Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 11/21/18


The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry has scheduled on Nov. 28 a public hearing to consider Mindy Brashears’ nomination for USDA undersecretary for food safety, according to a post on the committee’s website.

The meeting comes nearly seven months after President Trump nominated Brashears for the post, and almost five years since Dr. Elisabeth Hagen left the office in December 2013.

Brashears is a food safety and public health professor at Texas Tech University, where she also works as director of the school’s International Center for Food Center for Food Industry Excellence.

Her research program focuses on improving food safety standards to make an impact on public health. Her highly acclaimed work evaluates interventions in pre- and post-harvest environments and on the emergence of antimicrobial drug resistance in animal feeding systems. These efforts have resulted in a commercialized pre-harvest feed additive that can reduce E. coli and Salmonella in cattle.

She has also led international research teams to Mexico, Central and South America to improve food safety and security and to set up sustainable agriculture systems in impoverished areas

Brashears is past-chair of the National Alliance for Food Safety and Security and of the USDA multi-state research group.

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