Why GOP Policies Were So Good for the Food Supply
By Susie Madrak Thursday Jan 29, 2009 11:00amYou see what the Republican non-enforcement policy did to the FDA? Their reliance on inspiring ideals like voluntary self-reporting of problems with the food and drug industries? Things like this:
The Georgia food plant that federal investigators say knowingly shipped contaminated peanut butter also had mold growing on its ceiling and walls, and it has foot-long gaps in its roof, according to results of a federal inspection.
More than 500 people in 43 states have been sickened, and eight have died, after eating crackers and other products made with peanut butter from the plant, which is owned by the Peanut Corporation of America. More than 100 children under the age of 5 are among those who have been sickened.
The plant sells its peanut paste to some of the nation’s largest food manufacturers, including Kellogg and McKee Foods. As a result of the contamination, more than 100 products have been recalled, mostly cookies and crackers.
Officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traced the outbreak to the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Ga. On Jan. 9, investigators descended on the plant for a thorough inspection, which was completed Tuesday.
The report from the inspection, first posted on the Internet by Bill Marler, a lawyer, cites 12 instances in 2007 and 2008 in which the company’s own tests of its product found contamination by salmonella.
In each case, the report states, “after the firm retested the product and received a negative status, the product was shipped in interstate commerce.”
It is illegal for a company to continue testing a product until it gets a clean test, said Michael Taylor, a food safety expert at George Washington University.
The Washington Post reports that it's serious enough to expand the recall to all products the company produced in the past two years:
In one of the largest food recalls in history, the Food and Drug Administration asked retailers, manufacturers and consumers yesterday to throw out every product made in the past two years from peanuts processed by a Georgia plant at the heart of a deadly nationwide outbreak of salmonella illness.
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That attitude holds no matter who is in the majority or occupying the White House.
really, look at seed-giant monsanto for proof.
... there's something about the relationship between salmonella and peanuts that gives the bacteria greater survivability, which is why we're seeing things like frozen cookie dough in the recall lists. (Normally, you'd think between something being frozen and then baked, the bacteria would be dead ...)
I don't believe it's just a "special" relationship between salmonella and peanuts. Back in school, they explained that bacteria can never be truly killed off except under high temperatures, thus why you must cook all your food. The reason cookie dough is under this recall, is that there are a bunch of people (myself included, despite the all scary salmonella threat) that occasionally enjoy cookie dough as-is, uncooked.
The salmonella in this case probably gets into the food after cooking at the factory, which then thrives, since anything below cooking temp or above freezing allows a bacteria to thrive - Which is most kinds of peanut products.
... we're talking FROZEN cookie dough, sold as fund-raising items for schools. Not the refrigerated stuff.
I read on the FDA site that unprocessed peanuts can contain salmonella, that at the plant unprocessed peanuts were store next to processed peanuts so there could be contamination from poor handling practices.
Cold has either no effect on bacteria, or helps preserve it depending on how cold. Studying bacteria (which can be brought back to life) from ancient arctic ice is a good research field! Labs will also use freezers to store bacteria in dormant form for later use or reference.
Heat can kill bacteria, but each bacteria has different kill temps (and how long it has to be at that temp to kill). For example pasteurization was developed to have high heat for a short time so you'd kill most of the "bad" bacteria in milk while not killing all the "good" ones.
Cookies are baked at a low temp. and all cooking dishes would have been contaminated, only a long bath in really hot water or some other way of killing it would work.
-PSA from your friendly neighborhood ex-researcher, and mom with lots of hot water and clorox!
The Future of Food - Genetically Modified Food
We Feed The World
the future of food is a must see
The World According to Monsanto ~ Google Video
Sweet Misery ~ A Poisoned World
George H.W. Bush had connections with Monsanto.
Don Rumsfeld had connections with Aspartame.
Thanks orangu.
Since I watched the Future of Food, I haven't eaten anything.
that allowed an arrogant, careless company to do this...
http://consumerist.com/5141592/peanut-corp-of...
Its things like this I point out to free market types (I'm lookin at you Ron Paul) when arguing against the unregulated free market: Despite its very counter-intuitiveness, companies have time and time again exhibited a willingness to kill their own customers. How the hell is that an example of self-interest?
