April 23, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


WE'RE EXPENDABLE

Conservative politicians hate regulation. They think it just stifles the ability for businesses to make money when they have to consider little things like public health and safety. Corporations, for their part, like to do cost-benefit analyses. Will lawsuits be more expensive than cutting corners here and there? How will a few deaths affect our bottom line? We learn now that the Food and Drug Administration knew about contaminated food going into the food supply, but relied on producers to "police themselves." Yeah, that's going to happen. This story by Elizabeth Williamson is at www.washingtonpost.com:

The Food and Drug Administration has known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California spinach 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.

Overwhelmed by huge growth in the number of food processors and imports, however, the agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers to police themselves, according to agency documents.

Congressional critics and consumer advocates said both episodes show that the agency is incapable of adequately protecting the safety of the food supply.

FDA officials conceded that the agency's system needs to be overhauled to meet today's demands, but contended that the agency could not have done anything to prevent either contamination episode.