The U.S. government is working to understand and combat the “swine flu” outbreak, it must also contend with the impact that swine flu fears are having on exports of U.S. pork products.  So far, countries including China, Croatia, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Ukraine have announced full or partial bans on pork product imports from the United States and Mexico.  The New York Times reports how the U.S. pork industry and U.S. government are trying to combat misinformation about purported links between eating pork and contracting swine flu.

The ABC News blog reports that the U.S.  is officially calling the virus by name its particular strain, “H1N1″ to put distance between the connection between “pork” and the “swine flu.”

“This really isn’t swine flu. It’s H1N1 virus,” [Agriculture Secretary Tom] Vilsack said. “We want to say to consumers here and abroad that there is no risk to you, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever that there is any link between consuming pork, prepared pork products, and the H1N1 virus.”

Despite these assurances, more countries are considering import bans and Egypt’s government has ordered the slaughter of all pigs to prevent swine flu from spreading.

While all of the facts about this outbreak are continuing to develop, FPA’s Global Market’s blog has provided an overview of the dangers of a potential pandemic - and a comprehensive list of official sources for learning more about the virus.

The dramatic rescue of the Maersk Alabama’s captain Richard Phillips brought relief that his hostage crisis was resolved, but the dangers of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean continue.  Somali pirates have not been slowed by the Maersk Alabama incident, continuing to regularly hijack ships to make money by ransoming the ship, crew and/or cargo.

On Tuesday, the Liberty Sun, flying an American flag and on its way to delivering food aid to Kenya for the World Food Programme (WFP), escaped an attack by Somali pirates.

The two recent attacks on U.S. ships were cited by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when announcing a stepped up commitment by the U.S. to combat piracy.  The World Food Programme explained on its website that piracy cannot deter its mission of providing aid in vulnerable East African countries:

“If food assistance cannot arrive through Mombasa for Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, southern Sudan and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, millions of people will go hungry and the already high malnutrition rates will rise.”

The Sea Horse, a Lebanese ship that was also carrying food for WFP, was hijacked on its way to delivering food aid to Somalia.  WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon said, “WFP is also extremely concerned that people in Somalia will go hungry unless the Sea Horse is quickly released or a replacement ship can be found.”

While the French navy succeeded in detaining a pirate “mother ship” on Wednesday, the pirates’ large area of operation is so far making it difficult to secure all transport routes in the area.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) held an event on April 8, 2009 with Professor Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.  Professor De Shutter presented an analysis of the global food crisis titled “From Malthus to Sen.”  Following his remarks, he took questions from Steven Schonberger from the World Bank and Gawain Kripke from Oxfam America.

During his talk, Professor De Schutter made the point that the global food supply may be sufficient, but access to food has become one of the most dangerous barriers for the hungry.  Some of these barriers include uneven trade policies and imbalanced markets for food products.  Steven Schonberger focused his statements on the need to keep global food prices lower to prevent future food crises.  Gawain Kripke spoke on the idea of food as a human right, and the new U.S. administration’s opportunity to address global food issues.

In addition to the account of the event, a summary of De Schutter’s report and Schonberger’s presentation are also available.

The Foreign Policy Association has posted a Great Decisions 2009 Spring Update on its website.  The Update compiles important news items from the past few months and is an excellent way to stay up to date on the each of the eight U.S. foreign policy and global affairs issues covered in Great Decisions 2009.

There is also a new quiz on the Global Food Crisis, which draws questions from the Great Decisions 2009 article and the recent Spring Update.  Take the quiz to test your knowledge of the information in each publication about the Global Food Crisis.

The recent salmonella outbreaks in peanuts and pistachios may have been wake-up calls to the public about the dangers of food-borne illness, but U.S. agencies that measure food safety have seen how “progress has plateaued” in government efforts to combat contamination of U.S. food supply.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released its annual assessment of food safety, in a joint report coordinated between the CDC, Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture and 10 U.S. states which provide sample data for the report.  According to Robert Tauxe, the CDC’s deputy director for the Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Disease; these results indicate that:

“‘We need greater effort at all stages of movement of food in the food chain from farm to table’ to prevent bacterial contamination.”

The New York Times reports how comments by Tauxe during the release of the report might stoke tensions between the FDA and USDA related to the effectiveness of each agency in improving food safety.

The Los Angeles Times discusses the importance that the CDC report will have on legislation already on the table in Congress to overhaul food safety regulation in the United States.

The full CDC report can be found in the April 10, 2009 edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The danger of delivering food aid in unstable regions or conflict zones was further illustrated by yesterday’s hijacking of a U.S. cargo ship by Somali pirates.  The Maersk Alabama was delivering food supplies to East African countries for several aid organizations:

“‘The vessel’s manifest showed it was carrying 401 containers of food aid from USAID, Serving God Ministries, the World Food Program and Catholic Relief’, said John F. Reinhart, president and CEO of Maersk Line Ltd.”

