U.S. Concerned About Safety of Food Supply
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Some questions have arisen in the wake of the threat of terrorism here in this country about just how safe the U.S. food supply is. For the latest on that, let's go to my colleague, Jeanne Meserve in Washington. Hello, Jeanne.</s>JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy. U.S. officials emphasize that there is no specific terrorist threat against the food supply that they are aware of. But, nonetheless, there is concern.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am more fearful about this than anything else.</s>MESERVE: In 1984, the nation's only bioterrorist incident involving food: Followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh contaminated restaurant salad bars in Oregon with salmonella. Hundreds fell ill. The risk of another nonconventional attack via the food supply was studied by the Clinton administration.</s>DAN GLICKMAN, FORMER AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: Let me simply say that the problem is immense as are the consequences and the effort we need to protect from it.</s>MESERVE: The fact that the food system is so huge and so interconnected amplifies any contamination, intentional or otherwise.</s>CAROLE TUCKER FOREMAN, CONSUMER FEDERATION OF AMERICA: When I was at USDA, we had an unintentional contamination with chemical polychlorinated biphenyls. By the time we caught it, it had spread to thousands of pies and cakes and 28 U.S. states and eight foreign countries.</s>MESERVE: From farm to fork, experts see vulnerable points in the food system including imported food. The amount of food shipped into the U.S. has quadrupled in the last decade. Much of it is produced under safety standards less stringent than those in the U.S. And only a small fraction of it is inspected. Experts see a risk here of intentional contamination with E.coli, salmonella, or even botulism. Those same contaminants or chemicals could be put into food processed here, experts say, because of lax security and inadequate inspection. Government officials argue the U.S. has the safest food system in the world. And industry says new precautions are being taken.</s>GENE GRABOWSKI, GROCERY MANUFACTURERS OF AMERICA: Adding extra security guards, making the security staff more visible, some places, where necessary, adding security cameras.</s>MESERVE: But there is no dispute that the food security system needs to be further enhanced because of the consequences any terrorist attack could have on public health and on public fears. Judy, as one expert said to me, you can choose not to fly. You can not choose not to eat -- back to you.</s>WOODRUFF: Jeanne, you realize you're just giving us all one more big thing to worry about.</s>MESERVE: Sorry that isn't my intention.</s>WOODRUFF: I know. All right, Jeanne Meserve reporting from Washington.