Do you wonder why there is more publicity about a possible tomato
or jalapeno recall than there is about contaminated animal-derived
products such as meat, poultry, and eggs?
Why would so much attention be focused on possibly poisoned jalapenos
when at the same time there were 15 meat recalls, one of them involving
nearly a million pounds of cattle heads due to possible BSE (mad cow
disease) risk?
The answer is simple:
Recalls of vegetables are the responsibility of the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) which is supposed to protect people from unsafe
food and drugs.
Recalls of meat, poultry, and processed egg products are the
responsibility of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
through the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). And of course the
USDA’s principal focus is apparently on the welfare of the powerful,
wealthy agribusinesses to whom they are beholden. All those lobbyists in
Washington aren’t there for nothing! This is just another example of the
golden rule as practiced there: Those who have the gold, rule!
Obviously, to them, agricultural economic interests are more important
than food safety, health and the environment.
For more on this subject, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/mhvs/nl-2008-su-11.html
