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FearTheReaper

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

APR 03, 2007 04:58 PM



I wish that headline was hyperbole. Unfortunately, it’s not. While the Republicans controlled Congress food safety inspections dropped considerably due to years of stagnant spending. The FDA is only conducting 25% of food safety inspections of US produced food than it did three years ago. Overall, food inspections have been cut in half since 2003 and there are 12% fewer FDA employees in the field who concentrate on food issues.

“We have a food safety crisis on the horizon,” said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia.


The number of food contamination problems, like the recent spinach e-coli outbreak, are increasing. The FDA has taken to reacting to food problems, rather than preventing them. Which means more of us citizens get to die, then after they will look at what went wrong. This is exactly what has happened during the current peanut butter salmonella outbreak. 256 people have fallen ill in 41 states since August. FDA inspectors went to the ConAgra plant on February 14th; a day after the CDC told them that the company’s peanut butter was the source of the outbreak. Inspectors had not been to the plant since February 2005.

This is all very bad, but expected with a government that gets on it’s knees and sucks the cock of every corporation it can find. But what isn’t expected is the government being forced by a federal judge to LET a company test for mad cow disease. Yep, you read that right. The federal government was trying to stop a company from testing it’s own cows for mad cow disease.

The government wanted to stop Creekstone Farms Premium Beef from testing because larger companies were concerned that they would have to follow suit if Creekstone tested it’s beef and then advertised it as safe. The Agriculture Department threatened to prosecute Creekstone is it tested all of it’s cows. The department tests currently only 1% of slaughtered cows.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the government does not have the authority to regulate the test. Robertson put his order on hold until the government can appeal. If the government does not appeal by June 1, he said the ruling would take effect.


The Agriculture Department cut testing for mad cow by 90% last July because they claimed widespread testing could lead to a “false positive” that would harm the meat industry.

So, there it is, your Bush administration at work, doing what it can to allow you to die so meat companies can make as much money as possible.

FearTheReaper will be appearing at the San Jose Improv April 13-15.

StopSnitchin

StopSnitchin

Hudson, NH
February 2004

APR 03, 2007 05:08 PM

Don't FEAR the REAPER!

If you do...you are anti-government?!?!? shocked

Toku666

Toku666

Columbus, OH
May 2004

APR 03, 2007 05:11 PM

Don't forget, there are still people who believe fervently that Mad Cow doesn't happen here. (The US)

redmess

redmess

Albuquerque, NM
August 2004

APR 03, 2007 05:16 PM

best headline ever.
should be followed by "americans: oblivious to the obvious = shit for brains"
we choose to watch american idol, shop at wal mart, get fat eating mcdonald's, and debate the father of the late anna nicole smith's baby, rather than to acknowledge the facts and act.
the apocalypse couldn't come soon enough! giddy up.

MschfMayhemSoap

MschfMayhemSoap

Phoenix, AZ
April 2006

APR 03, 2007 05:24 PM

*bites into his Big Mac*

IM sorry, WHAT!??? shocked eeek

ObservingOne

ObservingOne

Monroe, LA
April 2006

APR 03, 2007 05:30 PM

Yes, cutting back on inspections HAS to mean that they actually WANT people to die. Not hyperbole at all.

If you want to start paying $10 a pound for ground beef then by all means, require 100% inspections. It's easy for a small premium beef company to do that because their niche is expenive beef. They should be allowed to do so. I agree with that. How many cases of mad cow disease have been verified in the US?

There's a balance that has to be reached. More testing equals higher prices or higher taxes. American food is among the safest in the world and it will remain so.

ianbuon

ianbuon

Pasadena, CA
August 2006

APR 03, 2007 05:34 PM

Meh. Who needds food inspection when my CEO and CFO are blessed with large tax breaks that aren't going back to our company.

Did someone say something about snorting coke off an exotic dancer's ass?

ianbuon

ianbuon

Pasadena, CA
August 2006

APR 03, 2007 05:34 PM

ObservingOne said:

There's a balance that has to be reached. More testing equals higher prices or higher taxes. American food is among the safest in the world and it will remain so.



Source?

MschfMayhemSoap

MschfMayhemSoap

Phoenix, AZ
April 2006

APR 03, 2007 05:35 PM

ObservingOne said:
Yes, cutting back on inspections HAS to mean that they actually WANT people to die. Not hyperbole at all.



Its the Bush Admin, which mean they are leaving things in God's hands, and only the penitent will not get sick tongue


There's a balance that has to be reached. More testing equals higher prices or higher taxes. American food is among the safest in the world and it will remain so.



Or just the luckiest.... you never know. wink

attn_ho

attn_ho

Brooklyn, NY
February 2004

APR 03, 2007 05:39 PM

ObservingOne said:
If you want to start paying $10 a pound for ground beef then by all means, require 100% inspections...
There's a balance that has to be reached. More testing equals higher prices or higher taxes. American food is among the safest in the world and it will remain so.



if your arguement wasnt full of shit, we would have noticed the price of beef going down when the frequency of inspections did.

MrZablowdowski

MrZablowdowski

Edmonton, AB
December 2002

APR 03, 2007 05:45 PM

Why call food irradiated if it can be nutritionally enlightened?

ianbuon

ianbuon

Pasadena, CA
August 2006

APR 03, 2007 05:46 PM

More inspections = reduced costs to both private and public health care costs

More inspections = an increased tax base from the wages of those doing the inspections. Inspections in Europe and the U.K. are far more thorough, and my friend in Amersham Bucks U.K. isn't paying the British equivalent of 10 dollars for his Wimpy Sammich.

meatpieboy

meatpieboy

Korea, D.P.R.
June 2004

APR 03, 2007 05:48 PM

ObservingOne said:

There's a balance that has to be reached. More testing equals higher prices or higher taxes. American food is among the safest in the world and it will remain so.



