What is it going to take to make the contamination of our pet and human food supply the number one story in America? A pile of dead babies who drank melamine-contaminated baby formula?
Where are the ads from Kraft, General Mills, McDonald’s, and other huge manufacturers and sellers of foods that have been tainted, with their assurances that they are taking steps to test for poisons in the foods they sell?
Why are there still companies that imported melamine-laced wheat, corn, rice and vegetable glutens staying silent and not recalling the products? The FDA has refused to name two additional pet food companies whose products are contaminated and have not been recalled. How many companies that are selling contaminated human foods are hiding?
At least a couple of Congress people are paying attention, because sure as hell the President, the Attorney General, the FDA, the MSM and the public are not.
House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, (D-CT), threatened Wednesday to slash Food and Drug Administration management salaries if agency leaders refuse to implement food safety measures she says are necessary, according to Govexec.com. But that won’t happen until October when their budget is up for renewal.
“Our food safety system is collapsing,” DeLauro said, “and the very agency charged with fixing it is asleep.” DeLauro told The Hartford Courant.
She also renewed her bid for a single agency to regulate and enforce food safety laws, a task now shared by 15 different agencies. But that could take years.
The FDA is responsible for about 80 percent of the food supply. Yet, US food safety laws are over 100 years old, according to Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Something needs to be done now, today. Our pets were just the coal mine canaries. Things are going to get a lot worse very soon. Pigs and chickens are already quarantined in several states, vegetable and soy protein is in food ranging from baby formula to energy bars.
Doesn’t that bother anyone just a little?
Tags: BL_Ochman, business, food_contamination
I agree with this. People need to be more conscious and out spoken of what’s going on around them. Personally, I think the big issue should be the security and quality control that the FDA and gov’t agencies should be doing about it, not precisely this particular case (from what I’ve read and investigated this contaminant in such diluted amounts is not hurtful for human beings). However this proposes a threat and vulnerability in the system and should be tackled as such.
We definitely have our priorities upside down, especially when it comes to media. We can’t get enough of Heather Mills fake leg, and we risk putting important issues in the back burner.
Great job!
Ron E.
http://brandcurve.com
I don’t believe for a second that “this contaminant in such diluted amounts is not hurtful for human beings.”
I’m feeling like I’m yelling into the wind right now because nobody seems bothered by this debacle – least of all the presidential candidates who ought to have plenty to say about the future of the food chain.
We need action and we need answers.
B.L.,
Thank you for writing this post. This is a very important issue. Having been part of the natural products industry for many years, I can tell you this from experience: the FDA is far short of the number of agents it truly needs to guarantee the safety of the food supply. More recent department heads at FDA have pushed political agendas that sometimes have little to do with administering their core responsibilities. Lastly, decades of governmental expansion and numerous agencies have both diluted accountability. There should be one, and only one, major governmental agency responsible for guaranteeing the safety of our food.
I don’t let Congress off the hook for this, either; regardless of one Congresswoman’s bluster. Where has the oversight been all of these months and years over there? I recall a few years ago that Henry Waxman (D-CA) wanted vitamins and nutritional supplements to become regulated substances and available only by prescription. Where are these same people on a far more potentially lethal issue?
I’m trying to figure out what, if anything, bloggers can do to demand action on this issue.
But there seems to be very little concern and I am completely baffled about that.
I have friends who’ve had pets die from the contaminated foods, and once it hits home, people pay attention.
Babies could soon be in the mix and i guess that’ll get people off their butts to complain.