http://economistsview.typepad.com/ec...aul_krugman_fe.
html

May 21, 2007

Fear of Eating, by Paul Krugman,
Commentary, NY Times

Yesterday I did something risky: I ate a salad.

These are anxious days at the lunch table. For all you know, there
may be E. coli on your spinach, salmonella in your peanut butter and
melamine in your pet¹s food and, because it was in the feed, in your
chicken sandwich.

Who¹s responsible...? Some blame globalization; some blame
food-producing corporations; some blame the Bush administration. But I
blame Milton Friedman.

Now, those who blame globalization do have a point. ...[S]ince the
Food and Drug Administration has limited funds..., it can inspect only a
small percentage of imports. This leaves American consumers effectively
dependent on the quality of foreign food-safety enforcement. And that¹s
not a healthy place to be... [L]ast month the [FDA] detained shipments
from China that included dried apples treated with carcinogenic
chemicals and seafood ³coated with putrefying bacteria.² You can be sure
that a lot of similarly unsafe and disgusting food ends up in American
stomachs.

Those who blame corporations also have a point. In 2005, the F.D.A.
suspected that peanut butter produced by ConAgra ... might be
contaminated with salmonella. According to The New York Times, ³when
agency inspectors went to the plant..., the company acknowledged it had
destroyed some product but...²... refused to let the inspectors examine
its records without a written authorization.

According to the company, the agency never followed through. This
brings us to our third villain, the Bush administration.

Without question, America¹s food safety system has degenerated...
[S]ince 2001 the F.D.A. has introduced no significant new food safety
regulations...

This isn¹t simply a matter of caving in to industry pressure... The
.... United Fresh Produce Association says that ... without strong
mandatory federal regulations..., scrupulous growers and processors risk
being undercut by competitors more willing to cut corners on food
safety. ...

Why would the administration refuse to regulate an industry that
actually wants to be regulated? Officials ... are also influenced by an
ideology that says business should never be regulated, no matter what.

The economic case for having the government enforce rules on food
safety seems overwhelming. Consumers have no way of knowing whether the
food they eat is contaminated, and in this case what you don¹t know can
hurt or even kill you. But there are some people who refuse to accept
that case, because it¹s ideologically inconvenient.

That¹s why I blame ... Milton Friedman, who called for the abolition
of both the food and the drug sides of the F.D.A. What would protect the
public from dangerous or ineffective drugs? ³It¹s in the self-interest
of pharmaceutical companies not to have these bad things,² he
insisted... He would presumably have applied the same logic to food
safety (as he did to airline safety): regardless of circumstances, you
can always trust the private sector to police itself.

O.K., I¹m not saying that Mr. Friedman directly caused tainted
spinach and poisonous peanut butter. But he did help to make our food
less safe, by legitimizing what the historian Rick Perlstein calls ³E.
coli conservatives²: ideologues who won¹t accept even the most
compelling case for government regulation.

Earlier this month the administration named, you guessed it, a ³food
safety czar.² But the food safety crisis isn¹t caused by the arrangement
of the boxes on the organization chart. It¹s caused by the dominance
within our government of a literally sickening ideology.


Bon Appétit,

- Bill

Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

On May 25, 12:36�pm, Bill Rose wrote:

Snip.

* * Earlier this month the administration named, you guessed it, a ³food
safety czar.² But the food safety crisis isn¹t caused by the arrangement
of the boxes on the organization chart. It¹s caused by the dominance
within our government of a literally sickening ideology.

Bon Appétit,

- Bill

This does not belong here, but it was a good read.

In article .com,
told2b wrote:

On May 25, 12:36�pm, Bill Rose wrote:

Snip.

* * Earlier this month the administration named, you guessed it, a ³food
safety czar.² But the food safety crisis isn¹t caused by the arrangement
of the boxes on the organization chart. It¹s caused by the dominance
within our government of a literally sickening ideology.

Bon Appétit,

- Bill

This does not belong here, but it was a good read.

Why is this damn font so small?

This article does belong here because it is the very reason why so many
of us grow as much of our own food as we can. We have no faith in the
government to protect our health.

- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (damn type)

"Bill Rose" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
told2b wrote:

On May 25, 12:36�pm, Bill Rose wrote:

Snip.

Earlier this month the administration named, you guessed it, a ³food
safety czar.² But the food safety crisis isn¹t caused by the
arrangement
of the boxes on the organization chart. It¹s caused by the dominance
within our government of a literally sickening ideology.

Bon Appétit,

- Bill

This does not belong here, but it was a good read.

Why is this damn font so small?

This article does belong here because it is the very reason why so many
of us grow as much of our own food as we can. We have no faith in the
government to protect our health.

I have a large pot of collards simmering as I type this. No fear of
pesticides. The lettuce from my garden for my salad is clean and free of
human and animal waste. I'll eat well tonight.


- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (damn type)

In article .com,
told2b wrote:

On May 25, 12:36?pm, Bill Rose wrote:

Snip.

Ê Ê Earlier this month the administration named, you guessed it, a ©øfood
safety czar.² But the food safety crisis isn¹t caused by the arrangement
of the boxes on the organization chart. It¹s caused by the dominance
within our government of a literally sickening ideology.

Bon App?t,

- Bill

This does not belong here, but it was a good read.

Sure it does. It reminds you of why you grow your own food.

Jan
beef cattle rancher

--
Bedouin proverb: If you have no troubles, buy a goat.

"Bill Rose" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
told2b wrote:

On May 25, 12:36�pm, Bill Rose wrote:

Snip.

