Perdue: Peanut Company Broke a 'Sacred Trust'

Governor Sonny Perdue on Wednesday said a “sacred trust,” was broken between the Peanut Corporation of America and consumers over the spreading salmonella debacle at the company’s Blakely plant.

Perdue and state agriculture officials are circling the peanut wagons and throwing their full backing behind Georgia’s farmers, food producers and distributors.


Governor Sonny Perdue makes a point to the several hundred industry leaders, farmers and legislators at the Georgia Agribusiness Council State Legislative Breakfast, held in downtown Atlanta on Feb. 4, 2009. (Photo: Dave Bender)

At a Georgia Agribusiness Council State Legislative Breakfast, Perdue told several hundred industry leaders:

“When people violate that sacred chain of food safety control, they will be prosecuted and held accountable; it is too important not to…(applause)”

Perdue faced a room packed with a veritable roll-call of food and ag industry officials.

Many worry that the an spreading peanut recall could prompt an already uncertain public could shun other preach-state-grown-and-produced foods.

Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin, says his department will reorganize to face the daunting task of better monitoring farms and factories across the state:

”Our inspectors have 16,000 facilities they have to inspect. You have to do that today with 60 employees – it’s impossible to give the necessary coverage that, apparently, we need.”

Irvin says his office will ask the legislature to establish a division to deal exclusively with checking processed foods.

The General Assembly is already mulling a mandatory food-testing bill.

Perdue, however, says no amount of externally-enforced inspections can replace a responsible food industry:

“In the food chain, there is a voluntary compliance: we share a sacred trust of safety among our producers, processors, preparers and servers of food – and you cannot be everywhere at one time.”

House Speaker Bill Richardson holds up a bag of Georgia peanuts, during his comments at the Georgia Agribusiness Council State Legislative Breakfast, held in downtown Atlanta on Feb. 4, 2009. (Photo: Dave Bender)

To make a point of that trust, House Speaker Glenn Richardson held up a small bag of Georgia peanuts as he stood behind the podium:

"One of the fringe benefits of being at the capitol, is [that] the Department of Agriculture brings these Georgia peanuts by (opens foil packet); they leave them at our office. And everybody that comes to our office loves these, and you know what?… (eants a few peanuts) I love Georgia peanuts. (applause).”

And those Georgia peanuts make up almost half of all peanuts used in the United States.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the salmonella-tainted peanut products.

Georgia On It's Way to Becoming Food Regs Leader

The Georgia General Assembly is considering a bill that would require mandatory testing for harmful pathogens at food warehouses, manufacturing plants and "food sales establishments."

All test results would be sent to state officials.

Similar plans have been floated before, mainly by critics of the current food safety system. Generally, those proposals follow large scale outbreaks and huge recalls.

Each time, the food and agricultural industry, even in the height of "crisis," have fought back mandatory testing.

And making those results public by forking them over to state officials has been a non starter.

Large firms have argued the measures aren't necessary as testing protocol often already exists. Small firms and family run operations have successfully lobbied against similar measures in California, telling lawmakers the tests will cut their bottom line.

So it's a big deal when Georgia looks to become a leader in food testing regulations.

"It's a great first step," said lawyer Bill Marler. He's suing the company at the center of the recent outbreak of salmonella in peanut products. "Not perfect, not enough, but a start" Marler wrote on his blog.

The bill would give the Georgia Agricultural Commissioner the power to set up the specific guidelines. Tests would need to happen once a year, at minimum.

Peanut Corporation of America, the operators of the now closed Blakely facility, have been accused by the Food and Drug Administration of knowingly shipping tainted product for distribution. The company disputes those charges, and says the FDA's report is inaccurate.

So far eight deaths have been attributed to the tainted peanut products.

“When people’s lives are at stake, food safety inspections should not be subject to lax regulations,” said Republican Sen. John Bulloch, who introduced the legislation.

