In his Saturday morning radio address, President Obama took on the issue of food safety as a moral responsibility for our nation. The lack of food safety and a “demoralized” Food and Drug Administration was characterized as a “threat to public health” by the President, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The President offered up numerous substantive and procedural solutions to the problems of lax food safety regulations and oversight, including increasing accountability at the highest levels of his administration.

From closing the loophole that made it possible for us to eat “downer cattle” (sick cattle who are then slaughtered for human consumption) to the system that allowed for contaminated peanuts to circulate the country for months, President Obama concluded that “”no parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch”.

I couldn’t agree more. It’s time our government lived up to that responsibility.

Summer Johnson, PhD