The coronavirus pandemic, which has disrupted food supplies and heightened food insecurity, should be the impetus for unified oversight of the food system, now splintered among dozens of regulatory agencies, said an “urgent call” for action from groups at the Harvard and Vermont law schools on Thursday. “The next administration should create a national food strategy to address the growing crises facing the U.S. food system,” said the report.
The overhaul would require identifying a lead office or agency to draft and implement the strategy, and an interagency working group to coordinate the work and communicate with stakeholders. To succeed, the strategy would have to be led by an individual official or a board “that can provide effective and decisive oversight to the process” and can compel agencies to comply with the plan, said the report, titled “The Urgent Call for a U.S. National Food Strategy.”
“Covid-19 caused massive food supply chain disruption, illness and safety issues for food system workers, and a drastic rise in food insecurity but the complexity of the food system and its wide-reaching effects have stymied unilateral solutions,” said the report. The authors compared the pandemic’s impact on the nation to other crises that have sparked vigorous federal response.
Canada and Britain have written national food strategies in the past couple of years.
A welter of federal agencies regulate food production and sales. For example, the USDA oversees meat safety, while the FDA is in charge of fruits, vegetables, and processed foods. The Commerce Department has jurisdiction over fisheries. The EPA has jurisdiction over pesticide use and shares authority with the FDA and the USDA over GE crops. State, local, and tribal governments also have food safety offices.
The report, issued by the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at the Vermont Law School and the Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School, is available here.