“Consumers must be assured their food is safe and we must protect the integrity of Georgia’s producers. Much of our economy depends on the state’s agriculture industry, which cannot afford to suffer the negative impacts of food recalls.”

Georgia agriculture commissioner says gas pump inspectors are short staffed

The state budget crunch is hitting those folks who inspect the gas pumps across Georgia.

Complaints against gas stations who are allegedly shorting customers typically go up along with the gas prices.

There were more than 1100 complaints last year.

And that's consuming the time of the Georgia Department of Agriculture's inspectors, who officials say are already short-staffed.

That's taking time away from routine inspections, which can prevent or identify problems with the pumps, says Tommy Irvin, the state agriculture commissioner. And problems with the pumps can result in discrepancies between the price and the amount of gas coming from the pump.

"We're understaffed to the point that I don't think we're able to give the people what they want," says Irvin. "What we're faced with when you give 80 percent time allotted for your employees for checking complaints, you have 20 percent of your time left to do routine inspections. That's not as frequent as it needs to be."

But there's a hiring freeze for state employees. And Governor Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle are calling for possible budget cuts this year ranging from 3.5 percent to ten percent.

The agriculture department has a hotline for people suspecting a problem with a gas pump. That number is (404) 656-3605.

Insecticide killed cattle in south Georgia--GBI on case

35 cattle that died on a Clinch County farm recently ingested an insecticide. Test results back from the state Department of Agriculture show three of the dead cattle had aldicarb in their system. Aldicarb is sold under the brand name Temik. It is an insecticide used on numerous crops.

From Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin:

"We tested feed from the trough where the cattle had eaten and found aldicarb. We also did a composite sample of ten unopened bags from the same lot of feed. This sample did not contain any traces of the insecticide," said Commissioner Irvin.

"This appears to be an isolated incident. The GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) will investigate to determine if there was any criminal wrongdoing or if this was just a horrible accident. There was never any danger that any of the poisoned cows would get into the food chain," said Irvin.

The GBI was called into the case within the first 48 hours. Agent in charge of the investigation Jamie Karnes says they're looking at whether there was criminal intent in the poisoning.

"At this stage we're still going through information and identifying people that we might need to talk with for various reasons to get a better idea for what may have occurred, and for what reason".

The cows were buried accordance to state regulations with oversight by the state Department of Agriculture.

Ag commissioner on benefits of cold

Temperatures dipping into the teens over much of north Georgia today were mostly a good thing for crops, according to the state’s highest agriculture official. Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin said today the cold kills off insects. Peach growers say the cold is a good thing for peach trees, which require 1,000 hours of temperatures below 40 degrees.

Raw milk to stay white

Georgia's Agriculture Commissioner is dropping a proposal to add dye to raw milk and make it a stomach-turning charcoal gray. State officials said dying raw milk was intended to prevent any confusion between milk sold for human consumption with that sold for animal consumption. Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin announced his decision to can the idea following a hearing in Atlanta today, in which more than 150 people attended. State officials said about 50 people spoke -- all against the proposal.

Deadly bacteria found in smoked salmon dip

State agriculture officials have discovered dangerous bacteria in a package of salmon dip sold by a major grocery chain. A multi-state recall is underway.

A routine sampling by officials found contamination in a 7.5 ounce package of Smoked Salmon Dip, sold by a Kroger-store in Loganville. Kroger officials are recalling salmon dip marked "Use By 04 Nov. 2007A LN3". Officials are asking consumers who have salmon dip with that marking, to return it to the store.

The package of dip showed a strain of listeria, which can cause serious and potentially fatal infections in infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. The product came from a Knoxville,Tennessee plant.

State Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin says his department has stepped-up its routine sampling of food products:

"I think you should feel safer than ever, because of the fact we’re doing more testing. It’s very obvious that if you do more testing if there’s anything out there you’re going to find more. And that’s the results that we’ve achieved".

State Agriculture officials say of the 71 recalls in the state this year, seven are related to listeria.