Posted on 05/26/2010 6:51:42 PM PDT by JimPrevor
The recent recall of fresh-cut romaine lettuce processed in an Ohio facility...has given a new rallying cry to activists trying to spur quick Senate passage of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a self-proclaimed consumer advocacy group, made this statement:
"While consumers wait for Congress to pass food safety legislation, the plants that process and bag lettuce and the farms that grow it are operating under an industry honor system which clearly failed in this case. The FDA can’t tell us when it last had inspectors in the plant where this lettuce was processed. Congress urgently needs to give the FDA the resources and authority from the farm forward, transforming it from a reactive agency to an agency focused on preventing contamination.
Freshway is conducting this recall on a voluntary basis, because — even with the presence of this serious food safety hazard — FDA lacks the ability to order a recall. Giving the FDA mandatory recall authority is another reason why the Senate should bring S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, to the floor without further delay."
This is all a non sequitur. The implicated company promptly recalled its product in accordance with FDA requests; giving the FDA authority to recall would not have affected the case. The proposed legislation would require that the FDA inspect “high risk” food processing facilities just once a year and others once every four years. But the facility involved in this case already was regularly inspected by many government inspectors and private auditing groups. There is no indication that more frequent inspection by the FDA reduces the incidence of foodborne illness.
...Here is a six-point plan to revise and improve the federal government’s approach to food safety.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewatlantis.com ...
I didn’t know food was in danger.
Testing the illegal alien employees for communicable diseases?
There was a recent Discovery Channel special about a rich family that was mysteriously stricken with a third-world parasitic diseases. Somehow the film makers managed to fill up an hour-and-a-half of scientific detective work with what anyone could have told them off the bat.
Inspections are nonsense. Irradiation is the answer.
Bingo!
This is another of those Acts we do NOT want to see passed. As you’ve said, the FDA already has enormous power. As one who grows a fair percentage of the food my family eats for health reasons, I am absolutely against this bill passing. In my comments here, I’d like to suggest that people take a look at the following link for further information, and read the bill. Please take a look at: http://www.ftcldf.org/index.html. They summarize the effects of the bill pretty well. Here’s a link to a page about the bill: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-875
FDA is ridiculous. All this will do is put small producers and manufacturers out of business. The big manufacturers and producers will continue. Eventually, and inevitably, one of the products at the fancy, updated plants will still carry a disease, only now, you won’t be able to find an alternate source because there are less manufacturers. Brilliant.
Food became less safe under the Clinton administration. He signed an executive order, ordering all branches of the government, including the FDA to harmonize with UN/”free trade” rules which declared that it was a ‘barrier to trade’ if we didn’t allow food to come in from countries with less stringent food safety than we have.
Then Clinton and Bush both, used the USTR office and “free trade” agreements as the reason for matching our food safety rules with the Codex Alimnetarius of the UN, which meant relaxing our safety standards.
This is why it is now ok(in fact required) for the US to import honey from China contaminated with banned antibiotics for humans, and for allowing human sewage fertilized onions from Mexico and elsewhere in the world to be imported into our food supply.
CAFTA is the reason we shut down our domestic sugar producers in favor of slave labor sugar plantations (with no food safety standards) in Dominican Republic.
Finally, these are the reasons we have no ‘food safety’ anymore. Whatever programs the states had, are renedered ineffective by international agreement.
This is the state of our Union. When will the American people stand up for Sovereignty?
You’re not paying attention.
Wow. Got humor?
Actually the time for humor is passed.
The destruction of American sovereignty is deadly now.
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