Fuck you Ayn Rand
there are some people--like ron paul--that really do seem to want a "free" market, despite how crazy that is. i can respect that. they are consistent and credible.
then there are the legions of "free" market advocates that want ANYTHING but a "free" market. and this is the majority of people that ramble on and sing their song about an 'unfettered' market. they want it "fettered". they need it "fettered." and they will donate and bribe to ensure that it is always skewed to help those at the top.
Companies are only willing to kill their customers if it costs more NOT to. After having discovered the tainted food, it would cost a lot of money to throw out the batch, and possibly an investigation in to how it got contaminated. They figure that a few dead customers no longer buying the product versus a costly self-imposed recall is better. That is, assuming they cannot be traced to be the source, in which factory shut downs, massive recalls, and possibly penalties cost more than the self recall. But what are the odds of that?
those making the $$$$ don't REALLY care about you--- that is why SELF-REGULATION is an oxy-moron.... and RUSH L is an OXYCONTIN-MORON...
this is CLASS WARFARE....
Rush's abuse of oxycontin is an example of failed self-regulation.
We now have low fat, low sugar, low cholesterol, no additives added, butter flavored Soylent Green.
... tell his listeners it was manna from heaven, and they'd stockpile it.
with 0 trans fat
OK so its the biggest recall of food. But where's the list of the recalled foods?
has your mortuary information and we will get it to them when available.
THe FDA does have a list. Lists peanut butter with monodiglicriedes and "organic" peanut butter. Another food issue to check out! How watered down are the "organic" standards thanks to GWB? I mean if organic food is processed in a machine that just processed pesticde laden produce how can you call it organic?
List of recalled products.
If it was safer to just bin all peanut products in the pantry.
Can we trust anything in our cupboards that contains peanuts.
Fast Food Nation ~ by Eric Schlosser
GOP for all the help you didn't give us!
And then there is the mercury contaminated high fructose corn syrup...very dangerous going for groceries in your Ford Pinto these days...
High Fructose Corn Syrup Contaminated with Toxic Mercury, Says Research
If the Republicans/Conservatives/Corporations say it's food! It's Food! Dun-kof swine!
Yeah! Let's deregulate! Let's dig up Reagan and wheel him around Washington for a deregulation festival!
George Washington...father of our country
Ronald Reagan...father of all that is wrong with our country.
Ronald Reagan is a peanut butter additive.
You've identified the source of the contamination.
So before 2002, there were no laws enforceable by the FDA? My understanding is the FDA can't force a company to recall, they have to do it voluntarily. Is that correct?
the FDA was deregulated under his watch...enhanced under Bush...and further enhanced under Clinton.
The FDA is now populated with ex-employees of food and drug companies.
Remember...a fish rots from the head.
it can't be all GOP policies if Clinton is in there, can it? Is partisanship like a cult? I don't understand it. How can anyone blindly support one party over the other regardless of who the candidates are?
I'm not saying that the GOP is anything less than corrupt, but I don't get this at all. There have always been Dems and Reps in Congress making the laws. Both have had opposition support for many policies, and yet Dem supporters always blame Reps and vice versa. I don't vote party, and never have. I've always voted for the person I thought was the best candidate. What happens when you vote party, is you end up with what is going on right now. The same people elected year after year after year, and expecting something to change. Why would they? They know they'll get re-elected.
the problem is the system.
The GOP gained power by screaming deregulation and lower taxes...which of course was a sop to big business...they were rewarded handsomely in the form of big contributions...which solidified their power in the Congress and the Presidency. As for Bill Clinton..."the best Republican President" in the last 20 years...nuff said.
The power of the deregulation lobby is still seen today...in the bank bailout...in the new stimulus bill.
The problem with Washington is not the parties...it is the system...a system stacked by big money contributors against the general public.
The Supreme Court decision that rendered money equivalent to free speech...was the single worst decision in the history of this country...and we have paid the price since.
for the information. It is nice to see an actual liberal discuss with reason and common sense instead of blind partisan loyalty. I always thought an actually interested informed taxpayer would help countries immensely, instead of the "my __ party is more left, right, or upside down than yers"....
