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FDA unveils voluntary food safety rules (key word: "voluntary")

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brentspeak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 05:15 PM
Original message
FDA unveils voluntary food safety rules (key word: "voluntary")
Edited on Mon Mar-12-07 05:16 PM by brentspeak
(Only in the Brave New World of corporate lobbying, and with Bush as President, could this happen.)

By LIBBY QUAID, AP Food and Farm Writer 2 hours, 21 minutes ago

March 11, 2007

WASHINGTON - The government has new rules for preventing food poisoning in fresh-cut produce, but companies don't have to follow them.

Fruit and vegetable-related outbreaks of food poisoning are on the rise and in recent months have struck in spinach, tomatoes, lettuce and cantaloupes.

In the new, voluntary rules, announced Monday by the Food and Drug Administration, fruit and vegetable processors are urged to adopt food safety plans similar to those in the meat industry.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070312/ap_on_he_me/food_safety
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Dr.Phool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 05:18 PM
Response to Original message
1. They'll volunteer to do exactly nothing.
Edited on Mon Mar-12-07 05:19 PM by Dr.Phool
This crap about voluntary regulations is insane and ineffective.

This is what they mean by smaller government. No rules, no enforcement.
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Karenina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-13-07 11:24 AM
Response to Reply #1
17. Americans do nothing, eat the shit
and die...
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OhioChick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 05:20 PM
Response to Original message
2. Key Phrase...
"but companies don't have to follow them."
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sakabatou Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 05:20 PM
Response to Original message
3. Expect more salmonella illnesses and/or deaths
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Proud Liberal Dem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-14-07 10:56 AM
Response to Reply #3
22. You mean "VOLUNTARY" salmonella illnesses and/or deaths!!!
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Robbien Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 05:30 PM
Response to Original message
4. I don't expect any rules developed by this GOPer ruled FDA
would ever be strict enough to keep the public safe. In fact, most companies are probably keeping stricter safety plans than the GOPer ruled FDA would ever have the nerve to suggest.
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pinniped Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 05:46 PM
Response to Original message
5. Hey, voluntarily is the key!
The POS* wants companies that emit pollutants into our air and waterways to voluntarily control theirs, too.
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fooj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 06:06 PM
Response to Original message
6. Voluntary? What a joke.
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kestrel91316 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 06:21 PM
Response to Original message
7. I buy almost all my produce (organic of course) at the farmer's market.
Edited on Mon Mar-12-07 06:22 PM by kestrel91316
I don't buy "processed" produce, lol. I don't want more than an absolute minimum of people handling my food before I do.

It's basic food hygiene.
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rfranklin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 08:17 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Wasn't it the organic spinach grower that caused the last ourbreak?
Wasn't it pig shit leaking into the fields of something like that?
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AllegroRondo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-13-07 08:43 AM
Response to Reply #8
15. They believe it was wild pigs
which is why the new guidelines include fencing around farms, and growing produce at least 50 feet from fences.
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kestrel91316 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-13-07 11:34 AM
Response to Reply #8
18. I believe the "organic grower" rumor was completely debunked.
IIRC it was a conventional LETTUCE grower, and it was cow manure from a factory feedlot or dairy operation, tracked into the fields by wild pigs.

Factory farming's failure to fence off and contain their own mess is what caused this.

Organic farmers don't let raw waste from ANY livestock anywhere near their crops.
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kineneb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 08:29 PM
Response to Original message
9. welcome to the year 1900
when there were few food safety laws...the Neo-Cons just love the "gilded age" when the corporations were the owner/operators of the US...and they have been trying to drag us back there...
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struggle4progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 08:51 PM
Response to Original message
10. Next! Voluntary speed-limits! Coming soon "Voluntarily refrain from killing your neighbor" laws!
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depakid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 09:02 PM
Response to Original message
11. All this does is create an incentive NOT to comply
because by complying, corporations give their shoddy competitors a comparative advantage.

It's almost like these idiots never took a basic econ, science or history class....
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w4rma Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-13-07 05:40 AM
Response to Reply #11
13. Exactly. Voluntary rules are *always* broken by the shrewd buisnessman. (nt)
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LiberalFighter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-12-07 11:15 PM
Response to Original message
12. Will these FDA regulators voluntarily eat food that doesn't meet the standards?
And will the owners of companies eat the same food that doesn't meet the standards?
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Odin2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-13-07 07:29 AM
Response to Original message
14. "Voluntary regilations" is an oxymoron.
It's a euphemism for "making fools think we are doing something."
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gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-13-07 09:55 AM
Response to Original message
16. Dole's dilemma
"Gee, we could follow these voluntary rules and make sure what we send to market is wholesome and safe. That would cost money, and some of my product wouldn't make it to market. Or . . . I could toss the voluntary rules in the garbage, a few people would die, but I'd make a lot more money. And I'll just pass the cost of paying off the families of the deceased by raising the price on bananas by a nickel a pound. If things get really hot, I'll just retire and have my friends on the board vote to give me several million dollars severance. What to do, what to do?"
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rman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-13-07 11:49 AM
Response to Original message
19. Next up: voluntary traffic regulations.
And when i violate those regulations i'll investigate myself *without outside interference*, thank you very much.
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undergroundpanther Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-14-07 02:14 AM
Response to Original message
20. We are officially fucked over
Bush wants to dismantle the government,and this is part of his"plan".
It's DELIBERATE..

I hope I don't spend more time sick because of this bullshit.
It's bad to get sick but for me it's worse than bad..
Food poisoning is terror to emetiphobics.
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Javaman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-14-07 10:40 AM
Response to Original message
21. FDA voluntary rule #1: Eat only if you have too.
FDA voluntary rule #2: refer to rule #1.
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