hospitalization or death number of hospitalization. >> said about to be a little bit comforting to all of the policymakers. if we really don't have that information, then how much credibility should we put in someone's opinion. the hospitalizations out of a building in him is it possible that we would ever get to zero? i want to answer my own question. i am aware of people that have had and are having a tremendous amount of influence on the food safety questions that are not using the sound science. of those that oppose the biotechnology of those that oppose genetically modifying plants. they have opinions that they are welcome to. they may be right. but until there is some scientific evidence that they are right, why should we either

by law or by a regulatory body and whose cost on our food industry without at least acknowledging that we are going to do tremendous damage to the hungry in the world packs i oppose that as a question but in all of the discussions we have particularly bad that gets a lot of attention it is alleged that biotechnology is harmful for the human body without any evidence as of yet been put forth except by a few that have their opinion. i think we need to take that into consideration. user fees i render that argument from my days on the house agricultural committee and the meat and whole tree area. you have a little problem. if you are going to use the user fees you are immediately going to have criticism from all of the folks that are opposed to the way that we produce food today. the food factories as they are

called. then you are going to have them paying for the food safety and criticism and it is just a round circle coming back. so these are the areas that we need to acknowledge in the discussion. you said we need to have the best and safest food supply at the lowest cost of any of the people around the world. he and i made this statement many times and i've been challenged by some of our international friends periodically. they would say you have the safest and i said i have the best supply and safest at the lowest cost. there has to be a trade-off. >> 126,000 hospitalizations, that's not an opinion. the cbc has done scientific work and they've done the estimates.

there is good science behind those numbers. >> what is the trend we had ten years ago? >> i don't know. i don't study those numbers. but here's the thing. we have seen increased outbreaks linked to certain products and so that raises concerns. we have the produce industry recognizing that they were seeing a lot of outbreaks like the spinach and peppers and those sort of things and so they were actually supporting the food safety modernization act it wasn't just based on those. it was a recognized problem and this was the congress' attempt to recognize those. >> we look at this from the perspective of small and for us to be diverse farmers, black farmers, latino farmers out in fresno and also the farm workers. and i think it's been a really

interesting discussion and really what the overall context of my question is is how do we know what is going to work? you know, where are -- where is the lack of safety coming from? we try to work with insurance companies to figure out if you worked on farm worker health and safety and so forth, would you improve your insurance ratings by having safety on the foreign? small farmers we have been training them for a lot of years in the gaps. now they do need to have another system. but, you know, or the problems arising from the smaller forms, from the larger farms, what can we know from where the outbreaks are into the question has come out about the biodynamic farms and there is a history of wheree a lot of our producers are diverse fruit and vegetable growers. how do we figure out what's

going to work and what systems really show the results? that is a good question and part of the answer at least from our perspective is that as the fda is crafting the rules, for example for the produce, the notion of flexibility and that i talked about one size does not fit all, making sure that is in the rule and that there are not only -- that there are pathways whereby producers can identify different ways to accomplish food safety, i think that as chris talked about in his direct presentation, the american public at the moment is very focused in the safety of food that they fit the second concern to the public into that concern is reflected not only in the

legislation but frankly it is reflected on every single retailer in america. to varying degrees they demand food safety being placed before the retailer is going to be purchasing the product and entering the commerce streams. it is the wholesalers paul is using for some of his products that are going to demand that as well. understanding the food safety system and the fda establishing the standards and rules. but then also recognizing the diversity of the production systems, the diversity of the production climate, understanding the risk factors and then allowing the variability and alternatives in having the avenues to have alternatives and differences from that standard will. that is a big part of the answer to make this work across the

diversity of the landscape that we have in the united states. >> i was hoping that is what i was trying to get to in my comments trying to think more broadly be under 26,000 hospitalizations and the estimates of where those foodborne illnesses come from, 40% come from homes. you can argue whether that traces back to the farms or not, but the rest of them have been in the supply chain. in the transportation where you eat at your restaurant, 3% according to the cdc go back to the farm 3%. that's not a bad record. we have to know what target we are aiming at if you look at the agricultural systems to make them healthier you have to look pretty deep.

