Latest salmonella outbreak in tomatoes blamed on incapable FDA

Sorry, folks, can't have a well-funded agency to watch over the food supply. Halliburton needs funding first, you know.

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BALTIMORE - Don’t expect the government to keep the nation’s food supply safe.

The Food and Drug Administration is vastly underfunded and understaffed to meet its mandate, said Mickey Parish, Nutrition and Food Science chair at the University of Maryland, College Park. The latest outbreak comes exactly one year after the agency published a plan to keep consumers safe from salmonella in tomatoes.

“They had planned to begin some aspects of their plan last fall, and it really didn’t begin until this spring,” Parish said. “It comes back to the fact that the FDA is terribly understaffed.”

The agency’s plan for protecting us from salmonella in tomatoes did not come with a price tag, according to the Government Accountability Office, but the FDA asked for $90 million this year and received $45 million toward the cause. The GAO estimates it would cost $259 million to inspect every U.S. food producer under FDA review one time.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1444886~Latest_salmonella_outbreak_blamed_on_incapable_FDA.html?cid=rss-Baltimore

A lot of times a government agency is labeled incompetent versus incapable as you mentioned and it denigrates the entire hard working, well meaning individuals who have to deal with paltry budgets compared to defense spending. With all that said, usually the agencies appointed leaders are in fact incompetent.

No better example of that than appointing a horse show judge to run FEMA.

true believers to smell if the wind is in the "right" direction. :D

Isn't that like....oh, I don't know.....$1 per person??!!?? :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Monkeywrench FEMA: check.
Monkeywrench EPA: check.
Monkeywrench the economy: check.
Monkeywrench FDA and USDA: check.

Everything is proceeding right according to the neocon plan to destroy our government.

Oh, but if we just PRIVATIZE food safety everything will be fine!!

But I guess that's just too much money to insure the safety of our food supply. :eyes:

Irradiate all raw meat, dairy and vegetables prior to delivery to the grocery store. That kills most all pathogens and results in a much longer shelf life for food. Irradiating doesn't harm the food or leave any lasting effects of any kind despite some who claim otherwise.

By doing so, they gave us salmonella.

"Starving the Beat is a fiscal-political strategy of some American conservatives <1> <2> <3> to use budget deficits via tax cuts to force future reductions in the size of government. The term "beast" refers to government and the programs it funds, particularly social programs such as welfare, Social Security, and Medicare.

US President George W. Bush has invoked the concept in reference to his administration's tax cuts. He has said "so we have the tax relief plan <...> that now provides a new kind -- a fiscal straightjacket for Congress. And that's good for the taxpayers, and it's incredibly positive news if you're worried about a federal government that has been growing at a dramatic pace over the past eight years and it has been." <4>

WHY DO REPUBLICON HOMELANDERS HATE AMERICA/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

...and profit, unencumbered by human value, will flow freely.

FEMA and several other government agencies.

I am once again going to suggest everyone try and read Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose's book, "Bushwhacked, life in George Bush's America"