- Hello Jeff - More 'barn door' drivel...the horses have
long since made their escape.
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- The Feds haven't been doing their job anyway so why would
they need even more power? More power to do nothing? Are we still going
to be buying gluten, wheat, rice, corn etc from China? You bet. All of
the import-export business is set by politicians for politicians' business
constituents.
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- Are they going to make changes in the farm fields? In
exporting food stuffs? Nope.
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- Right now, all I hear is 'barn door talk.'
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- Patty
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- Democrats Want More Federal Control On Food
Safety
- By Christopher Doering
- 4-25-7
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- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S.
government agencies should have greater powers to recall contaminated food
and are too reliant on producers to protect consumers from food-borne illnesses,
Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday.
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- A string of food poisoning cases tied to peanut butter,
lettuce and bagged spinach have prompted consumer groups and others to
question whether the way the Food and Drug Administration oversees the
food supply is too passive.
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- The FDA regulates about 80 percent of the supply, mostly
fruits and vegetables and the U.S. Agriculture Department is responsible
for the rest, including meat, poultry and eggs.
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- "The FDA simply does not have enough authority to
investigate these situations," said Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado
Democrat at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on
oversight and investigations.
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- "We need to reform the system. The FDA has become
too reliant on the industry to police itself," she said.
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- The FDA did not respond to requests for comment.
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- Earlier this year, ConAgra Foods Inc. recalled Peter
Pan and Great Value peanut butter after an outbreak of salmonella sickened
329 people, sending 51 of them to the hospital. Last year three people
died and more than 200 became infected after E. coli was found in bagged
spinach.
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- Yet under current law FDA cannot order a company to conduct
a food recall unless it is infant formula. In January the Government Accountability
Office, an investigative body of Congress, designated food safety as a
"high-risk" issue to public health and the economy.
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- The GAO proposed the federal government require companies
to report the distribution of a potentially unsafe products and give FDA
and USDA recall authority. It proposed consolidating the 15 government
agencies that handle food safety under one roof.
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- "We believe (the current system) does heighten the
risk that" there will be increased illness and death, said Lisa Shames,
an acting director with the GAO. She said giving FDA more power "has
the potential of expediting the recall."
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- U.S. food companies ConAgra and Natural Selection Foods
said they would not object to tighter government regulations but that ultimately
it is up to individual food companies and the industry to improve food
safety.
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- "It's incumbent upon ConAgra to take responsibility
for food safety and recalls when that is appropriate," said David
Colo, the company's senior vice president of manufacturing. "FDA having
recall authority would be fine with us. It wouldn't change anything we've
done to date."
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- Consumers affected by the recent outbreaks told lawmakers
the current system of regulating food has shown that what's in place now
simply isn't working.
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- "I can't protect (my children) from spinach, only
you guys can," said Michael Armstrong, whose young daughters ages
2 and 5 contracted E. coli after eating a bag of triple-washed Dole Food
spinach last September.
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- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
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- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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