Seed For Thought: Food Safety Lawyer Sounds Off
February 24, 2011 In researching this special issue that’s largely devoted to food safety, I called up Bill Marler, a lawyer who’s dedicated his career to defending people who were either sickened themselves or had family members injured or killed in foodborne illness outbreaks.
I confess that before calling Marler, while of course remaining professional and objective, I was all set to take a disliking to him for a couple of reasons. First, he’s a lawyer. Second, he’s a lawyer who defends some people who, for lack of a better term, I would characterize as whiners. I want to emphasize that this in no way includes those truly injured, especially the children, who Marler has admirably stood up for through the years. By whiners, I mean those people who get a little queasy and then get dollar signs in their eyes.
But it turns out Marler shares my skepticism. “Some people call a lawyer before they call a doctor,” he said. “People will call me and say ‘I have Salmonella, what do I do?’ I tell them to go to the ER.”
A Command Of The Issue
As it turns out, Marler said a few other things that surprised me. Here are a few of his comments:
– He is as much food safety expert/speaker as he is lawyer these days, and his firm is much more of an investigative firm than a legal firm: “Once we’re able to pinpoint the (tainted) food product, come up with a genetic match, there’s nothing the defense can do.”
– He has a pretty good grasp of the real-world challenges: “Growers, regardless of what they grow, their biggest vulnerability is obviously environmental contamination. You grow fruits and vegetables outside. It’s not sterile. There are animals and birds. Growers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. You’ve got to keep product clean, but you can’t or don’t want to kill all the animals in a given area.”
– There’s no way to make produce perfectly safe: “The problem is there is no kill step. There are no two ways about it — it’s a difficult balance. Think about the risks. Pay attention to exactly how your product is handled. How can you minimize bacterial contamination in a growing environment? You can’t keep it to zero, obviously.”
– It was because of those difficulties that the major industry organizations came out in favor of the FSMA, at least prior to the Tester-Hagan Amendment, he says, framing the decision in typically blunt terms. “That’s why industry decided to play ball. Also, they don’t want to poison their customers. But it was primarily a business decision.”
– On voluntary industry efforts, such as the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement: “There have been fewer sick people and fewer lawsuits. Yes, it’s a success.”
I was gratified to hear that Marler appreciated the industry efforts. It’s really heartening to hear that this work is being recog-nized as making a real difference. We’re talking about a healthier America, and when you get down to it, that’s what this is really all about.
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