Opinions

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Oct 26, 2012

PTA President to Parents: Support the New School Meals

In a new opinion editorial in Education Week, Betsy Landers, National PTA President, comments on the importance of parental support for the new school lunches.

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School Food
Dec 22, 2012

''Prevention Matters More Than Peanuts''

An opinion editorial by Sandra Eskin, director of the Food Safety Campaign at the Pew Health Group, about the Food Safety Modernization Act and prevention of foodborne illness.

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Food Safety
Aug 31, 2012

''President Fumbles on Food-Safety Law''

"Twenty months after President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act, the landmark legislation appears to have suffered the same fate as another important measure: the Physician Payment Sunshine Act. Both historic laws have yet to become a reality because the Obama administration hasn't completed the work of turning the laws' language into practical regulations, then issuing that guidance to the public."

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Food Safety
May 8, 2009

''Piggish Capitalism Endangers Us All''

"Even if you don't dig on swine, it has become impossible to avoid them."

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Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Apr 8, 2013

''Pew Report Shows Flaw in Tracing Food-Safety Lapses

"Twenty-two weeks. That’s how long it took federal health officials to determine the contaminated food source after the first person was infected in a 2011 outbreak of salmonella that swept across 34 states, sickened 136 people and led to one of the largest national recalls of ground turkey."

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Food Safety
Apr 28, 2009

''Pew Featured on Nightline - ABC News''

"Washington, D.C. - Robert Martin, senior officer with the Pew Environment Group, discusses the two main findings from the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production's report Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America."

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Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Apr 3, 2010

''Pearls before swine: It's time to cut the use of antibiotics in farm animals''

"Everybody knows that it is possible to have too much of a good thing -- and that is true also of antibiotic drugs, the great lifesavers of modern medicine."

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Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Mar 15, 2009

''Pathogens in Our Pork''

"We don't add antibiotics to baby food and Cocoa Puffs so that children get fewer ear infections. That's because we understand that the overuse of antibiotics is already creating 'superbugs' resistant to medication."

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Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
May 6, 2013

''Overused Antibiotics are Becoming Ineffective''

"As a nation, we need to exercise greater care with our use of antibiotics, in both humans and animals, so that these medications remain effective in treating serious bacterial infections."

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Antibiotic Innovation, Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Aug 6, 2011

''Our View: Food safety program cuts mindless, shortsighted''

"For the last month we have heard more than we needed to know about the nation's debt, and our government's inability to bring spending under control."

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Food Hazards
Jul 12, 2010

''Our view on food safety: To protect humans, curb antibiotic use in animals''

"Antibiotics are modern wonder drugs, but their weakness is that they can gradually put themselves out of business."

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Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Mar 11, 2009

''Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health''

"The late Tom Anderson, the family doctor in this little farm town in northwestern Indiana, at first was puzzled, then frightened."

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Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Mar 4, 2013

''Our Antibiotics Are Less Effective; Routine Use in Farming is Cited''

"The vast majority of antibiotics developed to treat people are given to the animals people eat. Farmers add low doses to feed and water to prevent disease in crowded livestock facilities. The drugs also promote growth. A bigger cow, pig, turkey or chicken translates into more money for producers. How does this widespread use in animals affect humans? It is killing us, a growing number of scientists say."

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Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Jan 11, 2013

''Ounces of Prevention: Health Impact Assessments Can Help Improve Public Policy, Health Outcomes''


How important are health impact assessments in improving public policy? Aaron Wernham, Project Director for Pew's Health Impact Project, says HIAs have "already shown promise as a way to prevent illness and, ultimately, save money." Read Wernham's opinion piece in the Institute of Medicine's Learning Health System Commentary Series.

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May 22, 2012

''Opinion: OMB should release new food safety rules''

"Six months ago, the Food and Drug Administration met the deadline set by Congress to complete a set of proposed rules for implementing the landmark Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010. It submitted those proposals to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. They haven't been seen or heard of since."

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Food Hazards
May 30, 2006

''On Foster Care: Why Foster Care Reform Must Happen''

"'Let me stay in a home with loving parents that care for me,' writes Antoinette, age 14, in her poem, "To the Judge." "I want to be somewhere where I can live life as a child, in a better situation. Can you find a home that is truly good and where the people will help me?"In California, we are responsible for 8

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Health Topics
Jul 1, 2012

''Next steps to thwart 'superbugs'''

"An old saying goes, you don't miss your water till your well runs dry. When it comes to antibiotics, we're not only running out of water but there are no rain clouds on the horizon. The overuse and underdevelopment of these drugs have brought us close to the brink of a world without cures for deadly infections."

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Drug Manufacturing and Distribution, Antibiotic Innovation, Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Oct 4, 2012

''New Food Safety Rules Need to Be Implemented''

Debbie Frederick remembers her father, who passed away from a foodborne illness, as well as millions of Americans who suffer from preventable foodborne illnesses and the thousands who will die each year. She asks that proper protections be put in place to ensure the food on their dinner tables is safe to eat.

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Food Safety
Jan 6, 2012

''Natural Law''

"No act of Congress, no executive edict, no environmental permit or court ruling, has the power to overturn the laws of nature. Two recent news items illustrate why this matters."

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Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Nov 5, 2011

''N.Y. has to really study gas drilling impact''

"When Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would let science and health concerns drive his decision about issuing permits for hydraulic fracturing natural gas wells, we were encouraged. When we read the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, however, that encouragement evaporated."

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Health Impact Assessment
Nov 19, 2012

Mr. President: Pardon the Turkey, Not Industrial Animal Agriculture

In just a few days, Americans will prepare and serve about 45 million turkeys. This bounty is worthy of our thanks, but the conditions in which most of these birds were raised are not.

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Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Mar 26, 2013

Mr. President: Make Imported Food Safe

The Obama administration has taken an important step by releasing the draft rules central to implementing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), but it must do more. Important draft regulations focused on the safety of imported foods are still awaiting release. These rules are especially important since about two-thirds of fruits and vegetables and 80 percent of seafood consumed in the United States come from abroad.

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Food Safety
Jun 26, 2013

''Move Forward on Medical Device Tracking''

'You may not yet depend on a pacemaker, defibrillator, stent, joint implant or any of the other life-­changing, potentially lifesaving products made by the medical device industry. But chances are you or a family member will be a patient some day.  That’s why it isn’t just the medical device industry that has a stake in the timely rollout of a long-overdue national system to better track the safety and whereabouts of devices once they’re on the market or in use."

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Drugs and Devices at the FDA
Jul 2, 2012

''Meat and ‘superbugs’''

"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in 1977 that it would begin prohibiting the use of some anti­biotics in agriculture, but Congress objected and nothing happened. Since then, the need for restraint has grown. The wonder drugs of the 20th century have been so widely used that germs are becoming resistant to them, giving rise to “superbugs,” bacteria that are immune to one or more antibiotics. Tens of thousands of people die every year from hospital-acquired infections, the vast majority of which result from such resistant bacteria."

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Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
May 9, 2012

''Mad Cow Is Reason to Change Rules, Not Swear Off Beef''

"The U.S. needs a more efficient overall inspection regimen. Of the 35 million cattle slaughtered each year, only 40,000 -- much less than 0.1 percent -- are tested."

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Food Hazards