Friends of Rural New York

Comment:
We would even question whether Cornell’s so-called “world-class"scientists can be objective given their dependence on agri-business funding. Cornell’s misguided scientists are promoting the CAFO model of farming. Senator Nozzolio is known to be an advocate of industrial farming.  Putting the laboratory at Cornell just may be the best way to attempt to dilute any protections for our food safety. For example, the e coli problem is a by product of industrial agriculture. Can we believe that Cornell scientists will not attempt to unduly influence state employees?
Boos and hisses to Nozzolio for this lame brained idea. 

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Food Laboratory employees say move to Geneva would hinder their work

First published: Sunday, October 22, 2006
In response to Sen. Michael Nozzolio’s Oct. 5 letter, we employees of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets Food Laboratory offer our perspective on why the move of the Food Laboratory to Geneva would be counterproductive to fulfilling our mission.

Senator Nozzolio states that the Geneva site was chosen to further solidify the Food Technology Park’s national standing and reputation. While we applaud that goal, we, as a food safety regulatory agency, do not share the same mission. Our focus is to ensure the safety and quality of food, not to develop an improved product or process. Direct collaborations with manufacturers whose products fall under our agency’s regulatory realm may create conflicts of interest.

He also states that relocation would enable the Food Laboratory to fully optimize the resources and assets of Cornell University. We do not see how moving to Geneva will improve our relationship with Cornell, as we already have several associations and collaborative research projects with Cornell staff in Ithaca.

Our proximity to the state Health Department, State Police Laboratory and the state Department of Environmental Conservation is very important to the services we provide. For example, our laboratory worked with the Health Department on the recent E. coli O157:H7 spinach outbreak. If our laboratory were in Geneva, we would have not been able to provide such rapid support.

The senator states that Cornell collaborates regularly with inspectors from our agency’s Division of Food Safety and Inspection. This is true, but the inspectors are not part of the Food Laboratory. They are based in our department’s main office in Colonie. Laboratory staff meet routinely with staff from other divisions in the agency in Colonie. Moving the lab would result in increased travel costs and have a detrimental effect on the lab’s productivity as an entire day would have to be devoted to a meeting, rather than an hour.

Finally the senator states that this relocation will use every possible scientific resource at Cornell and its world-class scientists. We respect the scientists at Cornell, but we have world-class scientists and state-of-the art equipment here in Albany. We find that some of our best sources of expertise in our field are in regulatory food laboratories in other states.

We invite Senator Nozzolio to visit our laboratory, so he can better understand the work we do and our role in ensuring the safety, security and quality of food for the citizens of New York.

DEBRA OGLESBY
Albany Times Union

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