what we are really looking for is movement towards healthy outcomes that are measurable. we are looking for trying to identify the risk factors and it's much for difficult when you have multiple sources coming from the international products was it blueberries that were processed in turkey that came to the california organic producer that was put into a drink that made people sick it's an international issue in some ways but it's a very intimate local issue. charlie had mentioned that we cannot load more on the cost of food. i would argue that farmers are consistently hit with that argument and we cannot see more profits in agriculture and really it is if you have fair returns for farmers to have more time and resources to the vote. regulations gets dumped down to the bottom and they hit the hardest on the bottom.

so i think that we should be arguing for fair wages, minimum wage so people actually have the resource to pay for food. we should be arguing for jobs that have some level of permanence where you're not looking to be a part-time worker but rather to go back to encourage full-time employment for most people in the workforce. they are much more complicated issues and i think the food pricing often times is dumped on farmers and the cost of the regulations if they get dumped on farmers, the impact will be huge. we need to consider carefully what we are targeting. the healthy system that we are shooting for that we understand is much larger community. and that we actually need to pay attention to that because we don't want to create rules that

run counter to that new emerging knowledge about how the systems work. >> that's the last word before i turn it over. if you would come forward now it is time to give the panel a hand. [applause] two additional comments i would make for in a were in an internl marketplace whether we like it or not. we are in an international marketplace. you have heard a discussion of that and establishing the scientific-based decisions is going to be extremely important. ..

>> if there is a general sitting in the witness chair, they tend to fawn over him. petraeus andt with gates in his hearings when he was nominated as secretary of defense by george w. bush. they were so thrilled he wasn't rumsfeld. the really hard questions. all of those pertains to his test -- past activities. prominent figure in the cia at the time. they required intelligence that

iran was somehow moderating and that intelligence was conveniently forthcoming. >> mike writes about washington in "the party is over." sunday night at 8:00. minutes, we will be going back live to the national winterr's association meeting. they will be focusing on states disaster response and repair nest. the governors will be hearing from the chief of the national guard bureau and associates with the red cross. it will begin live at 3:00 on c-span. tomorrow morning, our coverage of the visiting governors continues, first on wanting to .ournal with terry branstad he will join us to take your calls. we'll talk to the president of

service employees international union about issues facing labor unions and their workers. report onent u.n. north korea and crimes against humanity. john park will join us for that. watch washington journal live every morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern with the headlines in your calls. while we wait for the governors to return for the next section, we will take a look at this morning's opening news conference with the chair this year, mary of oklahoma and vice hickenlooper. >> good morning and thank you all for coming today to our

opening news conference for the nga. i am proud to be joined today by our vice chair and our director as far as chairman, we have our best practices committee, john hickenlooper of colorado, governor, thank you for joining us. governor beebe from arkansas, our neighbor from the state of oklahoma, and i am governor mary fallin from oklahoma. and governor harry herbert from utah, who is also a member of our executive committee. we are all members of the executive committee, so we appreciate you joining us here today and being part of our beginning of our national governors association, which will kick off in about an hour with our opening session. let me start out by saying that our message is very clear and that is that governors are leading across the nation. governors are addressing the problems that are facing our nation, they are proposing solutions. governors are in the process of laying the groundwork for being able to develop a stronger

state, building stronger economies, and we do not have the luxury of an action as we see many times here in washington, d.c. governors are expected to solve problems, expected to solve issues that face our state, which i believe help our nation. while washington remains in the gridlock, many times we see a lot of partisan politics and in action in washington, d.c., we find that our governors are doing their part to work together in collaboration, to share best practices on how we can grow our economy, how we can create a stronger, better educated workforce, and meet the challenges that are facing our states and certainly our nation. and we hope that as we continue to work with our federal partners here in washington, d.c. that we can work together in an effort of collaboration between the states and certainly be able to work together to solve these issues. governors also believe in what we call flexible federalism.

