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["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

Between this and the Ohio story, small farmers will eventually give up. They 
will get jobs in town and raise and eat their own healthy organic food, and 
let everyone else eat factory food. The rest of the country will lose. It 
should be going the opposite way, but isn't.

Lynn Wigglesworth
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "bob ford" <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 8:59 AM
Subject: [Homestead] Food Safety


> this article is in this am NYT.  Read the second paragraph carefully.  The 
> beauracrats at the FDA are getting ready for much more power during the 
> upcoming administration and congress.  They desire to stop food problems 
> "at the souce" including "domestic" sources.  Now, you really think they 
> will be going after big ag, or will it be the small farmer who becomes 
> regualted to the point of t errorism
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Editorial
>
> Grading Progress on Food Safety
>
>
> Published: December 6, 2008
>
> The Food and Drug Administration is claiming considerable progress over 
> the past year in protecting the nation’s food supply from pathogens and 
> toxic substances. But the steps described in its self-assessment warrant 
> only a so-so grade.
>
> The agency released a report this week describing what officials call a 
> “hugely ambitious” campaign to redesign the whole approach to food 
> inspection. The goal is to root out tainted food — whether produced abroad 
> or in this country — at the earliest stages of the production and 
> distribution process while being ready to respond quickly if pathogens 
> start reaching consumers.
>
> The philosophy is sound. Imported foods are the focus of greatest concern. 
> And it makes good sense to detect and eliminate contamination at a 
> manufacturing or distribution plant abroad rather than trying to intercept 
> tainted products at our borders. It is encouraging that the agency has 
> already hired staff for new offices in China and India that will try to 
> ensure the safety of food products before they are exported. It also has 
> plans to open offices in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East as 
> well.
>
> The agency also deserves credit for approving the use of irradiation to 
> kill bacteria on spinach and iceberg lettuce; for developing methods to 
> detect even trace levels of melamine, a contaminant that has sickened a 
> horrifying number of infants in China; for inspecting some 5,900 “high 
> risk” domestic food establishments; and for starting to hire more than 100 
> new employees to conduct inspections and collect samples.
>
> None of this is enough to ease concerns over the safety of the food 
> supply. The F.D.A. regulates some 65,000 food firms in this country. 
> Inspecting 5,900 of them is only a modest beginning. While it is useful to 
> have offices abroad, it is not yet clear how effectively they will be 
> given some countries’ resistance to admit problems.
>
> By most accounts, the F.D.A. is still vastly underfinanced to carry out 
> its widening responsibilities. The Obama administration and the next 
> Congress will need to determine how much more money can be provided and 
> what additional legislative authority is needed to trace contaminants 
> through the food supply and recall tainted products.
>
> They should also re-examine whether the Bush administration’s heavy 
> reliance on the private sector to ensure safety needs to be rebalanced 
> with more effective and vigilant regulation.
>
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/opinion/06sat2.html
>
>
>
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