"A Voice in Favor of the Food Safety Modernization Act"

In 2006, I almost died after eating spinach contaminated with E. coli. I spent nearly a month in and out of multiple emergency rooms and urgent care facilities. When I was able to return home, I had lost nearly 20 percent of my total body weight, and my recovery lasted five additional months of continuous treatment.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 128,000 people are hospitalized each year as a result of food-borne illness and another 3,000 die. I consider myself lucky to be one among the former, rather than the latter. As a result of my experience, I have devoted a great deal of my time and energy to ensuring the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) reaches its promise.

Read the full letter to the editor at The River Reporter.