pressing issues that are facing our states, improving our programs and policies, and also being able to bring innovation to many of the issues that are facing not only our state but certainly our nation. as you know, the president getting ready to release his budget, and that will be around the middle of march, so we are looking forward to seeing what his budget holds. in the meantime, we also as governors want to share some principles that we think are important for the president and the administration, certainly be a u.s. housing congress to consider. first of all, any type of federal reforms that we see coming from washington, d.c. that proposed to produce federal savings must also be able to produce state savings. in other words, as the federal government continues to look at ways to reduce our deficit, they also need to remember that states also have a budget, but we have to balance our budget --

unlike washington, d.c. we have to be fiscally responsible and we have to balance our budgets. we also believe that deficit reduction should not be achieved by shifting the costs to the states. as i said, we have to balance our budgets and we cannot support unfunded mandates coming down to our states and those shifting of costs. states also want to be given increased flexibility to be able to create more efficiencies, to be able to look at more innovative programs, to achieve the types of results will support also think congress should not pass unfunded mandates, especially with strings attached to them. that include sending funding to the states, but also saying there are strings attached if you want to this federal funding. in short, governors need flexibility because there are

many great, and innovative, creative programs that are being proposed by the governors as they are leading the way to address the challenges facing our state and certainly our citizens. as i look around the room and i see our governors that have joined us here today, i want to just emphasize that we can accomplish a lot. by working together, in the spirit of collaboration. there are certainly differences of opinion between the different political parties, but we also believe that governors can come together and offer best practices, good ideas, work in a way that is collaborative to be able to move our nation forward while we can improve our economy, create jobs, improve our schools and be fiscally responsible in our budgets. that is why the nga is important. it is a bipartisan organization where we can all come together, we can identify priorities, best practices, bring innovative solutions, and identify those issues that bring us together, not divide us. so that is exactly what we are going to be working on this weekend during the nga meeting.

that is having candid conversations between our governors about policies and being able to share those ideas. we will also spend this time on our initiative for this year, and that is the chair's initiative. i have the great pleasure to be able to serve as the chair for nga. good to have you here, north dakota. i'm glad to have you here. my mission this year is called america works, education and training for tomorrow's jobs. that is an issue that is important to all governors, whether you're republican or democratic, it is important to the nation. that is being able to create more jobs in america, stronger jobs, build a stronger economy, create better opportunity for our children, generations of children, and even for those adults who are in the workforce. my initiative outlines a way that states can lead the charge in creating those jobs and bringing solutions to improve

our workforce, improve our skills gap that we find in our nation. states are leading the way in improving their education systems, and we also know the importance of building a highly skilled workforce. as all of us talk to our employers and individual states, we know many times our employers tell us they cannot find the workers they need with the right kinds of skill sets, yet we also know citizens and our states that are looking for jobs or even college graduates and high school graduates or career technology school graduates that are looking for jobs and want to find a way to expand their own home state. that is why our chair's initiative is going to be working on improving education, certainly working on including our private sector businesses in that along with our education systems and to the initiative itself so that we can realign our education systems, to

realign it with the needs of the current employers, the current needs of the workforce, and being able to fill that skills gap so we can have a highly skilled, educated workforce to help america still be calm and still be the superpower of the world and be very competitive. this initiative also talks about something that we think it's very important, and that is, as you look at today's workforce, we know that the majority of jobs that are created in america now require more than a high school degree. in fact, we call it the new minimum, and the new minimum is that our workforce needs something beyond high school, whether it is a career technology certificate, an associates degree, a college degree or above, to be able to achieve the american dream to be able to reach the middle class. that is something that we all strive for in our states and for our citizens. states can help overcome those gaps, those skills gaps by

bringing together education, training programs, certainly our private sector businesses, to help better prepare our young people for the workforce. so this weekend, we are going to be focusing on education and training for tomorrow's jobs, and we have the great pleasure this morning of starting out our opening session with one of our top ceo's in our nation, the ceo of general electric, ge, and that is jeffrey immelt. we are very excited to hear his comments, once again, about what employers need any type of focus that states need to provide. this afternoon, our conference will also take up another important issue, and that is transportation and infrastructure issues. we all want to see a reauthorization of the focus transportation bill that is currently being discussed in congress, and so our economic development and commerce committee session will be

