Today, Defend America Action released a new report, first published by American Journal News, showing that the Trump administration spent the past year and a half dismantling the federal systems built to catch contaminated food before it reaches a kitchen, just as the country faces its worst foodborne illness outbreak in years.
The CDC has confirmed 15,716 cases of cyclosporiasis acquired in the U.S. this summer, along with 828 hospitalizations and two deaths, more than thirteen times last year’s total over the same stretch. The administration fired thousands of food safety staff at the FDA, USDA, and CDC, stopped requiring surveillance of six foodborne pathogens, and let foreign facility inspections fall to their lowest level since 2011. Taylor Farms de Mexico, the facility at the center of the lettuce outbreak, had not been inspected by the FDA in years.
Career FDA staff warned in January that the cuts would produce exactly this outcome. Now, 40 percent of adults say they are buying or eating less produce, and foodborne illness costs Americans an estimated $75 billion a year.
Trump promised to make America healthy again. Instead, his administration made it harder for Americans to know what’s making them sick.
A full copy of the report can be found here.
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