Grading Obama’s Budget Proposal for Food, Water and Fish

President Obama's 2012 budget proposal is nothing short of disappointing for food and water advocates.

As you all know, it’s budget time in Washington, D.C. As far as the issues that we work on here at Food & Water Watch, the President’s proposed budget for 2012 is nothing short of disappointing and frustrating. The Obama administration has determined that providing the nation with funds for public services that were once considered vital to our population is no longer a priority for the government. Let’s break it down…

Food Safety

The proposed 2012 budget allocates $1.02 billion for USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), $9 million less than 2011. But, according to FSIS’s own report, there will be a need for more inspectors to keep up with increases in food processing in 2012 — the total volume of meat and poultry slaughter will each increase by over 250 million pounds. Even egg production will increase from 4,066 million to 4,074 million pounds. Remember the egg recall last summer? Instead of offering increased funds to FSIS for food safety, the Obama administration decided to offer an increased risk of food contamination by not increasing the number of inspectors in egg processing facilities.

USDA is also responsible for catfish inspections, for which the proposed budget also reduces funding. In 2008, negotiations over the Farm Bill included the creation of a new catfish inspection program, a mandate given to the USDA. The FDA, which only inspects about 2 percent of all imports, was previously responsible for inspection of fish, including catfish. Last year, U.S. catfish farmers united to ask Congress to implement the regulation of catfish at the USDA and demanded tougher inspections. The implementation of this program is now 14 months overdue and, thanks to Obama’s proposed budget, the funding for it has been significantly reduced.

Meanwhile, over at the FDA, Obama’s proposed budget allocation for food safety activities is $955 million, $182 million more than 2011. This sounds good for about ten seconds until we remember that the FDA is supposed to be busy preparing to implement the new Food Safety Modernization Act. Since the Congressional Budget Office recommended $1.4 billion over the next four years to implement this program, the number crunching reveals that Obama’s 2012 budget allocation for the FDA is merely half of what it would need to be compared to CBO’s recommended annual allocation.

It’s already clear that the Obama administration is not engaging in sound food policy. Now, the proposed budget sacrifices food safety, even after a year riddled with recalls and in anticipation of amped up food production. It’s a shame, particularly because American consumers have made it clear that they value food safety. In fact, research demonstrates they’re willing to pay more to reduce the risk of food contamination. Overall, for protecting the safety of food production on behalf of consumers, the Obama budget gets a D-.

Water
The President has proposed cutting $397 million in federal funding for drinking water infrastructure and $550 million for wastewater infrastructure. In the current economy, many municipalities are struggling, leaving them susceptible to privatization of public resources as a supposed cure for financial strain. These budget cuts leave many communities, most of which are small, rural and dependent on government aid, in a vulnerable position for private takeovers of public resources like water management. But privatizing water is not a viable option. It leaves communities at the whim of corporations concerned with their bottom line, not the health and well being of consumers.

This year, our infrastructure has seen its share of water main breaks and faces a cocktail of industrial pollutants. America’s water systems are old and in need of repair. Now is the time to designate secured funding for water infrastructure, not reduce it. Funding projects to fix public water systems would create jobs and in turn help local economies. Obama has stated that the U.S. has fallen behind many countries in international trade, education and other areas. But, we’ve always been able to rely on clean drinking water and functioning sanitation systems for wastewater. Imagine what would happen to our drinking water and wastewater if we don’t reinvest in them soon. For allowing the continued degradation of our water systems, the Obama budget gets an F.

Fish

In sharp contrast to cuts in food safety and water infrastructure, the 2012 budget proposes funding the implementation of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Catch Share Program, a wildly unpopular scheme to privatize U.S. fisheries, to the tune of approximately $54 million. But, this is one area where the current administration would be better off saving money by eliminating this ineffective management strategy responsible for destroying coastal and fishing communities, eliminating job opportunities, lowering wages, and ultimately giving preferential treatment to industrial production over sustainable fishing practices. If catch shares were a good idea, NOAA wouldn’t have requested $1 million to defend the controversial program in courts. The worst part of this particular allocation is that it diverts funds, about $17 million, away from programs that provide research to promote better management of fisheries and sustainable practices.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. NOAA is aggressively moving forward with their plan to promote open ocean aquaculture, also known as factory fish farming. This disruptive industry practice threatens marine life and local ecosystems, but NOAA hopes to throw $4.3 million at pilot projects to take it up a notch — money that would be better spent cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico, a project that, if the current budget request gets approved, will receive a mere $2.9 million. Somehow, I doubt that the people whose lives have been ruined as a result of the BP disaster would approve of the federal government investing in corporate aquaculture instead of helping vital Gulf fishing communities recover their livelihoods.

For furthering the development of corporate greed and ignoring the threat of ocean aquaculture’s negative impacts on the environment, the Obama budget gets an F-, but only because there’s no G.

-Rich Bindell