Friday, August 5, 2011

Ground Turkey recall

It's happening right now... again.  There are people who are sick due to bacteria contaminated food- ground turkey.  And not just any old bacteria- the ground turkey is contaminated with Salmonella Heidelberg which is a drug-resistant strain of salmonella.  Drug-resistant as in "super-bug," exactly what I had mentioned in the posts earlier this week.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of the organizations that brought suit on May 25th of this year against the FDA for allowing the use of antibiotics in healthy feedlot animals, made a request of the USDA two months ago to inspect turkey for the presence of this drug-resistant strain of bacteria.  The USDA has not acted on that recommendation.

On July 21 the Center for Disease Control and the USDA connected the outbreak to the Cargill  turkey grinding plant in Springvale, Arkansas, but did not call Cargill's lawyers until July 29.  Why the delay?    They say they had to determine the concentration of the salmonella contamination- because a lot of ground turkey is contaminated with salmonella- that is a fact, so they wanted to be sure that there was a LOT of salmonella in this batch.  And there was, because Cargill recalled 36 millions pounds of the stuff.

Dr. Elizabeth Hagan, under secretary for food safety at the American Farm Bureau said that "public health must be at the heart of all lawmakers."  Too bad the reporter who jotted down that comment didn't ask Dr. Hagan why the American Farm Bureau vehemently opposes any restriction on feeding antibiotics to farm animals. Apparently public health is not at the heart of the American Farm Bureau.

Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the only microbiologist in the U. S. House, has re-introduced legislation limiting the use of antibiotics in healthy feedlot animals.  Hopefully it will meet with a better fate than last time, when the American Farm Bureau and the fat cats running the big factory farms and the pharmaceutical industry joined forces to defeat it through the influence they hold over our representatives in Washington.. (The legislation Rep. Slaughter introduced is referred to as PAMTA- Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act).

Not to worry, fat cats.  An economist who used to work for ConAgra foods described the American consumer as having a relatively short-term memory.  They'll stop buying ground turkey for awhile, he said, then when the shelves are restocked they'll buy again.  So glad we don't disappoint them.... dependable that's what we are!  Too bad we can't depend on them!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The Food Police- The Movie!

Our right to purchase safe, unadulterated food from farmers is being abridged by these agencies- the FDA and the USDA.  More and more folks give up the struggle to maintain the family farm every year- between high taxes, weather- drought and flooding, crop disease, low prices, and being hassled by state and federal agencies.  Eighty-eight percent of dairy farmers alone have left dairy farming since 1970.  Factory farms seemingly flourish while our food is awash in hormones and antibiotics.  The pollution from giant manure pits taints wells and fouls streams.  Small family farms are increasingly put out of business because they just can’t compete with the big guys.

Rather than keep our food safe from additives and genetic manipulation, instead of guarding the wholesomeness and purity of food, these agencies allow huge mega-corporations to manipulate the system, dictate policy, pollute the environment and degrade our food supply while these government agencies single out small struggling family farms as targets for their selective enforcement of ridiculous, outdated laws. 

The allegiance of these government agencies  is to big-agribusiness, not to your well-being.  I personally do not have problems with a government agency keeping me safe.  I have huge problems with agencies that purport to maintain the safety of the food we eat but take orders from the exact people they should be watching.  (Check out my post from July 13- The FDA protects big biotechs, not you!)

If you would like to see a film that deals with these issues, check out Farmageddon: The unseen war on American family farms .  There you can view the trailer of the new, independent movie Farmaggedon and check to see if/when the film will be playing in your area.  No, this movie will definitely NOT be released  in lots of theaters across this country!  This is truly a subject that lots of people do NOT want us to see. 

Monday, August 1, 2011

The Food Police- THEY decide what you will eat!


If you’ve caught any old re-runs of Seinfeld you are undoubtedly familiar with the "library police".  That episode really made me chuckle.  The contrast of the super serious "library cop" with the pettiness of the "crime" was hilarious.  What a scary contrast with "the food police"- not so funny now! 

The USDA and the FDA are two federal agencies which make choices about what foods we eat.  It seems to me that the original intent here was to safeguard the public health, but more and more frequently they are making and enforcing laws that not only run contrary to the best interests of the public, but that promote the interests of big agribusiness and big biotechs.  Sometimes this selective enforcement is made with real police, and fines and imprisonment are imposed on the folks who run counter to the system.  These agencies are deciding more and more what we can and cannot eat; they are deciding which animals farmers can and cannot raise.  Are they keeping us from illness?  NO!   Are they promoting good sustainable farming practices?  NO!  Are they protecting the food supply?  NO!   

Huge agribusinesses (factory farms) run humongous feedlots where they feed tons of antibiotics to thousands of animals destined for our tables.  The use of those antibiotics has huge consequences for all of us.  Since those are the same antibiotics developed for use in human beings, this indiscriminate use has resulted in drugs which are no longer working to get us well. Superbugs are here!  They’ve triumphed over our drug arsenal, and so far there’s no new magic bullet.  Have you heard of MRSA? C-Diff?  Have you heard of people having portions of their intestines removed because there’s no other way to get rid of the infection other than cutting it out?  Have you heard of “flesh-eating disease”? These diseases are so scary because they are resistant to antibiotics.

Instead of the FDA and USDA keeping the public safe from the dangers of the overuse of antibiotics which they could accomplish by pursuing the matter through the courts or requesting legislation to PROHIBIT feeding ANTIBIOTICS to these animals, the FDA targets instead the little guy- the folks on the family farm (who are NOT dosing their animals with drugs, who are NOT polluting, etc) but whom they are very successful at bullying.  They confiscate computers, equipment, records, farm animals and crops.  Amish farmers- and others- are taken away in handcuffs.  Hundreds of gallons of milk and other products are destroyed or confiscated.  Some raids are conducted on farm families in the middle of the night at gunpoint.  Their crime?  They're targets of selective enforcement of stupid and arcane laws.  Continued on the next blog:  The Food Police- The Movie!