Dear Future President,

My name is Payton, I am a senior and spend most of my time at a technical center studying Culinary Arts. I love food, and know the most important questions you can ask when it comes to food are; how it was made, where does it come from, and will is it safe for the people I am making it for. I am writing this letter to ask you to fix something than can be fixed, to prevent what is preventable- foodborne illness is a plague to this country and I believe you can be the one to reduce this problem.

The centers for disease control and prevention estimate “48 million people get sick, 128,00 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne illness.¨ The FDA, the people in charge of making sure these numbers go down are limited in power and they have been for way too long. In 2010 Obama created The Food Safety Modernization Act attempting to give the FDA more powers and create a bigger plan for them but because of lack of support from congress the FDA has not received the funding needed to do the things The Food Safety Modernization Act lists that they should be doing- to protect the american people from foodborne Illness.

One of the goals of the FDA under the Food Safety Modernization act is to begin Inspecting imported food. According to Food Safety News, “Today, an estimated 15 percent of food consumed in the U.S. is imported. A full 50 percent of fresh fruits and 20 percent of fresh vegetables come from other countries, and 80 percent of U.S. seafood is imported.” And This food was never inspected or considered to be inspected before being sold to companies and people in the united states.

Another important impact of the food safety modernization act was it gave them the power to recall which in the past has been a problem because in the past they were restricted from recalling meat products and other big food industry businesses even though their was a great diseases and bacteria in their facilities. They are also under this act given the power to suspend a facility who doesn’t cooperate with them. These are both to very important things because they encourage the companies to do the right thing or suffer the consequences- lost of profit. But more importantly reduces the risk of foodborne illness.

On the same hand The FDA wants to have a huge impact on helping other government agencies both here in the united states and outside of the united states.Which can be vital in limiting the amount of work put on themselves. When everyone is working towards the sames goal- the goal of limiting foodborne illness, it can be achieved.

Please, listen to my words. We cannot achieve anything if not together. I am tired of hearing what illness is sweeping through the nation, and where it came from. We have the people committed to this issue- agencies such as the FDA, FSIS, etc. They just need the funding to keep doing things like inspect facilities, shut down facilities, and train people in different sections of government. So, Please chip in.

Sincerely,

Payton