Not Exactly the Calvary

Generic comfort from our friendly federal press relations corps.  Okay I am being more than a little sarcastic.  It is the agency's job to get people to sit back on their couches and turn on the television and ignore a lot of things while they turn their strategies into law or a part of the regulatory process.  Having had to deal with the mob mentality before I get the benefit.  It is the long term disadvantages and placebo effect on the public and democratic transparency that chills me to the bone.   If the recent regulatory track record were better I might be a little more upbeat.  It will take time to clean house at the FDA and the USDA of the political implants so until then I feel justified in being suspect of their trend in how to resolve things.  Plus one of the six area proposals, if you click on the link and read the entire blurb, is to employ more tracing mechanisms.  I still do not agree with electronic tagging of farmer's assets on their own property.  I have a mental line drawn in my mind for invasive government and have yet to hear a good argument for changing it in regards to this particular industry.  Removing the human from the process may be more cost affordable and create efficiencies in gathering data but it does not necessarily translate into effectiveness of regulatory management. Not to mention the slippery slope of Cow Pucky in general.  I still think fresh local food and smaller system management is the way to go.  But that would mean radical new thinking on a lot of levels.  Brain stretch-marks!

Government tightening food safety standards - washingtonpost.com

New safety standards aimed at reducing salmonella and E. coli outbreaks are part of a government effort to try to make food safer to eat.

A food safety panel established by President Barack Obama developed the new rules for eggs, poultry, beef, leafy greens, melons and tomatoes as well as for better coordination and communication among the agencies overseeing the nation's food supply.

The panel was to announce Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department would adopt the standards, which follow a string of breakdowns in food safety.

Earlier this year a massive salmonella outbreak in peanut products sickened hundreds, was suspected of causing nine deaths and led to one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history. In the past month, Nestle Toll House cookie dough and 380,000 pounds of beef produced by the JBS Swift Beef Co. of Greeley, Colo., have been recalled due to connections with outbreaks of E. coli.