"Steve" wrote ...
Epidemiologists also warned consumers last week to stay away from some
bottled carrot juice after a Florida woman was paralyzed and three
people in Georgia experienced respiratory failure, apparently due to
botulism poisoning.

Also on Friday, an Iowa company announced that it was recalling 5,200
pounds of ground beef suspected of having E. coli. The government said
no illnesses have been reported from consumption of the beef.

The outbreaks have sparked demands to create a new federal agency in
charge of food safety. Sens. Charles Schumer and
Hillary Rodham Clinton, both New York Democrats, are sponsoring
legislation authored by Sen. Richard Durbin D-Ill., to create the
unified Food Safety Agency.

"This recent outbreak must be a wake-up call to get our food safety
house in order, because right now it's in pure disarray," Schumer said
at his Manhattan office. "We need to have one agency take charge to
ensure the next outbreak isn't far worse."

What they are calling for, and what is described in your own post, is a
single agency that will be responsible for food safety. Have a look at
http://www.foodsafety.gov/~fsg/fsggov.html for a list of the myriad agencies
currently in "control" of food safety in this country. So, contrary to what
your post's subject line indicates, this would *reduce* the number of
agencies involved at the federal level from approximately 15 to one. I know
trhe "new math" has been repuidated of late, but that still seems like a
reduction to me.

My feeling is that like the DHS, this will put responsibility at the feet of
one individual agency. To me, this is not a bad thing. And... this is *not*
in response to any recent outbreak. The bill Durbin introduced is called the
Safe Food Act of 2005. Note that 2005 is generally accepted to be *prior* to
2006, when the e.coli outbreaks have occured.

Dan
....by the way, where'd you cut-n-paste that from?