A funny thing is happening in the American food...

by Pamela Drew

Monday, 18 February 2008

A funny thing is happening in the American food supply and while it affects everyone there's surprisingly little discussion of what's going on. There is almost daily coverage about the threats to our security from terrorists but only the calmest reaction to what's being carried out by corporate activity that threatens us right here at home.

Yesterday the FDA food inspection service announced a recall of 143 million pounds of ground beef.

"Today, USDA is announcing additional actions as a result of the ongoing investigation at Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has evidence that Hallmark/Westland did not consistently contact the FSIS public health veterinarian in situations in which cattle became non-ambulatory after passing ante-mortem inspection, which is not compliant with FSIS regulations. Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection FSIS has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall.

Some of the affected beef goes back as far as two years. Considering that much of the meat sold by the Hallmark/Westland company was provided to schools for their lunch programs, there's every reason to believe that the meat has been consumed by our children over the two year period.

In October there was a similar recall affecting over 41 million pounds of beef. That's about one third of the quantity affected now and the delayed response by the FDA was classic. This is that recall reported by ABC News.

<blockquote>The meat in question was made in late June and July. The E. coli in the hamburger beef began sickening people in August. It took nearly six weeks before the first recall was issued.

"We don't understand why it took so long to recall this meat. If there was a victim in August, it should have been revealed weeks ago," said Jean Halloran of the Consumers Union.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the industry, said there were no recall delays. However, when the first recall went out Tuesday, only a small amount was recalled. By the weekend, the recall was expanded by more than 600 times. </blockquote>

Once again the statement by the FDA regarding the food supply safety was the same. The FDA states that there are policies in place that protect consumers.

The United States enjoys one of the safest food supplies in the world. To help ensure the safety of the food supply, we implement a series of safeguards to protect against foodborne disease. These safeguards include in-plant procedures to reduce dangerous foodborne pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. It also includes the removal of specified risk materials-those tissues demonstrated to contain the bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent in infected cattle-from the human food chain, along with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 1997 ruminant to ruminant feed ban. The prohibition of non-ambulatory cattle from the food supply is an additional safeguard against bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

One problem is that they do not have enough inspectors and there is little punishment for toxic corporate action. This is true across all the products that the FDA is supposedly regulating. In this most recent case,the problems with the meat was flagged not by the FDA inspection service, but instead by the often maligned activists at PETA who filmed the abuse of the cattle.

This is a story that I reported weeks ago though there was no recall announced at that time. There have been quite a few articles that deal with the The FDA in Crisis and the confidential report, which I wrote about months ago and the New York Times reported on weeks ago, that goes into great detail about how serious the situation at the FDA is.

The risk with the recalled meat relates to what are known as downers, cattle who have trouble walking. That is a sign they may be carriers of Mad Cow disease. The problem with Mad Cow is when these animals are consumed and then the disease enters the human body. Once inside our bodies, years or even decades may pass before life threatening illness appears as CJ disease or other neurological and muscle wasting diseases.

It isn't a disease that cattle would get if they were on vegetarian diets as nature intended. This is the creation of modern agribusiness policies; it is from feeding blood and body parts to ruminants to squeeze extra profits from the waste of the slaughterhouse. There is grave danger in illness that can be removed by decades by the event that inspire it. There is little that is more serious to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than a life threatening disease lurking in your food.

While great attention and vast sums are being devoted to the scam of Homeland Security, the public is subjected to deadly risks in the interests of Wall Street and somehow the difference between having our lives destroyed by a money making institution is all right. The reaction in Congress sounds reasonable as reported by the Associated Press

Today marks the largest beef recall in U.S. history, and it involves the national school lunch program and other federal food and nutrition programs," said U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. "This begs the question: how much longer will we continue to test our luck with weak enforcement of federal food safety regulations?"

The bigger question for me is how long will the Congressional Committee deny consumers the right to determine whether they want to trust the gmo foods which have never been subjected to human safety testing.

The Congress gives great sound bites when it is asked about consumer rights and protections but when it hits the bottom line they sell out to agribusiness so whether its E-coli, or Mad Cow, or gmo ingredients don't expect that there will be anything but lip service from Washington.

The bottom line seems to be that if you worship the almighty dollar there's no problem in the eyes of Uncle Sam with the death that results. Its only a different God that counts as a threat worth challenging with funded policies and when we're dying for profits its as Patriotic as an sacrifice the rulers of the currency could ask for.