Earlier this month the administration named, you guessed it, a ³food
safety czar.² But the food safety crisis isn¹t caused by the
arrangement
of the boxes on the organization chart. It¹s caused by the dominance
within our government of a literally sickening ideology.

Bon Appétit,

- Bill

This does not belong here, but it was a good read.

Why is this damn font so small?

This article does belong here because it is the very reason why so many
of us grow as much of our own food as we can. We have no faith in the
government to protect our health.

- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (damn type)

A year ago, I bought something called "wheat bread" at local grocery store.
It was sliced like bread, kinda tasted like bread. Was less expensive than
other breads. My house is a single person dwelling. I ate half the loaf in
a couple of days. Left the remainder in its original plastic bag on top of
the refrigerator. Forgot about it. 2 weeks later, I decided to make a tuna
fish sandwich. I reached for the "wheat bread" expecting major mold or
something hard as a rock, or both. What I found was a few slices that were
getting little firm but not hard. No mold. That scared me. So, I threw
away the "wheat bread". I made a comment to my sister that I won't need any
additional preservation for my casket after death. The food I'm eating is
already doing that.
Dave

On May 25, 2:19 pm, Bill Rose wrote:
In article .com,
told2b wrote:
On May 25, 12:36�pm, Bill Rose wrote:
Earlier this month the administration named, you guessed it, a ³food
safety czar.² But the food safety crisis isn¹t caused by the arrangement
of the boxes on the organization chart. It¹s caused by the dominance
within our government of a literally sickening ideology.
This does not belong here, but it was a good read.

This article does belong here because it is the very reason why so many
of us grow as much of our own food as we can. We have no faith in the
government to protect our health.

True, but it has nothing to do, in my mind, with liberals or
conservatives. I don't trust government, period. Put the liberals in
power and give them umpteen billions to protect our food supply and
they'll do better than the conservatives, but not good enough to trust
your life with.

Let's grow our own food, dig our own wells, purify our own drinking
water, compost our own waste, and maybe one day we'll wake up and
realize "what do we need the government for, anyway?"

Anyway, old Milt died, give the guy a break. He made mistakes, as do
we all. If the Republican politicians would really listen to the core
Libertarian philosophies and not just the parts they want to hear and/
or pay lip service to, things might not be so bad now.

In article om,
jcomeau_ictx wrote:

On May 25, 2:19 pm, Bill Rose wrote:
In article .com,
told2b wrote:
On May 25, 12:36�pm, Bill Rose wrote:
Earlier this month the administration named, you guessed it, a ³food
safety czar.² But the food safety crisis isn¹t caused by the arrangement
of the boxes on the organization chart. It¹s caused by the dominance
within our government of a literally sickening ideology.
This does not belong here, but it was a good read.

This article does belong here because it is the very reason why so many
of us grow as much of our own food as we can. We have no faith in the
government to protect our health.

True, but it has nothing to do, in my mind, with liberals or
conservatives. I don't trust government, period. Put the liberals in
power and give them umpteen billions to protect our food supply and
they'll do better than the conservatives, but not good enough to trust
your life with.

Let's grow our own food, dig our own wells, purify our own drinking
water, compost our own waste, and maybe one day we'll wake up and
realize "what do we need the government for, anyway?"

Anyway, old Milt died, give the guy a break. He made mistakes, as do
we all. If the Republican politicians would really listen to the core
Libertarian philosophies and not just the parts they want to hear and/
or pay lip service to, things might not be so bad now.

The ostentatious, narcissistic, megalomaniacs who run for public office
can be collectively referred to as Republicrats. They get to be the new
front persons, mouth pieces for the oligarchy but the "owners" stay the
same. They aren't serving the people's needs either in terms of security
or nutrition.

I think we do need a central government, one that is insulated from the
influence of money. We need common laws and equal enforcement. We need
public services such as fire departments, hospitals, libraries, road
repair, water and sanitation. If your neighbors house goes up in flames,
it threatens yours. If your neighbor has a communicable disease, it
needs to be treated. Are we all in this together or separately? Do we
band together for the common good or, can I hit you in the head and,
then what was yours is now mine? Collective effort seems to be the only
safe answer. The problem is that this crew in Washington have been
shearing us. Not just the Bushies, who are just the most egregious
examples the oligarchy's management but also that slick talking Bill
Clinton who's Secretary of State thought that the deaths 500,000 Iraqi
kids (less than 5 years old) was an acceptable price to pay to control
our previous stooge in Iraq, Saddam Hussein. Now with enlightened
management gone, I fear the truly greedy are no longer content with
shearing us but, want to skin us.
-----

Except for the last few 'maters, the edible garden is in the ground
except for the melons. Something has eaten all he melons I've put out
except for one "Sugar Baby" watermelon. I have back ups germinating as I
type. The violets are in flower and so are the peas. The violets have
attracted the bees, at least a half dozen of them. I'm probably a week
away from a fresh garden salad. The house wrens and the bush-tits have
returned to the feeder, the hanging nasturtium is about to over flow
it's pot. It feels like just before a performance. I can hardly wait for
it to begin.

While it's important to be aware of the Bushies and the Morlocks, it's
important to live like they don't exist.

- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

"Manelli Family" wrote in message news:f37jll$dg6
I have a large pot of collards simmering as I type this. No fear of
pesticides. The lettuce from my garden for my salad is clean and
free of human and animal waste. I'll eat well tonight.

How do you keep the neighbors cat from using your garden?

Bob