Putting the E. coli back into E. coli conservatism

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Putting the E. coli back into E. coli conservatism
By Rick Perlstein

February 4th, 2008 - 8:58am ET


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When last I perused a government report for the benefit of Big Con readers, it was the "Import Safety Action Plan" of the President's Working Group on Import Safety. A thoroughly dispiriting document, I tried to demonstrate its clever fraudulence: it was as interested in genuine import safety as the president's "healthy skies" initiative is interested in heathy skies; both are truly interested in getting industry off the hook. Now I've been reading "Federal Oversight of Food Safety," a much more edifying production. It's produced by the Government Accounting Office, whose job it is to bird-dog every corner of government to make sure they do their jobs effectively.. For that reason they are the bane of the Bush Administration and all conservatives who despiseeffective government. Because an accounting office demands of them accountability. I wrote my first post about it here. I used the following work to describe the situation it describes: clusterf*ck.

The story is familiar; we told the same one here at Campaign for America's Future about toxic consumer products. More volume to regulate every year. Less resources to regulate them every year. The "food safety workload has increased in the past decade, while its food safety staff and funding have not kept pace." And, "while FDA received increased funding for new bioterrorism-related responsibilities in 2003, subsequent staffing levels and funding have not kept pace with the agency's growing responsibilities."

There is, however, a point of overlap between the execrable and stone-walling "Import Safety Action Plan" of the President's Working Group on Import Safety, and the responsible and devestating "Federal Oversight of Food Safety" from the GAO. A feeling of déjå vu, if you prefer. It is in the "recommendations" section. Reading both, I kept on exclaiming, "How the hell aren't we doing these things already???".

• "Make it a priority to establish equivalence agreements with other countries. Subject to its jurisdiction, FDA could certify that countries exporting food products to the United States have euqivalent food safety systems before food products from thsoe countries can enter the United States.... FDA has not yet established equivalence agreements with any foreign countries." You mean we're not doing that already???

• "Currently, FDA does not accredit or use any private laboratories to collect or analyze seafood samples. However, for some seafood violations, it allows seafood firms to use private laboratories to provide evidence that imported seafood previously detailed because of safety concerns is now safe and can be removed from the detention list at the port of entry." No accreditation for the laboratories testing our seafood? Hell, maybe I'll set up one of those labs myself. Sounds like a lucrative, and conveniently unregulated, business.

• "Currently, food recalls are largely voluntary—federal agencies responsible for food saefty, including FDA, have no authority to compel companies to recall contaminated foods, with the exception of FDA's authority to require a recall for infant formula." (For as long as I've been studying this stuff, this business about "voluntary recalls" still gobsmacks me every time I hear it.) ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/putting-e-coli-back-e-coli-conservatism