Behind the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Behind the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
By Isaiah J. Poole

June 13th, 2008 - 10:44am ET


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What we've been calling e. coli conservatism is a major factor in the salmonella outbreak in tomatoes that has led to at least 228 illnesses and one suspected death.

The outbreak took place several months after the Food and Drug Administration, the agency responsible for policing the produce supply, released its "food protection plan" that was, in the words of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt, "a strategy of prevention, intervention and response to build safety into every step of the food supply chain."

That plan was a response to a series of food-borne illness outbreaks, from tainted dog food to infected spinach, that revealed the weaknesses in the administration's laissez-faire approach to food safety and its chronic starvation of the government agencies that regulate food safety.

But in the eight months since that announcement, we learned Thursday from the Government Accountability Office, the FDA has dragged its feet:

Since FDA’s Food Protection Plan was first released in November 2007, FDA has added few details on the resources and strategies required to implement the plan. FDA plans to spend about $90 million over fiscal years 2008 and 2009 to implement several key actions, such as identifying food vulnerabilities and risk. From the information GAO has obtained on the Food Protection Plan, however, it is unclear what FDA’s overall resource need is for implementing the plan, which could be significant. For example, based on FDA estimates, if FDA were to inspect each of the approximately 65,500 domestic food firms regulated by FDA once, the total cost would be approximately $524 million.

The GAO also noted that of 34 recommendations that the office offered to the FDA to improve its food safety inspection program since 2004, the agency has only implemented seven of them.

The Food Protection Plan is itself a mix of lofty promises and suspect strategies. One element of the plan, for example, would allow the FDA to designate third parties, including private contractors, to inspect food on the FDA's behalf. That is a pander to conservative anti-government orthodoxy; there is no evidence that outsourcing food inspection to private contractors would work better than an effectively managed and adequately funded government program, and there is plenty of reason to suspect that a private contractor would be more susceptible to corruption and less accountable to the public.

All of which suggests that the Bush administration wants to appear as if it is concerned about food safety, but doesn't want government to do the hard work of actually protecting the food supply. To the extent that it does, it does so kicking and screaming in response to political pressure. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/behind-attack-killer-tomatoes

[Speck Tater]

1. I remember that movie

[PermanentRevolution]

5. The sequel remains the high point of George Clooney's career...

I highly recommend picking it up!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095989/

*Disclaimer*

Management will in no way be held culpable in the event that the above suggestion be heeded.

[aquart]

2. Outsourced inspections? Stop that now!

No way in hell is that acceptable. Make it a campaign issue because people don't know they're trying it.

[marmar]

3. Agreed.

n/t

[opihimoimoi]

4. Them Pubs had the helm for all these years...result...cronyism..and failures

WTF? Can they at least hire COMPETENT CRONIES??