Following the massive Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. beef recall, Hillary Clinton listed a series of food safety actions she would take as president, including a 50 percent increase in USDA's food safety budget and a ban on slaughtering downer cattle.
In a statement on her campaign Web site, Clinton said she would:
Conduct an immediate audit of the nation's food safety systems to locate weaknesses and gaps
Increase USDA food safety funding by more than 50 percent so that inspectors have the resources and staffing they need to do their jobs
Move toward a single Food Safety Administration responsible for all food products
Give USDA and FDA mandatory recall authority and direct them to create a national tracing system to determine the origin of tainted food
Find, prosecute and punish food production facilities that abuse animals and allow unsafe food to enter the food supply
Permanently ban the slaughter of downed animals
Clinton noted that 12 of the 15 cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in North America were linked to downed animals; downed animals were three times more likely to carry E. coli; and, according to one analysis, 14 percent of downed cows carried salmonella.