Washington Insider-- Monday

By DTN's Washington Insider

Here's a quick monitor of Washington farm and trade policy issues from DTN's well-placed observer.

Congressional Republicans Set to Boot CBO Chief

Incoming Republican leaders in Congress say they will not be reappointing Doug Elmendorf to another term as head of the Congressional Budget Office. The move comes after a campaign from conservative lawmakers who want to change the way CBO calculates the costs of government. The office provides nonpartisan budget analysis for members of Congress that includes estimates of the cost of legislation.

What congressional Republicans are looking for is a CBO director who will introduce so-called dynamic scoring to the agency's analyses. Dynamic scoring is the idea that policy changes can induce significant macroeconomic effects, such as tax cuts partially paying for themselves. Democrats say the method is unproven and relies on too many assumptions.

However, changing to dynamic scoring will allow Republicans to take policy actions that were difficult to justify under CBO's current operating procedures, so Elmendorf will be shown the door early next year.

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China to Toughen Penalties for Food Manufactures Who Violate Safe Food Practices

Chinese government officials have proposed a new twist in the country's food safety laws that would allow for "administrative detention" for food manufacturers who produce contaminated products. According to news reports from China, administrative detention refers to jail time that is imposed by the police without any court proceedings.

The proposal under consideration would allow administrative detention of between five and 15 days for offenders who add inedible substances to foods or who add expired material or additives to their products. Distributors would be exempt from punishment if they can show that they followed proper procedures and were unaware of suppliers' food production practices.

This exemption is much to be desired by representatives of the many U.S. food outlets in China, such as McDonald's and KFC, who rely on Chinese suppliers for most, if not all, of their meat and other food products. Last summer, both fast food chains saw a temporary loss of sales when one of their suppliers, Shanghai Husi Food Co. Ltd, was found using reprocessed expired meat in its products.

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Washington Insider: Serious Talk About Raw Milk

There is a deep conviction among many foodies that somehow the national concerns and regulations governing raw milk are there simply to prevent their access to a beneficial food product. Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confronted such ideas with yet another report that links growing numbers of disease outbreaks to the increased legalization of raw milk sales.

According to the study, the number of U.S. outbreaks caused by nonpasteurized milk increased from 30 during 2007-09 to 51 during 2010-12.

Some 77% of the outbreaks, were due to the Campylobacter bacterium, and most of the offending product, 81%, was purchased in states where raw milk sales are legal, CDC reports. Retail sales of raw milk are now legal in 30 states.

"Even in states in which sale of nonpasteurized milk is illegal, milk can often be obtained through other means. For example, some states allow cow-share or herd-share agreements, in which buyers pay farmers a fee for the care of a cow in exchange for a percentage of the milk produced," says the study.

Michigan was the first state to require that dairy products be pasteurized, long ago in 1948. However, it wasn't until 1987 that the Food and Drug Administration banned the interstate sale or distribution of nonpasteurized milk. This year, federal legislation was introduced to lift the ban on raw milk sales in interstate commerce.

Laws regulating the sale of intrastate milk are set by each individual state, and current state laws vary from complete bans to permitting retail sales. To get around the regulations in states that do not allow retail sales of raw milk, some farms are selling packaged pet milk, according to Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates for universal access to raw milk.

"There is no law against humans consuming animal food," says Morell, who is not in favor of producers skirting the regulations. "Raw milk sales should be regulated," she says. "I'm an advocate for legalization in all states."

Fallon Morell also argues that a new technology, called Petrifilm, allows raw milk to be tested for coliforms prior to sale, making the tested raw milk as safe as pasteurized milk. There is broad disagreement with this view, experts say.

The CDC study reviewed outbreaks (defined as two or more people becoming ill due to consumption of raw milk) over the six-year period, then compared its findings with data on the legal status of nonpasteurized milk sales in each state provided by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. Nearly half of the total outbreaks occurred in states that allow on-farm and retail sales of raw milk, and half of those occurred from on-farm sales. Pennsylvania, where sales are legal, had the most outbreaks of any state, 21% of the total.

"The more raw milk that is available to people, the more people become sick; the connection is crystal clear," said Beth Briczinski, vice president for dairy foods and nutrition for the National Milk Producers Federation. Since 2004, eight have legalized raw milk sales. "In the face of these findings, state and federal regulators and legislators must resist pressure from those seeking to make raw milk more accessible. Caving in to their demands will translate into more illnesses, more hospital visits, more state resources spent investigating outbreaks, and more lives harmed from consuming raw milk," Briczinski adds.

The CDC concludes that outbreaks associated with nonpasteurized milk continue to pose a public health challenge. "Legalization of the sale of nonpasteurized milk in additional states would probably lead to more outbreaks and illnesses," the study states. "This possibility is especially concerning for vulnerable populations, who are most susceptible to the pathogens commonly found in nonpasteurized milk," including children, senior citizens, and those with immune-compromising conditions.

Health officials frequently say they are baffled by the arguments used by advocates who urge fewer restrictions on milk, given the evidence that it increases exposure to disease, especially for children. Still, the political pressures to allow increased access to raw milk seem to be growing, and the new report is not expected to reverse that trend.

At the same time, the data indicating that consumption of raw milk is risky seem convincing, along with the new evidence that looser regulations increase that danger. And, new approaches said to make raw milk as safe as the pasteurized products need to be viewed with considerable skepticism, Washington Insider believes.

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(GH/CZ)

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