Food Production Risks with Attorney Bill Marler
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Renowned food poisoning attorney and food safety advoacate William Marler's presentation at at the 2011 Focus on Farming Conference in Everett, Washington.
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Food Production Risks with Attorney Bill Marler
- 1. Producing Food can be a Risky Business William D. Marler, Esq.
- 2. Why Food Production is Risky ⢠Competitive Markets â both large and small ⢠Lack of Clear Rewards for Marketing and Practicing Food Safety ⢠Risk of Litigation
- 3. To Put Things in Perspective ⢠According to the CDC, pathogens cause an estimated 48 million cases of human illness annually in the U.S. ⢠125,000 hospitalized ⢠Cause up to 3,000 deaths ⢠Most Illnesses are not linked together nor to a product
- 4. Why What âWEâ Do Is Important
- 5. Strict Product Liability ⢠Strict Liability â Are you a manufacturer? â Was the product unsafe? â Did product cause injury? ⢠Negligence ⢠Punitive Damages /Criminal Liability â Are you a product seller? â Did you act with conscious disregard â Did you act âreasonablyâ? of a known safety risk?
- 6. Who is a Manufacturer? A âmanufacturerâ is defined as a âproduct seller who designs, produces, makes, fabricates, constructs, or remanufactures the relevant product or component part of a product before its sale to a user or consumer.â
- 7. Itâs called STRICT Liability for a Reason ⢠The only defense is prevention ⢠It does not matter if you took all reasonable precautions ⢠If you manufacture a product that makes someone sick you are going to pay ⢠Wishful thinking does not help
- 8. Litigation as Incentive Odwalla Jack in the Box
- 9. Worthless Excuse No. 1 âI never read the memo.â
- 12. Bugs in Strange Places ⢠72 E. coli O157:H7 Illnesses â 10 with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome ⢠Likely Source â Tainted Flour ⢠Nestle now uses Heat Treated Flour
- 14. Bugs in Strange Places ⢠Listeria â Tainted Cantaloupe ⢠133 Sickened with 28 Deaths ⢠First Outbreak Linked with Cantaloupe and Listeria
- 15. Strange Bugs â Non-O157 E. coli ⢠E. coli O104:H4 ⢠4,321 Ill, 852 with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome ⢠50 Dead ⢠Six U.S. Cases ⢠Egyptian Fenugreek Seeds Likely Source
- 16. Planning AGAINST Litigation â What Is Really Important ⢠Identify Hazards ⢠What is your Culture? ⢠Involve Vendors and Suppliers ⢠Involve Customers
- 17. Planning AGAINST Litigation â Establish Relationships They are your best friends!
- 18. Lessons Learned From An Outbreak You can insure your reputation 1. Arm yourself with good, current information 2. Since you have a choice between doing nothing or being proactive, be proactive 3. Make food safety part of everything you do 4. Believing your food is safe is not enough
- 19. Even Comedians Love Safe Food
- 20. Questions?
Hinweis der Redaktion
- I attended the Future of Food Conference in Washington D.C. this last week and was amazed by the speakers that author Eric Schlosser and the Washington Post put together. From Lucas Benitez, Co-Founder, Coalition of Immokalee Workers to Michael R. Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Wendell Berry, Author, Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, Will Allen, Founder and CEO of Growing Power Inc. and even The Prince of Wales popped in only days after the wedding of the century for the keynote address.It was truly an impressive list of speakers with a deep commitment to issues surrounding the future of food, and with a clear commitment to a vision of small, organic agriculture. The discussions ranged from workers rights to GMOs, from frozen vegetables to global warming. Obesity was also discussed along with the trend of booming backyard gardens. Sustainability was the catchword of the day along with going local, organic farming and the ever-present mantra, "know your farmer, know your food." Lunch was served family style touting local, organic agriculture -- meat and vegetables. White House Chef Sam Kass shared recipes as some in the audience gushed how hot (not temperature) the president's chef was.Food safety, in the broadest sense of food security (ending hunger) and healthfulness (being against processed foods), was discussed by many of the speakers -- clearly, important issues that impact billions worldwide. However, food safety as I live it was not on the agenda. In fact, the only time it was discussed was when Barbara Kowlazcyk (mother profiled in Food Inc. who lost her son to E. coli O157:H7) asked one of the panels of speakers about food safety as she lives it. The response is the same response that I hear often -- "know your farmer, know your food" -- "if you can look your farmer in the eye, you know the food is safe." To me it is not a satisfactory answer to Barbara and the 48,000,000 Americans that are sickened, the 125,000 hospitalized and the 3,000 deaths that occur each year with a foodborne illness.True, in two decades of litigating foodborne illness cases in nearly every state, the vast majority of the victims were linked to mass-produced food and/or local food that had been consolidated and further processed. However, it might also be that mass-produced food outbreaks are simply easier to catch due too the numbers sickened, and that many outbreaks that get our attention cut across state borders.Perhaps, local, sustainable, organic, non-GMO agriculture does in fact sicken less people, but, then again, perhaps not. Perhaps because the illnesses are fewer in numbers and localized, they are also not as easily linked. The reality -- from a bacteria's or viruses' perspective -- is that local food can become contaminated between the farmer you know, and the fork you put in your mouth, just as easily as sharing a meal at a chain restaurant, buying Salinas salad, Nebraska beef, Arkansas chicken or Chinese Tilapia. Bacteria or viruses simply do not make the distinction.I am not quite sure why food safety at the Future of Food Conference was a topic to be ignored. Was it because it is a painful topic? Really, who wants to deal with the facts that something as good a local grass-fed, organic raw milk could have Campylobacter in it that would cause a mom to become paralyzed due to Guillain-Barre Syndrome? Or, was it because there is a belief in "foodie" or "foodiest" communities that if food is local, sustainable, organic and non-GMO it is by definition safe? I recall an email I received from a well-known writer shortly after a famous, local, grass-fed, organic raw milk cheese producer was linked to eight E. coli O157:H7 illnesses. The writer was perplexed that the cheese maker could have done such a thing given that those sorts of things only happen to mega-food manufacturers. His belief simply did not conform to his reality.The movement represented at the Future of Food Conference ignores food safety at its peril. The movement has an opportunity to embrace food safety as yet another distinguishing feature of its brand of "real food." Accepting that foodborne pathogens exist and need not be in our food does not detract from believing that food is safer if you "know your farmer, know your food." I would simply add, "trust, but verify."Talking about food safety does not make your food less safe -- it makes it safer. Believing something to be so does not in fact make it so. Making food safety as Barbara and I live it a part of the culture of the future of food will make our food safer now and in the future. Without food safety, local, sustainable, organic, non-GMO agriculture will remain a niche and that is no future at all.