The attack does not seem to have been targeted against American interests specifically, in fact, it is one of an escalating number of pirate attacks that have taken place in the last year in the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.  These waterways are key transit points for ships traveling from Europe to Africa and Asia through the Suez Canal.

Crew members were able to fight off the pirates forcing them to take one of the Maersk’s captain as the only hostage, in one of the Maersk’s lifeboats.  The U.S. Navy ship USS Bainbridge is on the scene, along with FBI negotiators, in an attempt to secure the release of Captain Richard Phillips.

The Maersk Alabama has been sent on its way, with its cargo, but has been rerouted to deliver food aid to Sudan.

A joint report issued by the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) in New York and the Overseas Development Institute in London cited that 122 aid workers were killed and over 260 were attacked in 2008 while conducting aid programs, making it the most dangerous year for aid workers.

A Reuters article quotes Abby Stoddard from CIC about this surge in danger for aid workers:

“It’s a very dangerous profession indeed and I don’t think that’s understood as much as maybe it should be. The numbers are quite startling and certainly the fatality rate exceeds that of U.N. peacekeepers.”

The largest numbers of attacks and fatalities have occurred in conflict zones where the humanitarian workers are operating, particularly Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan.  The aid workers, who may be foreign-born or local people working for international agencies, are often targeted, “…not just because they were perceived to be cooperating with Western political actors, but because they were seen as part of a Western agenda.”

You can read the full report, “Providing Aid in Insecure Environments: 2009 Update- Trends in violence against aid workers and the operational response” here.

President Obama announced a plan designed, in part, to combat the global food crisis* on the final day of the G-20 summit in London last week.  The initiative allots $448 million to address immediate aid concerns in Latin America and Africa, and allocates another $1 billion for the development of a long-term food security strategy. The President also said that he intends to double U.S. assistance for global agricultural productivity and rural development.

The announcement was applauded by leaders of several non-governmental organizations which focus on food issues including Robert Zachritz, World Vision’s director for advocacy and government relations in the U.S; Oxfam America president Raymond C. Offenheiser; and Bread for the World president Rev. David Beckmann.

Mr. Zachritz voiced his support for the decision by citing the comparative cost of the plan to the economic stimulus package:

“The cost of the President’s proposal on global hunger is one-tenth of one percent of the economic stimulus plans passed over the last year in Congress to address the economic crisis in the United States. Clearly one-tenth of one percent is something the U.S. can afford to spend to save millions of lives.”

Mr. Offenheiser’s statement expressed gratitude for the President’s scheme as the first step in what he feels will need to be a much larger framework - extending beyond an allocation of money:

“President Obama has taken an important step today in committing resources to address the global food crisis—an essential element of a larger effort to alleviate global hunger and poverty. We look forward to working with the Obama administration in framing this larger strategy.”

Rev. Beckmann lauded the President’s attention to the links between the global financial crisis and the world food supply problem:

“As part of a package to revive the global economy, the President recognizes that the global economic crisis is also a world hunger crisis.” He added, “While details of the proposal are not yet clear, what is clear is that the President understands that we must deal with the hunger dimension of this crisis.”

All three organizations voiced enthusiasm for the announcement as a signal that the White House and Congress are now putting the food crisis on their respective and collective radars, citing the call for passage of the Lugar-Casey Global Food Security Act by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Global Food Security Act was discussed on this blog with regards to a hearing on the bill on March 24th.  That blog post can be found here.

*The Reuters report isolates President Obama’s comments on aid and food safety during his post G-20 press conference.  The full text of the President’s remarks can be found here.

California’s State Assembly has drafted new legislation in response to the investigation of salmonella contamination of pistachio nuts from Setton Farms of Terra Bella, CA.  The draft bill aims to improve food inspections, testing and reporting of contaminated food.

An article in the Los Angeles Times makes two important points: First, that the reaction of Kraft Foods to the contamination was much more timely and responsibly than that of Peanut Corporation of America when salmonella was detected in their products.  Second, legislators on the national level are looking more closely at ways to substantially improve U.S. food safety in the wake of these recent contamination scares.

“Among the changes under consideration in legislation before Congress are giving the FDA mandatory authority to recall products; requirements for food safety systems at companies to minimize the chance of contamination during production; increased inspections; more funding; and a better way to track products around the country…There also are calls to split up the FDA and establish a Food Safety Administration.”

Newsday reports on how the salmonella contamination of Setton Farms in California has sparked an investigation into all of its affiliated companies.  One such company, Setton International Foods of Commack, NY recently failed an inspection because of unhealthy conditions found in its facilities.

As the FDA’s investigation continues, U.S. companies that use pistachios in whole or as part of various products have begun to voluntarily recall these products.  The food safety agencies of both Canada and the Philippines are among those that are taking the contamination advisories seriously.