Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Bush Now Protects Personal Privacy....Of Tomatoes

A brilliant headline just in from Effect Measure on the status of the salmonella outbreak that had broken out on the national media stage and then disappeared. George Bush doesn't care about the privacy of Americans (except for those at telecom companies) but he does empathize with the infected tomato crop.

From Effect Measure:

The FDA and CDC still don't know the origin of the massive Salmonella outbreak, now extending to 40 states. They have lots of reasons, and under current conditions it's not an easy problem since the production channels for things like tomatoes are labyrinthine. There's lots of mixing, matching, diverting, and who knows what else going on as a tomato goes from a farm or hothouse to your table or local salad bar. We know this because FDA and CDC have been telling us so as explanation for why they still don't know where a single clone of Salmnella saintpaul has managed to infect almost 1000 people so far with no end in sight. You'd think that FDA and CDC would be anxious to make that job easier. Of course you'd be wrong:

Fruit and vegetable producers should be required to use technology allowing U.S. regulators to trace origins of contaminated produce such as tomatoes, considered the probable cause of a current outbreak, consumer groups said.

Failure to identify the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 922 Americans since mid-April shows why ``emergency regulations'' are needed to put in place new food- safety rules, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Consumer Federation of America said today in a letter to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach.

[snip]

Growers should be required to mark fruits and vegetables with bar codes on stickers so they can be traced back to the farm of origin, the consumer groups said. Similar programs are now used voluntarily by some restaurants and retailers, and a standard code on all FDA-regulated items would improve record- keeping and speed investigations, they said.

[snip]

Producers, packers, and processors should also be required to identify in writing gaps where contamination may occur in their operations and how to prevent it, the groups urged.

Kimberly Rawlings, a spokeswoman for the FDA, said she couldn't immediately comment on the groups' proposal.

The agency has favored voluntary guidelines over mandatory rules for food producers, even though certain producer organizations have backed tougher standards to improve consumer confidence in food products. (Catherine Larkin, Bloomberg)


So basically, to keep an anti-regulatory stance in the White House and it's agencies, they refuse to do everything in their power to look for the source of the outbreak. Voluntary rules will just not cut it. Agri-business does not want to wipe out anymore of their crops and they certainly won't regulate themselves. Believing that is worse than a forty year old waiting for Santa and the Easter bunny.

There are so many testaments to the complete and utter failure of the Bush Administration. This episode certainly ranks up there with the rest of the failing grades that George has "earned" in the last seven and half years.