I don't believe the last part, at this rate. It might be true now, but with the attitude that the government is taking it won't remain so.

This is the fundamental problem with small government. We cannot expect businesses that exist to make money to do things that would reduce their profit. Since Wall Street rewards short-term gains, businesses act to reduce costs NOW, and there would have to be a large outbreak of disease (and WE DO NOT WANT THAT OUTBREAK TO BE MAD COW!!! long incubation period is a bitch!) before consumers would quit eating beef. Then the meat market would fall through the floor ANYWAY, and people would be dead, and we'd all look like morons. Better to have the government require testing for extremely dangerous diseases like BSE.

RileyStClair

RileyStClair

Los Angeles, CA
September 2006

APR 03, 2007 05:49 PM

once again, i am glad i don't eat meat.

if the spinach gets contaminated again though, i'm screwed.

openchakra

openchakra

San Francisco, CA
December 2006

APR 03, 2007 06:17 PM

hmm.....well....the greed of the meat companies is always deplorable. yet we all know how much the government loves us and cares for us though.

as a vegetarian, I can only hope this leads to more people protesting the whole meat industry in general by no longer partaking in meat.

swedrock

swedrock

Louisville, KY
October 2005

APR 03, 2007 06:21 PM

Listen to me,you stupid liberal dumbies! Let the free market move forward without alot of inner city demo employees creating another beurocracy. Well, just don't eat the spinach next week.

MschfMayhemSoap

MschfMayhemSoap

Phoenix, AZ
April 2006

APR 03, 2007 06:25 PM

openchakra said:
as a vegetarian, I can only hope this leads to more people protesting the whole meat industry in general by no longer partaking in meat.



Hey now... Meat is actually good for you if consumed properly and in correct amounts..... I enjoy a nice lean porterhouse... biggrin

erratic_prophet

erratic_prophet

San Diego, CA
December 2006

APR 03, 2007 06:28 PM

ObservingOne said:
Yes, cutting back on inspections HAS to mean that they actually WANT people to die. Not hyperbole at all.

If you want to start paying $10 a pound for ground beef then by all means, require 100% inspections. It's easy for a small premium beef company to do that because their niche is expenive beef. They should be allowed to do so. I agree with that. How many cases of mad cow disease have been verified in the US?

There's a balance that has to be reached. More testing equals higher prices or higher taxes. American food is among the safest in the world and it will remain so.



Correct. Clearly the best option is the one where we push our standards even farther down and attack companies who do attempt to raise them so that more food flavorings like e- coli break out.

CyberEdZ

CyberEdZ

United Kingdom
January 2005

APR 03, 2007 06:29 PM

The really dangerous thing about CJD (the human equivalent of BSE) is that it has a really long incubation period, so literally millions of people could be infected and not know.

It was a huge problem in England for a while, but seems to have been largely contained. Interestingly enough, the herds in Scotland, Wales and NI were almost untouched by the disease. But, of course, that has nothing to do with the fact that almost all our herds are grass-fed rather than with food pellets. Nope, nothing at all. Or the pesticides used to prevent skin parasites (which damage the hide, and so its usefulness as leather). I repeat, there is no connection. And you'd be a fool and a communist to make one*.


*Bill Hicks, RIP

meatpieboy

meatpieboy

Korea, D.P.R.
June 2004

APR 03, 2007 06:32 PM

erratic_prophet said:

Correct. Clearly the best option is the one where we push our standards even farther down and attack companies who do attempt to raise them so that more food flavorings like e- coli break out.



Yeah: About attacking companies...

The really sick thing about this article is not that we're not inspecting any more (which I was whining about above) but that THE GOVERNMENT was threatening to prosecute a company that was trying to act in a safe manner (admittedly, in order to corner a corner of the markey).

Um, Uncle Sam, looks like you've got some mayo on your beard, there...

Ellyson

Ellyson

Norfolk, VA
June 2006

APR 03, 2007 06:33 PM

Sounds like the next Michael Moore movie.

PaulNikon

PaulNikon

Melbourne, FL
February 2003

APR 03, 2007 06:34 PM

I hope the terrorists don't hear about this.

DrStinkypants

DrStinkypants

Saint Paul, MN
October 2002

APR 03, 2007 07:13 PM

FearTheReaper will be appearing at the San Jose Improv April 13-15.



Is that a joke?

Quirky

Quirky

Birmingham, AL
October 2005

APR 03, 2007 08:18 PM

DrStinkypants said:

FearTheReaper will be appearing at the San Jose Improv April 13-15.



Is that a joke?


No, I believe it is Fail.

Postmaster

Postmaster

Austin, TX
October 2004

APR 03, 2007 08:39 PM

swedrock said:
Listen to me,you stupid liberal dumbies! Let the free market move forward without alot of inner city demo employees creating another beurocracy. Well, just don't eat the spinach next week.



The FDA and USDA aren't "another" beurocracy. They already exist, and have a job to do.

"Don't eat the spinach..." Uh...still trying to figure out what your point is...

"Dumbies" isn't a real word, by the way. The word you're looking for is "dummies." Pl. of "dummy."

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