“This is a historic opportunity,” Dr. Hamburg said. “This legislation would provide F.D.A. with important resources and authorities that we really need to be able to do our important job.” Even though this looks good on paper, is this the real issue we need to tackle? There is more of an underlying issue here. The people appointed to monitor the food industry usually have some sort of past connections with the food industry. Regardless there needs to be more man power on the ground testing the sources of our food.
The reason this bill is stalling right now is due to a tight senate schedule and an unusual strong cross party coalition for pro small farmers. With a hazy objection to weather or not the bill would seek to outlaw small organic farms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/health/policy/19food.html?ref=us
It seems somewhat skeptical to appoint individuals to audit the food industry, who have had a large stake hold and continue to have strong connections in those corporations. In order to truly keep the public interest at hand, a neutral, educated group of individuals needs to be appointed to monitor the industry.
ReplyDeleteThough I agree that is is an important issue I feel that to some extent the media has overblown many of the food contamination stories. Food should be more important to our government since everyone must eat, but at what point will we be putting to many restrictions on producers? Monitoring is expensive and industries may start taking unnecessary steps that will only drive food prices higher.
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