Harkin calls for commission on food safety

n announcing the Senate Agriculture Committee's markup of the Farm Bill this past week, the committee chairman, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said he will mandate a presidential commission on food safety as part of the bill.

According to Harkin, the commission was created in the 2002 Farm Bill, but was never constituted or allowed to meet.

Harkin's call for a food safety commission comes on the heels of a recent rash of recalls of meat due to E. coli contamination.

Harkin said the recent spike in recalls involving meat products should serve as a warning about this nation's meat and poultry food safety system and the oversight of domestic processing.

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