Part and parcel of the government-hating wolves gaurding our national henhouse is their penchant for contempt of government regulation in the public interest. The foodborne health crises, from spinach to peanut butter and most recently pet foods, is just one of many ways in which we, the public, suffer from a lack of adequate governmental oversight.
Tonight on PBS, a food industry leader, Tom Nassif of the Western Growers Association, said that they readily accept the need for and presence of federal regulators but that they are largely absent. He said that there simply were not enough inspectors, a dearth which he blamed on insufficient funding at the FDA.
Caroline Smith deWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the FDA inspects non-meat food production facilities once every 5-10 years, while the USDA inspects meat processors daily.
We put so much of our trust in food processors and they undoubtedly try hard and are for the most part responsible. It's not that when they err, they do so intentionally, there could just be an oversight, or the occassional sloppiness bred by the knowledge that there is sparse oversight.
This intentional de-funding of essential regulatory oversight of the food industry endangers our public health. It is yet another taint on the record of Bush and his fellow Republicans.
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