1. United States
2. Ala.
3. Letter

You must call for an investigation into how the administration’s cuts to federal food safety agencies jeopardize the health and safety of all Americans. We cannot definitively say whether the Cyclospora outbreak would have been traced to the source more quickly if the administration had not made these cuts, but we need to find out. We also need to prepare for inevitable future outbreaks of all food-borne pathogens. Sadly, the loss of institutional knowledge resulting from the firing and resignations of experienced staff greatly weakens these important agencies. Please help restore these agencies to their previous level of effectiveness to better control outbreaks of food-borne pathogens and protect Americans' health and safety. We somewhat dodged a bullet with Cyclospora, as it is rarely lethal. We may not be so lucky next time.