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by revere, cross posted at Effect Measure
As the tomato Salmonella outbreak heads past the 800 case level, it’s time to ask some questions about why we don’t know the source of what is the largest produce associated disease outbreak on record. CDC has its own explanation, namely, that figuring out where tomatoes come from and where they go is much harder than they thought. Said another way, the experts in foodborne disease outbreaks at CDC and FDA didn’t know much about the industry. Since tomatoes have been a frequent cause of Salmonella outbreaks, that seems odd, except that my experience with CDC in recent years is that it is full of inexperienced people who don’t know what they are doing being managed by incompetent managers who spend too much time brown nosing the boss who spends too much of her time sucking up to the Bush administration. Because of bad management the professional expertise at what was once the jewel in the crown of federal public health headed for the exits as soon as their twenty years were up. There are still some terrific, dedicated scientists at CDC, but they are being submerged by mediocrity and bureaucracy. But back to tomatoes:
The American News Project – a new nonprofit project producing “online journalism that matters” and offering their content for free – turns its cameras to the problem of hunger in the U.S. Garland McLaurin reports that 28 million people will use food stamps in 2009, but the low benefit amounts mean that many of these recipients still must turn to food banks or other sources to meet their food needs.
Many of those struggling to feed themselves are elderly, and the seven-minute film features comments from two seniors; one compares herself to a hamster running on a wheel, while the other calculates that the cost of getting to the office to pick up the minimum allotment of $10 per month isn’t worth it. McLaurin notes that the minimum amount will rise to $14 per month under the new Farm Bill, and that most recipients get the equivalent of $21 per week.
It’s tough to make $21 stretch to 21 meals, though, as Bread for the World employee Brian Duss realizes when he takes the Food Stamp Challenge, living on the average food stamp benefit for one week. He shopped carefully (buying lots of pasta), but at the end of the week conceded that he was feeling sluggish and having a hard time concentrating – something he attributed not just to too few calories but to insufficient nutrition. Watch the whole thing here.
Salmonella-tainted tomatoes have sickened at least 277, although the Seattle PI’s Andrew Schneider cites a CDC estimate of 8,600 people who’ve become ill during this outbreak. Congress has reacted to this and other food and drug safety problems by forcing additional funding on the FDA, which isn’t allowed to ask for more money than the administration decides it needs. The additional $275 million is small change, though, compared to what’s needed to shore up our overburdened food and drug safety systems.
Contrast this lackluster action to what happened in South Korea when the government made a beef deal with the U.S. that will allow the importation of meat from cows older than 30 months, which are regarded as more likely to carry mad cow disease. (South Korea banned U.S. beef after mad cow disease was detected here in 2003.) A series of protest – the largest drawing more than 80,000 demonstrators – erupted and forced President Lee Myung-bak to offer a public apology and promise to try to modify the regulations.
Last week, Paul Krugman reminded New York Times readers that federal regulatory agencies have been getting progressively more starved for resources since the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, and have recently been headed by appointees with industry-friendly views. This, he points out, ends up being bad for business:
The Washington Post is running a series on the global food crisis, and if you haven’t read it yet, it’s worth a look.
In The New Economics of Hunger, Anthony Faiola explains how what started as an apparent blip in wheat prices has mushroomed into widespread hunger and unrest:
After so many stories about tainted drugs and food, here’s some good news for a change: The FDA plans to hire hundreds of new employees to help it fulfill its responsibilities to assure the safety of food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices.
They’ve identified a critical need for “medical officers, consumer safety officers, chemists, nurse consultants, biologists, microbiologists, health/regulatory/general health scientists, mathematical statisticians, epidemiologists, pharmacologists, pharmacists and veterinary medical officers” in their DC-area office as well as U.S. regional and district offices and their newly created overseas office. Here’s their complete press release:
In the LA Times, Victoria Kim follows up on the issue of USDA inspections related to the record-setting beef recall. The terrible practices caught on tape at the Hallmark slaughterhouse evidently occurred under the nose of USDA inspectors, and Kim’s article explains how this can happen:
If you haven’t heard yet, USDA has ordered the largest meat recall in U.S. history – 143 million pounds of beef from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company. USDA officials believe that the meat distributed by the company poses little or no hazard to consumers, which is fortunate, because much of it has been eaten already. It’s being recalled because the company failed to follow procedures necessary to prevent sick cows from entering the food supply.
Violations at the Hallmark meat packing facility came to light a few weeks ago, when an undercover Humane Society investigator released video he’d secretly filmed while working at the slaughterhouse. Steve Chawkins and Victoria Kim interviewed him for the LA Times:
Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, writes in the latest New York Times Magazine about two stories that “may point to an imminent breakdown in the way we’re growing food today.” The first is the rise of community-acquired MRSA (that’s Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a nasty antibiotic-resistant bacteria) and the growing body of evidence linking it to the overuse of antibiotics in industrial pig production. The second is Colony Collapse Disorder, which is wiping out many of the honeybee colonies that farmers rely on for crop pollination.
“We’re asking a lot of our bees. We’re asking a lot of our pigs, too. That seems to be a hallmark of industrial agriculture: to maximize production and keep food as cheap as possible, it pushes natural organisms to their limit, asking them to function as efficiently as machines,” Pollan explains, offering these stories as examples of the unsustainability of our current industrial-agriculture system. Today’s Environmental Health News provides three more examples of this problem.
by Susan F. Wood, PhD
It’s not often, if ever, that an FDA sponsored report calls out for more resources, more direct action and organizational change for FDA. The recently released report (PDF) by the Subcommittee on Science and Technology for the FDA Science Board does just that. Although I wouldn’t necessary agree with all of the recommendations, and would call out for a few more, the report identifies some of the real needs at FDA for strengthened science. The FDA Science Board, an Advisory Committee to the FDA, has issued earlier reports, but none with the timeliness and potential impact of this one. Most of the press coverage has been on the call for expanded resources - which are truly needed - but the report also identifies some of the scientific infrastructure needs that trail behind our expectations of this critical public health agency. I don’t know if FDA expected this type of report, but hopefully it can be useful as a way to move the agency forward.
From the report:
You’ve probably heard about “colony collapse disorder,” the mysterious widespread die-off of bees that’s been worrying commercial beekeepers in recent years. Last month, researchers suggested that Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus was playing a role; parasites and overwork (and mobile phones) have also been suggested as possible causes. But Gina Covina, writing in Terrain magazine (via AlterNet), presents another hypothesis: bees are like canaries in coal mines, and they’re warning us that our entire system of industrial agriculture is breaking down.
By Kristen Perosino
Spinach. Peanut butter. Hamburgers. Pet food. No, I’m not preparing for a trip to the grocery store (but if I were, I might unknowingly be adding salmonella, E. coli, and aflatoxin to my grocery list). I’m talking about food safety.
Americans have been made more aware lately of the flaws in our current food safety system, and many lawmakers agree that reform is necessary. However, they don’t agree (yet) on the most effective way to address this issue. Let’s look at some of the food safety problems.
