Putnam said the restrictions on imported food will benefit consumers.
By Bill Rufty
Ledger POLITICAL EDITOR
LAKELAND | U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam will have to wait until after Congress’s August recess to have his food safety provisions considered by the U.S. Senate. But the Bartow Republican’s staff says he is confident that the restrictions on imported food will become law.
The U.S. House last week passed House Resolution 2749 by a margin of 283 to 142 with bipartisan support.
Within the bill were provisions by Putnam and U.S. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., who had jointly introduced a food safety bill last session and reintroduced it this year. Many of the bill’s provisions were incorporated into the overall food safety legislation that passed the House last week.
Putnam is running for Florida commissioner of agriculture in the 2010 election.
Some opponents argued that it was an attempt at protectionism for American agriculture.
But Putnam, in a five-minute address in Congress, said there were specific concerns about the safety of food from other countries that do not have the requirements the United States does for its farmers and producers.
He cited recent fears over tainted baby formula in China and the panic over American tomatoes that almost destroyed the industry’s sales this year until it was discovered the bacteria was from Mexican jalapenos.
Putnam told fellow members of Congress that farmers and consumers alike want the modern, effective regulatory system under which Americans operate to be appliedto foreign agricultural imports.
U.S Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat and the longest serving member of the House, praised Putnam for his years of work on the issue “…particularly for seeing to it that foreigners now have to meet the same requirements that American food producers do.”
Putnam’s speech before Congress on the food safety legislation can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/fl12putnam in which he cites the concerns over food products coming from other countries.
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