Good thing both our presidential candidates agree that corporate taxes are much too high:
During the past two decades, the food industry has taken over much of the FDA’s role in ensuring that what Americans eat is safe. The agency can’t come close to vetting its jurisdiction of $1.2 trillion in annual food sales.In 2011, the FDA inspected 6 percent of domestic food producers and just 0.4 percent of importers. The FDA has had no rules for how often food producers must be inspected.
The food industry hires for-profit inspection companies---known as third-party auditors---who aren’t required by law to meet any federal standards and have no government supervision. Some of these monitors choose to follow guidelines from trade groups that include ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG), Kraft Foods Inc. and Wal-Mart.
The private inspectors that companies select often check only those areas their clients ask them to review.
There was a time---at least I like to pretend there was---such when reporting would have sparked mass outrage and spurred lawmakers to pass landmark consumer-protection legislation. Wouldn't be a bad idea now, come to think of it.
In our time, however:
The Food Safety Modernization Act, which passed Congress with bipartisan support, will allow the FDA to certify private companies to audit producers of imported food on its behalf.The law mandates that these auditors submit their reports to the agency. These rules don’t apply to domestic inspection companies, which still won’t be approved by the FDA and don’t report their findings.
At least we still have the freedom to be poisoned by our own people. Cue Lee Greenwood!
---Vitelius
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