Groundbreaking Conference Next Friday Analyzes Revolutionary Food Whistleblower Protections

The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is excited to announce its upcoming conference, Employee Rights and the Food Safety Modernization Act,
which will analyze the far-reaching implications of new whistleblower
protections for food industry workers, and the law's overall impact on
food safety. Launched by GAP's Food Integrity Campaign (FIC) and
co-hosted with the American University Washington College of Law (WCL),
this all-day seminar will be held in Washington, D.C. on February 11 at
WCL.

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law by President
Obama in early January, establishes the first-ever private sector
whistleblower protections enacted specifically for the food industry. By
providing food industry whistleblowers with the necessary rights to
safely speak out about violations involved with food processing,
distribution, labeling, importation, and many more aspects of the food
chain, these protections will help make America's food safer for
consumers -- stopping outbreaks before they start.

"This is a sea change for the food industry," stated GAP Food Integrity
Campaign director Amanda Hitt. "The new law provides monumental
reforms, and we're going to spotlight how the whistleblower provision is
a huge step for private sector employees and its ability to protect
consumers. Giving industry workers a safe channel to report bad
practices is paramount to safeguarding public health."

The
conference features high-profile food industry whistleblowers and
prominent critics of food industry practices. Participants include:

• Keynote speaker Bill Marler, noted national expert in foodborne illness litigation, who has represented countless victims of major outbreaks.
• Kit Foshee,
  former Corporate Quality Assurance Manager at the nation's leading
  producer of lean boneless beef, Beef Products, Inc (BPI). Foshee was
  fired for refusing to participate in his company's knowing
  misrepresentation of microbial data to the USDA and FDA, and false
  claims made to customers about product safety. Foshee proved that BPI
  was knowingly overstating the safety benefits regarding its ammonia-beef
  treatment process. BPI meat is included in 80 percent of the hamburgers
  consumed in the United States, including at fast-food restaurants and
  the national school lunch program.
• Former Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) assistant plant manager Kenneth Kendrick repeatedly
  reported to the Texas Department of Health incidences of rat
  infestation at his plant, and animal droppings falling into product, and
  a roof leak that allowed rainwater contaminated with bird feces to drip
  onto peanuts. All of this happened before the massive
  Salmonella outbreak of 2009. Although the widespread Salmonella
  contamination was traced to PCA's Georgia plant, it was Kendrick's
  whistleblowing on Good Morning America that belied the company's defense that the batch of peanut butter from the Georgia plant was an unexpected and isolated event.
• Other panelists will include Lewis Grossman, a co-author of the seminal legal text on the subject, Food and Drug Law; Caroline Smith-DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a principal architect of the FSMA; GAP Legal Director Tom Devine,
  a leader in the whistleblower community for over 30 years, and many
  more representatives from prominent national food safety nonprofit
  organizations that focus on labor and consumer protections, including:
  Food & Water Watch, Union of Concerned Scientists, United Food and
  Commercial Workers International Union, Public Health Law Network,
  Farmworker Justice, and several more.

For more information and updates to the conference schedule, visit the conference page on FIC's website here: https://foodwhistleblower.org/learn-more/fic-conference-2011

It should be noted that the new protections cover all private food industry workers who report any food violations enforced by the FDA.
However, the protections generally do not extend to employees who
report violations of USDA regulations, which cover the meat and poultry
industries.

"These FDA protections serve as a model whistleblower provision for
other areas where workers still lack safeguards for speaking up," said
Hitt. "Private sector workers defending USDA food safety laws as well as
federal employees can still be fired for doing the right thing."

Devine will be leading a conference workshop, Whistleblower Law 101,
to address actions that workers can take in the face of retaliation for
attempting to report food violations enforced by the FDA.

All panelists will be available to speak with the media during and in
the days prior to the event. All attending guests must register at WCL's
website (https://www.wcl.american.edu/secle/cle_form.cfm), but journalists can register by emailing GAP Communications Director Dylan Blaylock at dylanb@whistleblower.org.

FIC's mission is to enhance overall food integrity
by facilitating truth-telling. FIC accomplishes this mission by
strategically working to alter the relationship of power between the
food industry and consumers; protecting the rights of those who speak
out against the practices that compromise food integrity; and empowering
industry whistleblowers and citizen activists. More than just food
safety, food integrity implies a global perspective of food that is
produced in ways consistent with community values, principles, and
beliefs - from soil to plate.