talking about surface transportation and how important it is that congress enact and build a path forward for sustainability, a long-term plan for transportation, infrastructure needs, and the funding of that because transportation is so critical not only to commerce but to economic development, jobs creation, and it is important to our global competitiveness as a nation. last month, i had the opportunity to go in front of the transportation committee in congress and testify on behalf of the governors about the importance of these surface reauthorization transportation bills. it is something within that all governors think is important in a bipartisan way. next, our governors will also be meeting with her homeland security and public safety committee to talk about two important issues and that is an issue that all governors face, and that is dealing with natural disasters and how important it is that we maintain and

strengthen our partnerships, it especially with our national organizations like the american red cross, and other organizations that help us in times of tragedies and disaster. and then the second part of the discussion will involve the national guard. as commanders in chief of the national guard, we recognize the importance of having a strong national guard in our individual states, whether it is helping during times of crisis with natural disasters or helping in times of supporting our military in their crucial roles and it being an integral part of the military itself. so we are looking forward to having general frank grass, who is the members of the joint chief of staff and the chief of the national guard bureau who will join us as afternoon. governors are also continuously calling for congress to work with the national guard, especially what we see as

disproportionate tests to the national guard as they look at cutting the federal exit and ways they help reduce our debt in our nation, but governor still need the national guard to have the capacity, to have the quality, the men and women and service agreement that we need to be able to stand up our national guard. we look forward to continuing to work on that issue. other findings that the national commission of the structure of the air force put out earlier this year that relates to the national guard, they also have been looking at ways to find cost savings, and that is one of the other reasons we are focusing on this issue is that states and governors need to be involved in a discussion as they are looking at cost savings. the guard is the only military force that a governor can call upon during times of disaster,

so it is very important to us. tomorrow, we will be looking at a discussion about employment trends within our states, growth opportunities, and the ever changing economic climate that we see in our nation. so we will have a special session with our governors to talk about jobs, the economy, greeting the right business climate for job growth, and maria bartiromo will be talking to us. she is an anchor on the fox news channel. she will be talking about many issues involving jobs in the economy. so now, i would like to pass comments onto our vice care of our national governors association, and a friend of mine that i work for a closely with and that is governor john hickenlooper of colorado. governor? [applause] >> thank you, mary, and i want to publicly recognize you cannot

put together a weekend like we have now without some great leadership, and governor fallin has done a remarkable job. if you are trying to move the runners from one place to another, there is a better word i cannot really use in public, and that might all get you wondering what is in my mind, but i think it is a real testimony to your leadership, the talent, and i'm going to cover some of that. i think we are guaranteed success is by getting all of these people in the same room at the same time, and i think that having that opportunity for people to connect and build relationships is critically important. one of the great things is we have all of these governors up here, and i know each one of them. there is too much competition for their time, yet when they take time out to come to a conference like this, we build a better partnership for the federal government, but we also

build a better relationship with each other. we love to share and steal ideas from each other and see them improve and then we steal them back, and there is not a person up here who is not contributed to moving the ball down the field in that effort. i think that that is a big part of what we are going to be doing here this weekend. education at all levels is a top priority for all levels, and i think governor fallin's initiative, really making sure that we get workforce training and education, much more focus of an integrated level is continuing to bear fruit. we have all been committed to providing world-class education for every student, and we continue to ask congress to make the long-overdue reforms to the elementary and secondary education act. those changes have to show

flexibility -- you will hear that word all weekend. flexible federalism is the catchphrase you will hear all weekend. we have to pursue innovation and unusual changes in policies to get the better outcome for the same money spent. tomorrow morning the education and workforce committee will focus on early childhood education. arnie duncan is going to be here for that. anyou actually look, this is example of where it is not a question of republicans and democrats. we will have different ways of going about it. valueides recognize the of early childhood education and what works best for us in the state. the federal government has to be a partner as we move forward. the experiment tatian is still