John Edwards Panders — for the Right Reasons

On a press call today, John Edwards announced bold and strikingly intelligent proposals with the stated goal of food safety. Iowa Independent’s resident agriculturalist, Dien Judge, was on the call.

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Edwards called for all authority for federal food safety inspection to be shifted to the Food and Drug Administration, creating one central regulatory authority to be responsible for overseeing food safety in the United States.

Edwards also called for the implementation of the mandatory country-of-origin labeling law that was passed more than five years ago but was never put into effect. The time is right for these issues to be elevated to the level of a national debate, he said.

I should repeat, lest this post’s headline mislead you, that I actually like Edwards’s proposal. But, aside from the pie-in-the-sky-ish idea of transferring regulatory power from the USDA to the FDA, there’s a plan to finally implement mandatory country of origin labeling on food products. It’s good policy, but it’s also pretty convenient.

Iowans, like residents of other agricultural states, sometimes resent that toys, pencils, and cars all say where they were made while food products often don’t. It is becoming a safety issue, too, as our xenophobia and our fear of contaminated pet food intersect to brew up a perfect storm of protectionist sentiments.

Coming out on this issue and pushing it is going to help him here, and dog food scandals on cable news will give him the cover he needs. This is the campaign I expected Edwards to run: intellectually sound policy arguments in support of popular niche issues. That’s what his health care plan looked like, and that’s what he should keep doing if he wants to keep his head above water in what’s shaping up to be a really crowded fight.