March 4, 1998

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN FOOD SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT

2:03 P.M. EST

 
                           THE WHITE HOUSE
 
                    Office of the Press Secretary
 
________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                              March 4, 1998
 
 
 
                      REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                     IN FOOD SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT
 
                         The Roosevelt Room
 
2:03 P.M. EST
 
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much for the terrific
remarks.  Let me -- first I want to move Senator Mikulski's box.
(Laughter.)
 
     SENATOR MIKULSKI:  I don't want it to be a public health
hazard.  (Laughter.)
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Put it on some of those little germs.
(Laughter.)
 
     Thank you, Senator Mikulski, Senator Kennedy,
Congresswoman Eshoo, Congresswoman Millender-McDonald; and,
Congressman Pallone, thank you, sir.  I'd also like to thank
Secretary Shalala, Secretary Glickman, and Ambassador Barshefsky for
the work they have done, and the Vice President for the work he has
done on this issue over the last, now, more than five years.
 
     Last night I went to New York to the celebration of Time
Magazine's 75th anniversary, and a number of us were asked to do
portraits of heroic figures of the 20th century.  I talked last night
about Franklin Roosevelt, and we're in the Roosevelt Room here.  But
today I'm thinking more of Theodore Roosevelt, for it was Theodore
Roosevelt at the beginning of this century who made an unprecedented
national commitment for that time to protect America's families from
unsafe food.
 
     It was at the dawn of the Industrial Age, when Americans
were moving from farm to city, for the first time buying their food
from other people instead of growing it themselves.  Roosevelt
ensured that for that time the rules we had made our food as safe as
we could make it.  President Roosevelt set a high standard nearly,
now, a century ago.  It has been a personal commitment of mine and of
this administration to update that standard for the 21st century.  As
the world changes, new challenges arise, it takes new methods to do
the old job right.
 
     The Vice President has told you about some things our
administration has done to modernize food safety, to keep our food
supply the safest in the world.  I was literally stunned when I came
here to find out that we were inspecting meat in the United States in
the same way we had inspected it since 1910 -- and in the same way
that dogs inspect it today, by smelling it and touching it.  We're
doing a little better now.  (Laughter.)
 
     But as has been made painfully apparent today by the
remarks of our two members of Congress and by you, ma'am, there is
still a lot we still have to do to meet the challenges to food safety
posed by new patterns of trade and commerce in food.
 
     It wasn't long ago that you could walk to the produce
section of a grocery store, look around, and find no more than a
dozen items that would be there all year round.  Today, thanks to
this global food market, it's not uncommon to find up to 400
varieties, all most all of them year round.  You can get summer
squash in the chill of winter and winter squash in the heat of summer
now.  And the farmer who grows these vegetables most likely no longer
lives down the road from you.  He might live across the ocean or on
the other side of the world.
 
     It's more important than ever under these circumstances,
now that we're getting the benefits of these new patterns, which are
manifold -- it's more important than ever that the food we eat be
inspected and protected, from orchard to fruit basket, from farm to
table, wherever the orchard or the farm may be.  And when families
join us -- and millions and millions of Americans are joining us --
as they walk through the produce section, we know that none of them
should have to worry about where the food comes from or whether it's
safe.
 
     Food safety really is part of the basic contract now
between the consumers of our country and their government.  Any food
that doesn't meet clear and strict standards should not come into the
United States.  It's that simple.
 
     Last fall, I announced a new initiative to ensure that
fruits and vegetables coming from abroad are as safe as those grown
here at home, and to halt at the border or the dock any food that
fails to meet those standards.  I directed the Secretaries of Health
and Human Services and Agriculture to report on our progress in
improving food safety at home and abroad.  This is their report;
they've just given it to me before we came in here.  It is a good and
thorough one.  It underscores my belief that while we have done a
lot, more must be done and we need the help of Congress to do more.
 
     The next important step to protect America's families
from food-borne illnesses requires Congress to enact the bill
introduced by Senator Mikulski, Senator Kennedy, and others in the
Senate, by Representatives Eshoo, Pallone, and others in the House.
This is not a political issue.  It's not a Democratic or a Republican
issue.  It is simply an issue whose time has come.  We are getting
all the benefits of global agriculture.  We have to rise to the
challenges of the same trends.  By giving the FDA the tools and the
technology it needs, the legislation will give Americans the extra
protection they deserve.
 
     At the beginning of the century, Theodore Roosevelt
recognized that new challenges demand new government -- in this case,
a government that demands responsibility from industry and producers,
but also provides clearer, stricter standards of safety and the means
to enforce them.  Our families enjoy the greatest bounty and variety
of food in the world.  We have to ensure that it will also be the
safest food in the world.
 
     The 21st century will be interesting for many reasons.
Among them will be the increasing variety of food from all over the
world that all kinds of Americans will be able to buy in their
neighborhood stores.  It will be one more way that people, I hope,
will have a more enjoyable life in the next century.  It will only
happen if the food is safe and people know it's safe so they're not
worried when they shop.
 
     Again, I want to join the Vice President, if I might in
closing, in thanking the Senate for passing the bill yesterday to
reduce the standard of drunk driving to .08.  I think it's very
important, it will save hundreds of lives a year.  I hope the House
will follow suit and I hope that's an indication that these kind of
public safety issues will be high on the agenda of Congress and that
the bill that our members who are here today are pushing so hard will
find a speedy and positive reception in the Congress.
 
     Thank you very much.  (Applause.)
 
 
 
 
             END                          2:10 P.M. EST
 
 

This is a mirror of the White House press release, March 4, 1998, from the <http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/html/briefroom.html> White House Briefing Room.

Additional information on the initiative to ensure the safety of imported and domestic fruits and vegetables.