Industry Has Sway Over Food Safety System: Study

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Industry has sway over food safety system: study
Mon Sep 13, 2010 4:58pm EDT

By Christopher Doering

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The food industry is jeopardizing U.S. public health by withholding information from food safety investigators or pressuring regulators to withdraw or alter policy designed to protect consumers, said a survey of government scientists and inspectors.

The study released on Monday by the Union of Concerned Scientists found one-in-four of those surveyed have seen corporate interests forcing their agency to withdraw or modify a policy or action designed to protect consumers during the past year.

Pressure to overhaul the food safety system has grown following high-profile outbreaks involving lettuce, peppers, eggs, peanuts, spinach and most recently, eggs that have sickened thousands and shaken the public's confidence in the safety of the food supply.

The 44-question survey, conducted earlier this year, also found more than 38 percent of those respondents said "public health has been harmed by agency practices that defer to business interests" at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Agriculture Department.

Read more: http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68C39320100913?ca=rdt

[sakabatou]

1. Motherfuckers...

[truedelphi]

2. Very good article. However nowhere in the article is there any mention of

What I believe is the largest subversion of food safety in history - when Bill Clinton's buddy Mike Taylor merely "proclaimed" a doctrine into existence. (Taylor has been well utilized by Pres. Obama - he now heads our FDA.)

Back in the mid-nineties, Mike stated for the official record that there was no difference between GM foods and conventional foods.

The fact that there was no decade's worth of data didn't delay the government from agreeing that this fiat doctrine should be allowed to rule the discussion. I mean, who needs cold hard data when their are so many officials just dying to decree something is or isn't true?

Too bad if indie scientists are discovering ever more contamination of the soil, due to glyphosate and other nasties contained in RoundUp. And the results are that our wheat, corn and rice (grown thrown the benevolence of Monsanto) are now fusarium-containing products. The contamination is such that many nations now boycott our grain.

[jwirr]

3. They sway the food industry and encourage the rest of us to grow

our own. Unfortunately they even have their ugly hands on that.

[xchrom]

4. Recommend