According to the Washington Post, “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California farms that led to disease outbreaks that killed three people, sickened hundreds, and forced one of the biggest product recalls in U.S. history, documents and interviews show.”
The Post added that “the agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers to police themselves, according to agency documents.”
Now here’s the killer (pardon the unpardonable pun) line: “Congressional critics and consumers advocates said both episodes show that the agency is incapable of adequately protecting the safety of the food supply.”
Repeat: “Incapable of adequately protecting the safety of the food supply.”
We have people literally dying from unwittingly buying food products they have every reason to believe are safe, and yet Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. Henry Waxman want to compound FDA’s problems by adding the regulation of tobacco products - products which the public already FULLY knows the dangers of - to the FDA’s already overburdened plate.
Only in Washington, DC, could this make sense.
Posted on June 6th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
Only in Washington. Reminds me of the problems with HMO care in California. The state licenses HMOs which they report are unable to render quality care to patients, and then state that they have to license them so that the poor will have some place to have this poor quality of care, which just makes the problem worse. Because having had poor care, means that remedial care must be taken. Patients then need twice as much care to solve a problem and costs spiral exponentially.
And this has been going on for years.
The rest of the Story:
“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has known for years about contamination problems…”
“…In the peanut butter case, an agency report shows that FDA inspectors checked into complaints about salmonella contamination in a ConAgra Foods factory in Georgia in 2005. But when company managers refused to provide documents the inspectors requested, the inspectors left and did not follow up.”
So, don’t blame Kennedy/Waxman; blame Bush/Fitch/Hastert. You can’t FIX the problem until you IDENTIFY the problem.
Fuck! I’m tired of the old “it’s the Democratic Party’s fault blame game. Come on Chuck, you’re not an R anymore, you can lay blame where it belongs.
So between the Bush Administration not caring about our food stock and the then Republican Congress not adequately funding the Dept. of Agriculture to deal with the explosive growth of food processing facilities, many people got sick.
Again, read paragraph 2 above which is from the WP story…”the inspectors left and did not follow up.”
Yell about the truth, Chuck, and don’t distort a story for political purposes. ie, don’t act like a lame ass Faux News commentator.
..and I didn’t say it, becuase it is SO obvious, but, HOW MUCH MONEY HAS CONAGRA
..and I didn’t say it, becuase it is SO obvious, but, HOW MUCH MONEY HAS CONAGRA given to the Republican Party over the past 8 years???????!!!!!!!
I send you and your visitors my best greetings.