it was found in infant formula after more than 50,000 Chinese infants were sickened. In just the past few days, melamine traces have been found in infant formula in the U.S., although the FDA says that the trace amounts found are too small to cause concern for risk and that it does not recommend switching infant formulas. Traces of melamine have also been found in milk, eggs and fish food, prompting the FDA to issue an alert. As a result, Chinese products containing milk or milk powder will be stopped at our borders and held until the manufacturer or importer has proven the product is free of contamination.

While the U.S. imports less than 1 percent of its dairy products from China, that country is one of the leading producers of protein shakes and powders, as well as dietary supplements -- many of which are made with powdered milk.

Steps are being taken by both the United States and China to improve the food safety and inspection process for imports. Recently, the FDA announced the opening of three offices in China, located in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. These offices, the first FDA offices located outside the U.S., will attempt to regulate American-bound food from the source by pre-certifying and inspecting the products from Chinese manufacturers. Additionally, the FDA offices will attempt to identify in-country laboratories that can be trained and trusted to certify shipments to the United States.

The Chinese government is also calling for action to improve their food safety measures. Recently, the government announced that new food safety standards for the dairy and agriculture industry will be issued next October, ultimately aiming to create a mass-producing, high quality dairy industry.

This is not the first time the Chinese government has attempted to clean up their agriculture and dairy industry. While melamine was banned as an animal feed additive by the Chinese government immediately following the pet food scare in 2007, it was recently discovered that many manufacturers were still producing and using the substance in animal feed and products for human consumption.

Access issues regarding safety disputes with Chinese food and drug suppliers and manufacturers have also been a problem for U.S. inspectors. However, according to the U.S. Secretary of Health, this is slowly improving.

Hopefully, by establishing an international presence, the FDA will be even more effective in regulating imported goods from China -- and also help increase information shared between suppliers and manufacturers -- benefiting both American and Chinese consumers.