 of millions of dollars because of this. Thirty countries have banned U.S. beef because of the understanding that this was a U.S. food safety problem, but in this case it has been found, just yesterday, that it was a problem that did originate from Canada. We have a $3 billion a year beef export business and if you think about 30 countries banning our beef, you could see what an economic crisis this is for American and Canadian cattle producers.
Member: Right now I don't think it is really an issue of who is more responsible, but rather what changes are to be made by all cattle-producing countries
Member question: Isn't our testing system woefully inadequate? I heard that the French inspect as much meat in a month as the USDA inspects in a year.
Haas: There has been a great deal of consumer criticism about the state of our meat and poultry inspection system, and the growing incidence of food borne illness in this country. For more than 20 years there have been calls for increased testing and necessary prohibitions like the one on advanced meat recovery, but they've been slow in coming. For the US, which is a trade leader, to continue to have the safest food supply we've got to keep up with changes in technology.
Those new changes, such as advanced meat recovery, bring new problems for the consumer. If you can recover hundreds of millions more pounds of beef the industry will do it, but it also increases risk, so the government must adapt the inspection system to meet the technological advances. There's nothing wrong with technology but we've got to keep up with regulations to protect public health, because public health has got to be the driver of the system, not the economics.
Because today there is no single food safety agency in the U.S., but instead the consumer has conflicting agency protections from the FDA, the USDA, Dept of Commerce, Environmental Protection Agency, and others, we are facing overlapping and inadequate food safety systems. BSE is a wakeup call for making those changes in the federal structure of food safety policy. We have had a series of wakeup calls, whether it's because of salmonella or E Coli. or BSE that are all pointing to the need for safer food. That's why on FoodFit.com we have a safe food zone that keeps up with the latest reports and information and tips on how to make safe food choices.
Moderator: We are almost out of time. Do you have any final words for us, Ellen?
Haas: The BSE issue we are facing is definitely a wake-up call for government regulators. It also is an opportunity for consumers to learn more about making healthy food choices and safer food choices. You can visit FoodFit.com for guidance on how to do that. It's an opportunity to join together to see that our food system becomes the safest in the world.
This spring we will have a book coming out called Fit Food: A Weight Loss Cookbook, and it will provide information on how to be healthy, lose weight, and enjoy it all the time.