[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 19 (Monday, May 15, 2000)]
[Pages 1022-1023]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

May 6, 2000

    Good morning. Warm weather has finally taken hold in most of the 
country, and millions of families are now taking weekend picnics and 
hosting backyard barbecues. Today I want to speak with you about the 
foods we serve at these gatherings and how we can make them even safer 
than they already are.
    Our food supply is the most bountiful in the world. And for 7 years 
now, our administration has been committed to making it the safest in 
the world. We've improved dramatically the Nation's inspection system 
for meat, poultry, and seafood. We've added new safeguards to protect 
families from unsafe imported foods. We've established a sophisticated 
early warning system that uses DNA fingerprinting techniques to detect 
and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness. From farm to table, we've 
made great strides to ensure the safety of our food supply. But 
outbreaks of food-related illnesses are still far too prevalent. In 
fact, millions of Americans get sick from eating contaminated food each 
year.

    One threat we must address immediately comes from a foodborne 
pathogen called Listeria, which has been the cause of recent recalls of 
hot dogs and luncheon meats and several deadly outbreaks of disease. The 
most famous case emerged a year and a half ago, when Listeria killed 21 
people and sickened 100 others, all of whom had eaten contaminated meat 
from a single plant. It was the Nation's most deadly food safety 
epidemic in 15 years.

    Fortunately, Listeria is less common than salmonella, E. coli, and 
other foodborne bacteria, but unfortunately, it is far more dangerous. A 
staggering 20 percent of Listeria infections result in death. As with 
other food-borne bacteria, it's rarely healthy adults who come down with 
Listeria infections. Instead, it's the most vulnerable among us: 
infants, the elderly, pregnant women, and those whose immune systems 
have been weakened by chemotherapy or AIDS.

    While our administration has already taken a number of important 
steps to reduce the threat of Listeria, it's clear we must do more to 
protect Americans from this deadly pathogen. So today I'm directing the 
Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to prepare an 
aggressive new strategy to significantly reduce the risk of illness from 
Listeria. As part of this strategy, we will propose new regulations to 
require scientific

[[Page 1023]]

approaches, such as systematic testing for Listeria at food-processing 
plants, not just random checks. This and other measures will allow us to 
cut in half the number of Listeria-related illnesses over the next 5 
years and save well over 1,000 lives.
    Today I call on the food industry to work with us as we develop our 
new Listeria strategy. And I call on Congress to help us strengthen food 
safety across the board. Just this week, unfortunately, the Congress 
took a major step backward by refusing to fully fund our food safety 
initiative. In fact, they've now voted to block funding for our new 
efforts to protect millions of American families from the dangers of 
salmonella poisoning in eggs. We should be doing more, not less, to 
ensure the safety of our food.
    If we work together, we can make real gains this year. We can 
increase the number of inspections of domestic and imported foods. We 
can expand the FDA's authority to turn away imported food that does not 
meet our high safety standards. And at long last, we can give the 
Department of Agriculture the authority to recall bad food and impose 
civil penalties for repeat violations. After all, the Department has the 
right to penalize a circus to protect animals from harm; it's about time 
we gave them the tools they need to protect human beings from harm, too.
    Ensuring the safety of our food and the health of our people are 
among the most important parts of our citizens' basic contract with 
their Government. For the sake of millions of Americans, especially the 
most vulnerable among us, it's an obligation we simply must work 
together to uphold.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 12:47 p.m. on May 5 in the Cabinet 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on May 6. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
May 5 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.