Proof Elections Matter: Obama to Improve Food Safety
In the Potemkin Village government of Dubya, there was, for all intents, no protection of the public’s food supply.
That will change, and change soon, according to this article in today’s Washington Post.
In his Saturday morning address:
President Obama announced new leadership and other changes today aimed at improving the safety of the U.S. food supply, declaring that shortcomings during the Bush administration created a “hazard to public health” that is “unacceptable.”
In his weekly address to the nation, Obama said he is creating a “Food Safety Working Group” to recommend ways to “upgrade our food safety laws for the 21st century.” The Agriculture Department is also moving ahead with a rule that stalled during the Bush administration to ban all diseased cattle from entering the food supply.
That’s right. Under George Bush, banning diseased cattle was just another example of not letting the free markets do their job.
As that unfettered socialist Barack Obama said today:
“There are certain things only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and do not cause us harm.”
Can you imagine? No more tainted peanuts, no more diseased cattle? No wonder the scions of free enterprise are terrified. Fortunately, they can still send tainted baby formula to the Third World.
Oh, and for those who claim that Bush’s failure to protect the food supply are overstated:
Obama says in his address that the FDA was “underfunded and understaffed” during the Bush administration and that outbreaks from contaminated food have risen to 350 a year compared to 100 a year in the early 1990s. He also says approximately 95 percent of the nation’s 150,000 food processing plants go without inspections each year.
Obama has proposed an extra $1 billion in his 2010 budget for more inspectors, improved laboratories and other improvements at FDA.The president also highlighted his status as a parent in talking about food safety. “When I heard peanut products were being contaminated earlier this year, I immediately thought about my 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, who has peanut butter sandwiches probably three times a week,” Obama says in his address. “No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch.”
Proof elections matter, indeed.
Tags: Food Safety, Obama
Will Glenn Beck be sponsoring a rally in support of E. coli?
‘Bulo wonders if Nestle’s is underwriting his show.
Businesses have spent at least the last decade following the Wal-Mart model of squeezing cost out of every part of their value chain. Overall, that can be a good thing but in practice it can lead to a lot of shortcutting. I find it scary that it is also happening in our food chain.
Socialist food!
What will they think of next. Those going Galters will have to stop eating, I think.
WIN
The market is a better protector than the government. Peanut Corp of America is defunct. The fear of a class action lawsuit is a better protector than regulation.
Remember we already have the government policing food safety and it will never protect us to the level you want.
The government is important in this regard, but don’t give me that only the government nonsense. The government is a safeguard not the primary protector.
The fear of a class action lawsuit is a better protector than regulation.
Interesting admission from a member of a party that wants to do away with class action suits.
Remember we already have the government policing food safety
Not really. I happen to know someone in the Dept. of Ag who says that they’ve been underfunded and undermanned for 10 years.
…and it will never protect us to the level you want.
I’d accept 1978 levels of proetection.
Ok, in constant dollars. I would much rather the government putting the money and research into keeping our food safe than telling us what to eat.
I still take trial lawyers over regulators. The motivation of big money trumps the motivation of a day to day job.
DA,
The free market didn’t do a good job with the Peanut Corp. They discovered the problems at the plant a year before they went out of business.
The free market shut them down before the government. They actually followed government reporting regulations. The market has an higher standard. The free market made an example of them. The government has yet to do so. Now suppliers and insurers who were hurt are going to require better controls before you can ever get something through the government.
Not true, the free market only does what it will be fined for if it does not…
Go into any restaurant, and ask for a calorie count, nutritional information, or ingredients list.
They used to be there, but are no longer. They will be there soon enough.. The standard answer if you were to ask is “we used to have them, but then we didn’t have to, so why bother?”
Government is good. Free market is bad. Stop spouting and ante up proof. ( I lie; but it certainly makes a great sound byte… In truth, as anyone who has read this knows,
http://kavips.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/chapter-11-business-loans-back-on-line/
balance is the key… One has to factor in the relationship between the markets (corporate welfare), the consumers, and the government. It is not perfect until it is a win, win, win for all three.
Comedy Central: Jim Cramer says it!
This financial collage began in 1999 – 2007. Now who was Presidunce then?
While Obama wants to re-insitute the FDA. Agri business is pushing for regulations to make sure the Mom and Pop Road side stand can not remain in business. Agri business is pushing for regulations to put these little business’s out of business, because “we can’t monitor them all”. Now tell me who would you rather buy your veggies from, Mom and Pop, or agribusiness?
Who is protecting the people from agri business, big chemical companies genetically modifiying our food? Not the guvmint!