BEIRUT: Former Agriculture Minister Adel Cortas called on the government to take consumers’ worries seriously and establish a long-awaited national agency for food safety

.“I hope this matter is taken seriously by the government and the current agriculture minister,” Cortas told The Daily Star Monday.

Cortas, who is the president of the Lebanese Association on Nutrition and Development, said that establishing a national food agency is the only way that consumers and watchdog groups will know which agency is responsible for food safety in the country and hold it accountable.

Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan had rebuffed such calls last week and said he would scrap a draft law to establish such an agency, arguing that it would overlap with duties of agencies in the Agriculture Ministry.

A draft law to establish a national agency for food safety was first proposed in 2002, but political bickering within successive governments has hampered its endorsement.

“Consumers in Lebanon, non-governmental committees [watchdogs] have the right to know who is responsible for food safety throughout the country … but under the current circumstances and the decentralization of executive powers among different ministries, consumers will not be able to get what they need,” said Cortas, who headed the Agriculture Ministry from 1992 to 1995.

“All ministries involved in food manufacturing and trade should be represented in this agency but the executive power has to be under the authority of an agency’s independent administration,” Cortas explained.

According to Cortas, the organizational structure of the national agency could be similar to the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

The F.D.A. is a federal regulatory body that works to ensure public health in the U.S. by preventing food contamination and maintaining drug safety.

“Individual agents and consultants in the agency would have prerogatives given to them by ministries such as Agriculture, Trade, Industry, Health and even the Interior Ministry,” said Cortas adding that municipalities should also be represented in a national agency.

Speaking to The Daily Star at a forum on climate change and food safety in Beirut Monday, Cortas emphasized that having a single agency would facilitate implementing laws related to food safety.

Organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the forum, entitled “Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in the Near East,” aimed to share information and provide a forum to discuss how challenges from climate change can be met through regional cooperation in finance and technology.

A senior officer at FAO, Mohammad Bazza, said food security policy must adapt as the planet goes through stages of considerable climate change.

“One of the most important adaptations amid the ongoing climate change is the adaptation of food-security-related sectors,” said Bazza.

According to Bazza, special financial and sustainable development projects must be part of the national strategy to make those adaptations possible.

Monday’s forum, which follows up on one held in 2009, takes place from June 27-29 with the participation of over 14 countries, which are tasked with formulating practical recommendations to address national and regional projects. The countries will also work to draft a road map for the implementation of the new recommendations.

Another FAO representative, Ali Moumen, urged nations to support rural development as they tackle challenges created by climate change.

“The majority of the world’s population lives in rural areas and such a development would significantly help to control inflation and food security,” Moumen added.

Moumen also said that while climate change has been influencing food safety policies, it has also been affecting the manufacturing of goods around the world.