Bart Stupak: “the issue here in the United States, we want to maintain our food supply as safe as we can. So while we want to raise…”

“the issue here in the United States, we want to maintain our food supply as safe as we can. So while we want to raise the standards for the children south and even north of our border, we also must maintain what we already have. These standards, again, the workers we saw, they can compete with anyone provided we are playing by the same standards. We have had problems with beef coming from Canada, that has been tainted. We have had trouble with Guatemalan raspberries. We have had milk problems up in the Northeast from an airborne pathogen that came over probably from Europe. So that is why it was so important when we had the fast track discussion last fall and we asked the President to sort of do three things for us, to maintain our standards, the United States standards. Number one, renegotiate the provisions of NAFTA that relate to border inspections and food safety to ensure that any fast track authority would include strong food safety provisions. Secondly, we asked to increase the funding for border inspections or, alternatively, limit the increasing rate of food imports to ensure that there is a safe supply of food here in this country. Last but not least, to begin the program to label all foodstuffs including fresh and frozen fruits, vegetables and meats with their country of origin. Unfortunately, that was not put forth by the administration. I guess those were simple standards we asked for, but stop and think about it.…”