Unsafe food can lead to illness and death, and disproportionately harms the most vulnerable members of our communities. Government agencies, like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are supposed to protect us from these kinds of dangerous food safety outbreaks.
Unfortunately, in a recent survey conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Iowa State University, hundreds of FDA and USDA employees described a system where corporate interests often stand in the way of government scientists and inspectors' ability to protect our food supply.
This kind of political and corporate inference in federal science has to stop.
Write the FDA and USDA today and ask them to get serious about protecting our health and safety by issuing and implementing strong scientific integrity standards.
Dear [Decision Maker],
I am concerned about the ability of federal government scientists and inspectors to protect our food supply. I am writing to urge you to issue and implement strong scientific integrity standards that would give your scientists and inspectors the tools they need to be most effective and rebuild public faith in your ability to protect us from unsafe food.
Among other things, a comprehensive scientific integrity policy must:
* meaningfully protect whistle-blowers that expose political interference in science;
* clarify scientists' right to effectively share their scientific research and opinions with the press, the public, and their peers;
* institute a transparency policy for meetings with outside entities, including making visitor logs available in real time; and
* give the public more information about how science is used to make decisions.
In September, the Department of Interior issued a similar policy to widespread praise. It's time for you to follow suit.
