Mar 28 2008

Oh no! Now see what the USDA is doing

So now the USDA is proposing to forget about its promise to identify retailers selling recalled meat – unless the health risk is really, really bad. Oh great. The agency now thinks it’s just fine if consumers don’t realize that the meat they bought from local stores was later recalled.  It’s up to you to track all those lot numbers and know what you bought and where you bought it.   Rumors are that USDA is reneging on its promise to keep consumers better informed under pressure from the food industry.  Let’s keep an eye on this one.

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  • Yanoff
  • March 28, 2008
  • 8:19 pm

That’s it, the government has given up. I gave up a long time ago. It’s everyone for themselves now, no one is looking out for you.

Your doctor doesn’t look out for you — they never ask you about your diet and they just think that prescribing medicine is the cure to everything.

Your government doesn’t look out for you — they’re not even required to recall food, it’s up to the producer to do that.

The food companies don’t look out for you — they’re in it for the money, of course.

There’s little choice left but to avoid some of these products.

  • Sheila
  • March 28, 2008
  • 9:02 pm

So, what qualifies as “really, really bad”? I would think that if the food has any characteristic that qualifies it for recall, that is bad enough for our safety net to verify the food has been properly removed and destroyed.

  • Fentry
  • March 29, 2008
  • 6:58 pm

USDA Rule 1: keeping information from the American public is in the best interests of a free and open society.

USDA Rule 2: keeping information from the American public is in the best interests of an informed public and an active citizenry.

  • Daniel Ithaca,NY
  • March 30, 2008
  • 9:44 am

Rules or not, what we see by the actions of the USDA is that it is more important for the corporations to avoid making slightly less money at the expense of human lives.

Corporate Wealth > Public Health

  • Bix
  • April 1, 2008
  • 8:06 am

I agree, the more transparent the better.

But since all recalls are voluntary, decided by the company, not the government (the USDA does not have the authority to mandate a recall), I can imagine the exchange of information, about such things as what products and food retail establishments a recalled food ended up in, is also at the whim of the company.

In my mind, it’s not so much the USDA’s withholding of information (they may not have very much anyway), but the company’s withholding.

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