Complex and disparately funded regulatory oversight for food and beverage products, spread out among many federal agencies, has created a regulatory mess that demands a radical fix.

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[H]ave you ever counted the number of agencies and departments regulating food? There are over a dozen, just at the federal level! The messy alphabet soup of regulating bodies includes FDA, CFSAN, USDA, FSIS, ARS, CDC, TTB, FTC, CBP, BATFE, APHIS, AMS, FNS, EPA, NMFS, GIPSA, FAS, and CVM, not to mention various state agencies and other, minor actors that regulate food and beverages under at least 30 different laws.

Without a systemic, larger reorganization, regulatory oversight will continue to be split into 17-plus agencies with wasteful, duplicitous, disproportionately funded efforts. The current system fails the two common goals of an effective food regulatory system: safe food with accurate, informative labels and a protected, coherent, fair marketplace that encourages innovation. It is time to work past the jurisdictional food fight and get to a place where all “food and drink” [regulations are] within a common department. It is time for a massive new “FAD.” Enter the U.S. “Food and Agriculture Department,” or U.S. FAD.

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