Obama vows to improve the food

Excerpts from a New York Times article by Gardiner Harris on 3/15/09

The president says he'll toughen regulations and seek $1 billion for more inspectors and newer labs.

Describing government's failure to inspect 95 percent of food processing plants as "a hazard to the public health," President Obama promised Saturday to bolster and reorganize the nation's fractured food-safety system.

"In the end, food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your president, but as a parent," he said.

The call for fundamental changes in the nation's food-protection system follows a massive salmonella outbreak in peanut products that has sickened more than 700 people, killed nine -- including three Minnesotans -- and led to one of the largest recalls in U.S. history.