The Egg Recall Was a Disaster Waiting to Happen

[depakid]

The price of unregulated mega-farming will be more public health crises to come

If my experience is any guide, the people who are least surprised to hear of the appalling conditions that led to the egg recall that began on August 13 were my fellow small and mid-sized farmers. Many of us have watched with alarm the changes in the poultry industry over the past several decades and warned of its likely consequences.

I have been a farmer for more than two decades and a poultry farmer for the majority of that time. Since founding the National Black Farmers Association in 1995, I have spoken out many times about how the rise of industrial mega-farms has increased the risk of widespread food problems.

In May, I submitted public comment to a joint Department of Justice-USDA workshop on agricultural regulation held in Huntsville, Alabama. The event, part of an ongoing investigation focused on http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/workshops/ag2010/index.htm">Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement Issues in Our 21st Century Economy, was chaired by Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. In my testimony I spoke of the problems mega-farms have created and urge regulators to support small producers. Unfortunately, prior to the current recall, momentum for reform was not strong enough.

In the wake of the public health crisis, people are waking up to a troubling reality. Today, a few hundred mega-farms produce the majority of our country's eggs. The intensive industrial operations on these farms represent a fundamental change in the industry from the time when chickens grew cage-free in the chicken houses of small and mid-sized operations. This change is one that presents a significant threat to public health.

The reason is simple: A small farmer can look at an individual chicken and see whether that bird is healthy or sick. If you are in the chicken house every day, you can tell whether a chicken is behaving normally or constantly sitting--a sign of trouble. Small farmers have the ability to keep their farms clean, to promptly take out dead animals, and to make sure that there is enough room for the others. Small farmers are better able to control the sources of disease, such as rodents and decaying livestock. And we as consumers and a society should support the nation's small and mid-size farms for this and many other reasons.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-boyd-jr/the-egg-recall-was-a-disa_b_698298.html

[mwb970]

1. How many more "corporate abuse" stories do we have to hear before we wake up?

Some days it seems like half the articles in the paper are about one corporation or another misbehaving in a way that hurts America and its citizens. And yet, nothing changes. There's a different newspaper full of more corporate horror stories the very next day. And the next. And the next.

[depakid]

2. Remember these guys:

Peanut Corp. Owner Refuses To Testify To Congress:

Ohio Health Officials Link New Death To Nationwide Salmonella Outbreak.

See the jar, the congressman challenged Stewart Parnell, holding up a container of the peanut seller's products and asking if he'd dare eat them. Parnell pleaded the Fifth.

The man at the center of the nation's largest food recall ever made no apologies today. In fact - he said almost nothing at all, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

"I respectfully decline to answer your question," was just about all he said.

Parnell, the CEO of Georgia's Peanut Corporation of America, sat stone faced, and took the Fifth in response to every angry question regarding the bacteria-tainted products he defiantly told employees to ship to some 50 manufacturers of cookies, crackers and ice cream.

"Turn them loose," Parnell had told his plant manager in an internal e-mail disclosed at the House hearing. The e-mail referred to products that once were deemed contaminated but were cleared in a second test last year.

Summoned by congressional subpoena, the owner of Peanut Corp. of America repeatedly invoked his right not to incriminate himself at the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on the salmonella outbreak that has sickened some 600 people, may be linked to nine deaths - the latest reported in Ohio on Wednesday - and resulted in one of the largest product recalls of more than 1,900 items.

Parnell sat stiffly, his hands folded in his lap at the witness table, as Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., held up a clear jar of his company's products wrapped in crime-scene tape and asked if he would eat them.

"Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, on advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer your questions based on the protections afforded me under the U.S. Constitution," Parnell responded.

More: http://cbs5.com/national/peanut.butter.salmonella.2.932415.html

The Obama administration has declined to prosecute...

[Nihil]

5. Well, there's a change ...

> The Obama administration has declined to prosecute...

:eyes:

[GliderGuider]

7. Unfortunately, it's change I believe

Not believe in, mind you...

[justgamma]

3. Too many regulations are what caused the recall.

At least, that's what Grassley was saying on the radio. He said that if it wasn't for all the nasty regulations, there wouldn't be any mega farms.

He also thinks we're stupid.

[napi21]

4. I ased my husband who's had been in the meat business a long time, if he thought

things were getting worse in the slaughte houses & egg farms, etc. because there have been so many recalls in recent years. He firmly said NO! He said it's been bad since the rise of the big corp. businesses, but it looks worse to the public because the public has been putting more pressure on the Gov't inspectors to DO THEIR JOB!

[eppur_se_muova]

6. No one could have predicted that ...

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9004485&mesg_id=9004485

[depakid]

8. How about that...

We had been waiting for these regulations for 10 years, Jeff. These are regulations. They had been subject to pilot studies, risk assessments. They were strongly science-based regulations, but they had been languishing at the Department of Health and Human Services throughout the entire Bush administration.

(Note the date though: 24 August 2010).