I find the personal attacks amusing when anyone says anything bad about one party or the other on blogs. In the same breath, the people saying they are liberal or left, act exactly like the people they say are truly evil.
... as long as the election process is based on spending millions of dollars to get one's message out, it's not going to change. People with the money get heard and get elected, and people without - even if they have the most brilliant ideas in the world - don't.
It's the illusion that money = success = smart = capable of running a nation.
i agree with your post... but, take it one step further.
the system is propped up, supported and defended by the parties... it is really tough to separate the system from the players in the system.
santa clara county v southern pacific railroad decision: detrimental
that regulation was "improved" over the last several years.
The fact is that the FDA was neutered decades ago...look up Tylenol poisoning, EBOLA, spinach poisoning...I can go on and on.
why are these people not in JAIL they killed people.
Because under the wonder of US law (partly based on the amendment to end slavery), the "person" responsible is a corporation. Treating a corporation like a person isn't really a problem when it comes to fines, licenses, etc., but you can't really put a corporation in jail. It only exists on paper.
So don't worry, likely, a person will get punished. Its just that that person doesn't really exist.
England's first employer after she got out of jail.
People keep bringing up these examples as one-off things, but if memory serves correctly, in the past few years we've had contaminated carrot juice, tomatoes/jalapenos, broccoli, spinach, and at least one major beef recall. I know I am forgetting others (soy beans rings a bell too). It seems like every few months there is a new warning about some contaminated food.
Has anyone aggregated the data to show ALL the food recalls and total deaths in recent years? Maybe I just didn't pay as much attention in the 90's, but it seems like this became much more common under the Bush administration.
It sure seems that way. Every 6 months there's some new food scare. There was also that poison pet food and baby milk from China.
http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.HTML
Voluntary recalls are all part of the "free market" deregulation atmosphere.
Companies aren't going to recall a product until there is definitive proof that it is a danger...of course how you define definitive versus their definition is up to debate...and what is proof...people getting sick? how many? people dead? how many?
This is why deregulation doesn't work...because companies don't test as stringently...cause if 20% of the test subjects get tummy aches...but it can't be PROVEN without knowledge only the company has...well...geez...do I put that product to market? You bet I do? Should I have? Well...no one stopped me.
It's called "probability assessment".
. . . the late Great Molly Ivins wrote about this stuff going on in "Bushwacked" lax food regulations in an understaffed FDA, and the negative implications for all of us.
Some of the meat rendering plants were using evaporation ponds, plus pumping waste slurry down into the aquifers.
Unfortunately they're in both parties, the system is gamed as L&P always says...
Instant runoff elections, public financing of campaigns, and reinforced elections (paper trail, no for-profit voting systems allowed, etc)...will go a long way to giving the citizens their voices back
As usual...con-servatives & right wingnuts will be apologists for industry/business....
Time for Corporate social responsibility to be leglislated, not used as a gimmick, ala greenwashing...
When a microbiologist hears the words "peanuts" and "mold" together, his first thought may be "Aspergillus flavus," a species of mold that produces a substance called "Aflatoxin." This is a carcinogen of frightening potency. I recall one of my microbiology professors telling me that a relatively tiny amount of this substance mixed into a reservoir's water could kill an entire city.
As bad as death by Salmonella may be, we may only be seeing the thin leading edge of a massacre. Look for a major rise in liver cancer among people who eat peanut products from this source.
...so accept our waste incinerators in your poor neighborhood." That made for good PR.
Salmonella is an infection that can be fought off, but aflatoxin makes many foods risky. I minimized my consumption of peanut products years ago, looking for valencia, low-moisture peanuts when I had a hankering for the stuff.
And it's not possible to thaw such dough?
so it should be ignored?
30 years of "conservative" politics and deregulation...the gifts that keep on giving.
What?
How do you get a clean test without testing?
It means a company cannot keep RE-testing it's contaminated product until it gets a false negative AFTER it has already gotten results indicating contamination.
But then the GOP will be out in force talking about how we need to regulate tort claims. They don't care about protecting the food or water supply, but they sure do care a lot about protecting corporations that injure and kill people.
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