Jim Jones Looks Toward FDA's Future

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the print edition of QA under the headline "Who's the Boss?"

Every organization goes through ups and downs. And the Food and Drug Administration is no different.

But the stakes are higher when you’re tasked with protecting public health. So, it’s understandable when “Put the F Back in FDA” started trending online in 2022 as a way to knock the agency for the perception that it focused too much on things that were not its Human Foods Program, such as drugs.

In April 2023, food safety lawyer Bill Marler wrote about taking the “F out of FDA,” advocating for a separate food safety agency that would have the autonomy and funding to protect the public’s food supply. It’s something that former FDA Deputy Commissioner of Foods Michael Taylor has also advocated for, and in 2022, U.S. Rep. Rosa de Lauro and Sen. Dick Durbin introduced legislation that would establish a separate food agency.

Instead, FDA is reorganizing its human foods program based on feedback from a 2022 Reagan-Udall Foundation evaluation. And last summer, the agency found the person who it hoped would lead it through this period: Jim Jones, who is the focus of this issue’s cover story.

In our Q&A written by Managing Editor Jacqueline Mitchell, Jones, a former Environmental Protection Agency employee who served on that Reagan-Udall Foundation committee, was blunt, open and honest about the challenges ahead.

“The steps that we’re going through right now are pretty much out of FDA’s control,” he told Mitchell about the reorganization’s progress. “There are multiple steps that are required for reorganization. There are other entities in the government, executive branch and legislative, who play a role, and they don’t work for us, so it’s hard to predict.”

But he was also hopeful and excited for the future.

“I’m very excited about getting the new organization into place,” he said. “I think that our ability to be effective is going to be significantly increased in the new organization versus the existing one.”

It’s also worth noting that Jones and the FDA were open and communicative about arranging this in-person interview and were largely hands-off on controlling what we reported.

I’ve been working on magazines long enough to tell you that is rarely the case. I’m taking it as a good sign.