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For Immediate Release
June, 16 2014, 02:27pm EDT
Contact:
Kate Fried: (202) 683-4905
Australian Government Letter Supports Food & Water Watch Claims About Privatized Australian Meat Inspection System
Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter
WASHINGTON
"A mere four days after the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch filed a citizen's petition with USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to revoke the equivalency determinations for privatized meat inspection systems for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the head of Australia's meat inspection system sent a letter to FSIS Administrator Alfred Almanza requesting modifications be made to the equivalency determination for the Australian Export Meat Inspection System (AEMIS) - a privatized meat inspection system that FSIS approved in 2011.
"In the June 10, 2014 letter, Greg Read, first assistant secretary of the Food Division for Australia's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), explains that because of the 2013 decision by the European Union not to recognize AEMIS due to the inherent conflict of interest of having company-paid employees perform food safety inspections, DAFF is proposing that in addition to restoring full government inspection in slaughter facilities, it is also advocating the creation of private independent inspection entities that would be paid by the Australian government to perform meat inspections for products that are exported to the EU and the U.S.
"This letter shows how hasty FSIS was to recognize the privatized inspection scheme in Australia, even ignoring the observations of its own auditor who expressed concerns in 2011 about potential conflicts-of-interest just as the Europeans eventually did. However, this letter also shows the great lengths Australian government officials are willing to go to in order to replace government inspection with a new, convoluted private third-party inspection scheme, even though it would be paid for with public dollars.
"Mr. Read should bring back his highly trained and competent government inspectors. Ever since Australia shifted to AEMIS, the number of import rejections of Australian meat shipments to the U.S. has skyrocketed for contaminants such as visible fecal and ingesta contamination. FSIS import inspectors are doing the job that should have done back in Australia before the meat ever leaves the slaughterhouses. Consequently, U.S. taxpayers are shouldering the cost of the inspection failures from an ill-conceived privatized system in Australia. It's time for FSIS to admit its mistake and revoke the equivalency determination for AEMIS and the privatized inspection systems the agency has also approved for Canada and New Zealand that are also exhibiting the same problems.
"FSIS should abandon its efforts to privatize poultry and meat inspection here in the U.S. because it does not work. We urge the House of Representatives to support the DeLauro amendment to the FY 2015 Agriculture Appropriations bill that would prevent FSIS from moving forward with its proposed rule to privatize poultry inspection."
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
(202) 683-2500LATEST NEWS
'Unfit for Office'? Fetterman's Fitness Questioned Amid Reports of Erratic Behavior
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Following reporting about the behavior of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman—including concerns voiced by current and former staff have concerns about the mental wellbeing of the Democratic lawmaker from Pennsylvania—a growing number of political observers are openly questioning his ability to serve in public office.
A story in New York Magazine last week featuring the concern by staffwas followed by new Associated Pressreporting Thursday, which recounted a recent meeting between Fetterman and representatives from a teachers union that went awry when Fetterman began shouting and asking why "everybody is mad at me."
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Fetterman was also the only senate Democrat to fly down to Mar-a-Lago and meet with U.S. President Donald Trump following Trump's victory in 2024.
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To the medical director, Jentleson also detailed that Fetterman had purchased a gun, engaged in a pattern of self isolation, and that he drove his car recklessly to the point that staff would not ride in the car with him.
"Former and current staffers paint a picture of an erratic senator who has become almost impossible to work for and whose mental-health situation is more serious and complicated than previously reported," the magazine reported.
"Jesus," wrote Aaron Regunberg, a progressive policy advocate wrote on social media in response to the reporting," John Fetterman should not be a U.S. Senator."
Jonathan Cohn, another progressive activist, commented on his personal X account that Fetterman was "creating an unsafe environment for his staff and constituents, and that makes him unfit for office."
On Tuesday, speaking to CNN, Fetterman called the article in New York Magazine a "one-source hit piece, and it involved maybe two or three and anonymous disgruntled staffers saying just absolute false things."
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Warren and Wyden also partnered with the chamber's New York Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, for a Wednesday letter to Bisignano, who was confirmed Tuesday with a 53-47 vote along party lines.
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As the letter details:
We have not received responses to the vast majority of our questions. In fact, acting Commissioner Leland Dudek has reportedly instructed staff to not respond to public or congressional inquiries. The limited answers we have received have been unsatisfactory," they continued.
We have also requested information from you directly. Through direct inquires, your hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance, and post-hearing questions for the record, we have sought to determine whether you intend to continue DOGE's disastrous efforts to hollow out the SSA. In response, you repeatedly claimed that, because you were not yet working at SSA, you did not have sufficient information to answer. You made these claims despite the fact that a former SSA employee whistleblower has reported that you have been participating extensively in high-level operational, management, and personnel decisions at SSA.
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As the Trump administration signaled a potential step toward privatizing the U.S. Postal Service with the reported selection of a FedEx board member to serve as postmaster general, new polling on Thursday showed just how strongly the American public would oppose such a move.
The survey by Hart Research Associates and North Star Opinion Research, which was commissioned by the American Postal Workers Union, found that 60% of respondents were opposed to privatizing the postal service, while just 26% were in favor.
The opposition cut across ideological, geographic, and demographic divides, with people in all regions of the country saying they wanted to maintain the USPS as a public service by a margin of at least 29 points—and as many as 40 points in western states.
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The poll was released two months after Wells Fargo presented a five-step plan for privatizing USPS to Wall Street investors, including raising USPS prices by as much as 140%, selling postal real estate to commercial bidders, and imposing mass layoffs on the service's 600,000 employees.
The bank said privatization would lead to the "harvesting," or closing, of neighborhood post offices across the country—something 72% of respondents opposed in Thursday's poll.
Trump ally Elon Musk also said in March that Amtrak and USPS were top targets for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which the president selected him to lead and which has pushed to dismantle numerous government agencies and laid off nearly 300,000 federal employees.
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