Food Safety Groups Warn Of Looming Zoonotic Pandemic, Blast USDA'S New Slaughter Plant Rules
Last edited Mon Apr 6, 2020, 10:38 PM - Edit history (1)
- 'Food Safety Groups Warn of Looming Zoonotic Pandemic, Blast USDA's New Slaughter Plant Regulation.' "Self-regulation when it comes to animal movement, slaughter, and meat inspection is bad news." Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams, April 6, 2020.
Food safety advocates warned Monday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's newly implemented rules for pig slaughter are setting the stage for a potential public health disaster—including the possibility of another infectious disease that could come from animals.
At issue is the New Swine Inspection System (NSIS), which the USDA finalized in October. Touted by the federal agency as a "modernization" effort, the regulation sparked immediate fears and lawsuits by watchdog groups over its elimination of kill speed limits and weakening of the inspection system.
As NBC News previously reported:
The new rule will let factory workers, rather than USDA inspectors, remove unsuitable carcasses and trim defects in plants that opt into the new inspection system. USDA inspectors will still examine the carcasses, but they will be stationed farther down the line.
The USDA claims the new system will still "ensure food safety," but its critics have new evidence to say otherwise.
-- "While people across the country are fighting against a dangerous pandemic believed to have come first from animals, USDA is eliminating necessary safeguards against the spread of infectious diseases from swine," said Zach Corrigan, senior staff attorney with Food & Water Watch.
A new analysis from Food & Water Watch released Monday and included in a lawsuit against the USDA says that in plants where the new system has been implemented, "federal government veterinarians were precluded and prevented from adequately inspecting animals and carcasses that had signs of diseases, recent treatment, and other abnormal food-safety and public health-related conditions that would render an animal or its meat not fit for human consumption."
"Self-regulation when it comes to animal movement, slaughter, and meat inspection is bad news. This data shows just how bad it really is," said Zach Corrigan, senior staff attorney with Food & Water Watch.
The U.S, being the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak that has claimed tens of thousands of lives worldwide only serves to underscore the need to move away from the new regulation, Corrigan said.
"While people across the country are fighting against a dangerous pandemic believed to have come first from animals, USDA is eliminating necessary safeguards against the spread of infectious diseases from swine," added Corrigan. "USDA is endangering public health. They should shut down NSIS immediately."...
More, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/06/food-safety-groups-warn-looming-zoonotic-pandemic-blast-usdas-new-slaughter-plant
- New Report, 'Swine Rules So Dangerous They Could Spur Another Zoonotic Pandemic,' Center For Food Safety, 4/6/20
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/04/06/new-swine-rules-so-dangerous-they-could-spur-another-zoonotic-pandemic
'The Jungle' (1906) Upton Sinclair's book expose about the unregulated meat packing industry in Chicago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle
= new reply since forum marked as read
Im thinking the sooner I can go vegetarian the better 
The hardest part, from when I have done it before was giving up butter and cheese...I managed it for about a year...
lasted about a year (i had a BF that was a great cook and spoiled me, lol) still could never really get away from butter & cheese...cheese is LIFE! 
but yeah, i remember the first few times I had meat after that and my guts wre in knots...no gut flora to handle it. SOmeimtes I winder if all of us evolved from the cavemen who ate mammoth, maybe some of us were always made to eat less meat 
Letting the food industry, or any industry, self regulate is the proverbial 'fox in charge of the henhouse' Why we could even try letting young people self regulate - No ID for alcohol purchases--just self regulate. Yep, That'll work jus' fine!
