An experienced food safety attorney and recently a critic of the FDA, Bill Marler is openly calling for food related activities to be split from the Food and Drug Administration.  His campaign has adopted the theme, Get the F Out of the FDA. 

Marler recently stated, “Each year, millions of Americans are sickened and thousands die from foodborne illness.”  He added, “The leadership of the FDA continues to be preoccupied with drug oversight and to give short shrift to food safety.”  Along with associations concerned with public health, Marler criticizes the proposal to restructure food aspects of FDA function ignoring the advice of previous administrators and the Reagan-Udall panel. All advocate for a unified structure under a competent administrator.  Marler stated, “The changes the Commissioner has proposed, stand no chance of fixing the systemic problems within the Agency.  It simply exposes the flaw of having drug experts oversee the Nation’s food supply”.

In a recent statement, Marler averred “My goal in launching this campaign is to say let’s make this happen now.  I don’t want the failures of the FDA to create new victims I will need to represent.  Create a new Food Agency and put me out of business, please!” 

Establishing a new food safety agency will only be half the solution.  To be effective, it will be necessary to merge the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the USDA with the new proposed food safety entity to create a seamless entity responsible for all aspects of food, both imported and domestic, whether animal or vegetable in origin.