Pathetic Gesture in FDA Legistlation Puts People Last

The House passed a very weak and pathetic food safety bill. It was supposed to help the FDA get some teeth, resources and authority after the beef, spinach, pepper and peanut calamities of the last 2 years. It was supposed to help prevent food borne illness from spreading. Food borne illness that killed kids and seniors in the case of the peanut paste recall. We should be trumpeting this, except...

WASHINGTON -- The House passed legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration more authority and resources to prevent food-borne illnesses after a string of outbreaks involving peanuts, spinach, hot peppers and other foods.

The 283-142 vote came after lawmakers from rural districts won concessions that would exempt farms from paying a registration fee, curb the FDA's access to farm records and limit its ability to set production standards to only the foods most likely to be contaminated.

The legislation also exempts farms and food facilities regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Senate isn't expected to act on similar legislation until later this year.

So let me get this straight, the FDA can't...
inspect farms
inspect farm records
and is limited in setting any production standards for farms and food facilities
and can only inspect foods and facilities that are most likely to be bad? And who determines that?

Meanwhile big industrial food companies grow and grow, factory farms are free to keep up their unhealthy practices. Be ready for a new recall or scandal soon ladies and gents. This bill will do very little to change anything, and the system as it stands in unsustainable.

cross posted from FL

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Poison Peanut Round Up

I've been following the PCA Recall of Peanut Paste etc. with great interest (and shock and horror.) The story gets worse at every turn. There are now some 500+ people who have gotten sick, at least 8 have died. And the recall will be the largest in American history.

We are looking at some 30 Million lbs of product so far.

and in the latest round up of reporting on the issue...

Products sent to our troops being recalled to the tune of 50,000 meals.

It turns out that the FDA waited on announcing the recall until the company responsible, Peanut Corp of America, cleared the wording of the announcement?!? That's right, we had to ask the criminals first before we could take care of getting the tainted product off the shelves.

You can download an excel sheet or visit the FDA site for the HUGE and growing list of recalled products. In case you haven't checked your cupboards yet, do so asap-- and remember they have pushed the date of the beginning of the recall back to products from 2 years ago till now.

In addition to the salmonella issue it appears that PCA had products rejected by Canada for containing METAL in their peanut paste.

Grandparents and children Half of the folks that got sick are under the age of 10 and all of the people who have died from the salmonella laden products are over the age of 59.

The FDA has to be better funded and better run. New news is breaking that Parnell, the CEO of Peanut Corp was actually given the job of heading the Peanut Board at the FDA. Insane.

PCA has a second plant that was never even licensed, but has been operating for decades.

The AP has video of this plant, and quotes from President Obama on the need to revamp the FDA.

As I have said before and will continue to say-- it is long past time to take a good long look at the industrial food chain and what we have come to accept as the food business. It is long past time to turn to more local and sustainable solutions. It is long past time to go back to eating food and not food products.

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Salmonella Saintpaul Continues to Infect Americans; FDA and CDC Still with No Answers

More on the Tomato-Cilantro-Pepper Ban and Salmonella Saintpaul.

Since April, 1090 persons infected with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint have been identified in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada.

Only 6 persons infected with this strain of Salmonella Saintpaul were identified in the country during April through June of 2007. The previous rarity of this strain and the distribution of illnesses in all U.S. regions suggest that the implicated food is distributed throughout much of the country. Because many persons with Salmonella illness do not have a stool specimen tested, it is likely that many more illnesses have occurred than those reported. Some of these unreported illnesses may be in states that are not on today’s map--from the CDC

Following this closely and I remain of the opinion that this kind of thing is going to become more common and more dangerous unless we look at our entire industrial food chain and make radical changes.

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FDA Still Has No Idea-- Adds Cilantro and Peppers to the Watch List

No closer to knowing what is making people sick... maybe tomatoes, maybe not. Now cilantro and peppers go on the watch list. And people are still getting sick.

the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears no closer to finding the source of a mysterious salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 900 people nationwide. The FDA is not even 100 percent sure that tomatoes are the cause — adding peppers and cilantro Saturday to its list of foods under investigation in the outbreak.-- MSNBC

Meanwhile; by the numbers
In addition to the 900 people who have gotten sick...

The USA Tomato Industry has sustained a more than a 100 million dollar loss.

More than 12,000 tons of tomatoes are rotting in warehouses.

And we still don't know anything.
Bon Appetit!

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Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

In new big-bad-agri-business news, tomatoes are being recalled and chain restaurants are pulling menu items that use uncooked tomatoes.

As California health officials confirmed the state's second case related to a multistate salmonella outbreak, Bay Area supermarkets and restaurants on Monday scrambled to pull tomatoes off their shelves and menus.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers nationwide during the weekend to avoid raw red plum, red Roma and round red tomatoes unless they were grown in certain states and countries.- By Ken McLaughlin, Sonia Narang and Sandra Gonzales Mercury News

This story continues to develop with no answers yet as to where/when the salmonella tainted tomatoes entered the market. Huge agricultural corporations, and gutted FDA funding-- not to mention the fact that many FDA officials worked previously for the very companies they should be monitoring, are the cause of these kinds of problems. We will see more of this to be sure. Consumers need to go to local sources, small restaurants, and sustainable businesses to be safe. The up side is that this will make CSA's and Farmer's markets more popular than ever. The downside is we will be seeing more sick people, made ill even as they try to eat healthy fruits and vegetables.

The FDA needs a major shake up. None of the candidates throughout this last year have taken a strong stand on food politics. This is one area where people and communities need to bring some pressure to bear, hold our representative's feet to the fire. Where does your local school district buy produce? Your local restaurants? Find out. Ask questions and get involved in promoting local sustainable agriculture. It is not only better for the environment, but seems that it is safer too.

Tomatoes are easy to grow-- and homegrown are pretty tasty. If this keeps up, DIY is going to be the in thing. Bucket-tomatoes anyone?

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A $8 Tomato

Last night I ate a $8 tomato. Now it was good, not sublime, but good. What it reminded me of was tomato's from when I was around 8 or 9. My grandfather was the cook and on Sunday night we would have a Pot Roast or something and he would make some pan gravy. My grandmother would have gotten a tomato from 'the egg man' who would drive around the west Philadelphia neighborhood and deliver various goods from local farms. The tomato was sliced and served on a small plate with salt and pepper. They were very refreshing and tasty.

The tomato last night was maybe 2 inches in diameter, very small.

Industrialized Agriculture is a big problem. Tomato's are virtually tasteless, and there seems to be only one variety. I remember there being at least 10 different kinds in the regular supermarket. Now there seems to be only one, perhaps 2 on special. When the dollar a pound plain old ordinary tomato that we used to eat with dinner some 20 or 30 years ago is $8 and treated like a luxury item we are in trouble.

Go visit your local farmers market before you are paying $8 for a tomato.

(if anyone has a better list of local markets please post it)

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