Is it time to split the FDA?

[jmowreader]

On January 20, President Obama took the reins of a government that included an agency called the "Food and Drug Administration." It has two jobs: regulating the safety of the nation's food supply, and regulating the safety of the nation's drug supply. It's got enough people to regulate either the food supply or the drug supply, but it's got to do both. (For eight years it was hamstrung by an administration who really thought what was good for Standard Oil was good for America, but the reason it was so bound is now in Texas trying to get the shit off the Constitution before he hangs it in his library under a sign reading, "we had to destroy it in order to save it.") And even if it did have enough people, it can be headed by either a food-industry executive (who pays short shrift to drugs) or a medical-industry person (who concentrates on medicine instead of foods).

Should we--not considering cost, just whether it's a good idea--split the Food and Drug Administration into a "United States Food Safety Administration," which would administer food, cosmetics and toiletries, and a "American Drug Safety Administration," which would do nothing but drugs? Maybe integrate the USFSA into the US Department of Agriculture so there's a single point of responsibility for foodstuff issues, and the ADSA into Health and Human Services so there's a single point of responsibility for healthcare?

[Lyric]

1. The USDA can take care of food, with some expansion of resources.

Rename the FDA the "Federal Drug Administration" (new name, same acronym) and let them concentrate on drugs exclusively.

Problem solved.

[trotsky]

2. Sounds like that would be a little easier, logistically.

Good idea.

[Johonny]

3. I think the industries are intertwined

Much of the drugs they monitor enter into the food supply through additives. Hopefully they will get better funded and once again get to monitor alternative medicines and sports supplements as well.