Wish Upon a Czar | The American Prospect

Wish Upon a Czar | The American Prospect: "When it comes to food safety and public health, it's been a rough spring. Just over the last several weeks, highly publicized E. coli outbreaks, poisoned pet food, and other bacterial contaminations have undermined the public's confidence in the monitoring of the nation's food supply. Worse, these problems have led to the deaths of three people and possibly hundreds of pets, and many more illnesses.

President Bush, however, has a plan. He could, of course, endorse stronger federal regulations, or perhaps commit to improving a flailing Food and Drug Administration that, by its own admission, has known about domestic contamination problems for a while now but insists it's too overwhelmed to act. But the president prefers a different tack: He has appointed a new 'food safety czar.'

Last week, the administration announced that Dr. David W.K. Acheson, who had been the chief medical officer at the FDA's food safety center, would immediately assume the responsibilities of the newly-created position. Acheson vowed to quickly evaluate how the FDA identifies at-risk food products for closer inspection. 'We're in the process of re-examining that whole scenario,' he said."