WASHINGTON REAX TO FDA DEEP-DIVE: The reaction to Helena's piece over the weekend can be summed up like this: Those in food policy world are not surprised in the least. Those outside food world are shocked. Senate: A couple key Democrats on Capitol Hill responded to the investigation. Senate HELP Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) noted that "this report shows that when it comes to food safety and nutrition, time after time the agency has been slow to act, and families have been left at risk for years." "It's unacceptable that the agency has spent so long spinning their wheels when it comes to issues as important to families as the food they eat and feed [to] their loved ones," Murray said. "I am going to be pressing for answers from FDA leadership on how they will fix this, and holding them accountable for doing so as quickly as possible." House: House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) took to Twitter: "The 'F' in FDA has come to mean 'failure' on food safety. We must greatly intensify the pressure to get the FDA to do its job and to keep the American people safe and alive. The time for an overhaul of their priorities is now." A consumer advocate: "The results of this investigation are alarming and encapsulates the dysfunction that stakeholders have known for years," Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said in an email. "When a public health agency reaches the point where it seems to prioritize bureaucratic infighting and opaqueness over consumer protection, it becomes clear that changes in structure and personnel are necessary because people's lives will depend on it." An industry voice: "The food industry wants and needs a strong FDA, but too often the root cause of many of the problems Politico documents so well is the increasing politicization of what is supposed to be an independent agency, leading to the sub-optimization of scientific evidence in decision-making and ineffective policies that do not advance public health, particularly when it comes to non-communicable diseases," said Sean McBride, founder and principal of DSM Strategic Communications. INFANT FORMULA TIPS? While we're here, POLITICO has set up a tip survey line for caregivers or others to tell us about the FDA complaint process re: infant formula, in the wake of the incident with Abbott Nutrition. See how to do that here. ON THE ROAD WITH HAALAND AND MOORE: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Forest Service Chief Randy Moore are in Boulder, Colo., today for a "rural infrastructure tour" with Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Rep. Joe Neguse, all Democrats. The officials are set to discuss rural infrastructure and wildfire mitigation investments in a state that has been scorched by historic wildfires in recent years. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack was originally slated to be on this trip, but he tested positive for Covid-19 just before the weekend, as your host reported on Saturday. The trip comes after DOI and the Forest Service released their roadmap for implementing $1.5 billion from the infrastructure bill that went to DOI's Wildland Fire Management Program. The law, signed by President Joe Biden in November, directs the agencies to establish a five-year wildfire plan that, among other things, reduces severe fire risk on 10 million acres of federal land, Tribal forest lands and rangeland that pose a high wildfire hazard. A lot of plans: The five-year plan by DOI is aimed at complementing USDA's own 10-year plan, which has similar wildfire mitigation and forest restoration restoration goals. (The two departments largely share jurisdiction over wildfire response efforts.) Interior has identified 7.1 million acres of land as being "very high or high likelihood" of exposure to wildfires (also known as high risk "firesheds") largely in the West, Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky and West Virginia, according to the roadmap. To address the wildfire risk on these lands, DOI plans to achieve a total of two million acres of hazardous fuel reduction in fiscal 2022, a 30 percent increase in treated acres over the fiscal 2021 level. Hiring strains continue: During a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing last week, the Forest Service's deputy chief of state and private forestry, Jaelith Hall-Rivera, faced questions about the department's recruitment and retainment difficulties. As MA readers may recall, the Forest Service specifically is facing labor strains due to low pay and poor benefits on top of strenuous job demands — putting any federal plans to mitigate wildfires at risk. Hall-Rivera said the Forest Service hiring goal for this year is 11,300 firefighters, though she could not answer how close the agency is to reaching that goal. MA on the road: Your host is here in Colorado with the Biden administration members! Will you be at any of the events? Are you following these two plans? Drop me a line. FOOD PRICES CONTINUE TO SPIKE: The global food supply chain continues to be roiled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, reports POLITICO Europe's Eddy Wax . The prices for basic items like cereal, sugar and oils are at record highs, according to statistics published by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization on Friday. The FAO's Food Price Index, which monitors price fluctuations of the most-traded food commodities like wheat and sunflower oil, was 12.6 percent higher in March compared with February. That is "driven by large rises in wheat and all coarse grain prices largely as a result of the war in Ukraine," the FAO said. Prices were already hitting record highs at the start of the year. "World wheat prices soared by 19.7 percent during the month, exacerbated by concerns over crop conditions" in the U.S., according to the U.N. body. The loss of sunflower oil: Russia and Ukraine together account for more than half of the world's sunflower oil exports, meaning Russia's brutal invasion of its neighbor has left a massive gap for foodmakers to fill, reports POLITICO Europe's Gabriela Galindo. Ukraine's exports of oilseeds and grains remain stranded in Black Sea ports, and last week Russia moved to limit the flows of sunflower oil in retaliation against Western sanctions. Before the war, the EU imported half of Ukraine's production of sunflower oil, which is used in making a wide range of products including frozen potato fries, spreads, sauces, and baked and canned foods. It is also widely used in confectionary products and is an ingredient that is difficult to replace in baby food. Palm oil as an alternative? Some manufacturers are turning to palm oil as a replacement. But even that supply chain is fraught with pitfalls: The sector is already struggling with poor harvests, climate disruptions and rising production costs linked to a broader energy crisis.
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