Early this year H.R. 2751, the Food & Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act, was signed into law. Among other things, this law for the first time gives the FDA the actual authority to order that tainted food be recalled, instead of nagging food factory owners into “voluntarily” shutting down production when that which they produce is proven to be making people vomit or worse. The new law also requires companies importing food into the U.S. to “perform risk-based foreign supplier verification” as at least a first cursory test to make sure food products from places such as China are not going to immediately poison American consumers. And the law requires FDA to hire enough inspectors to inspect a larger percentage of food-making and distributing facilities.
But alas! The new law also requires that big food producers be assessed new fees if their factories are found in violation of safety regulations, or if the food products they produce are recalled.
Big Ag and the factory food producers don’t like H.R. 2751. They don’t want to have to pay fees or fines for their mistakes or negligence. They like the old system, where not even the FDA could force them to stop making gross processed food if it was inconvenient.
So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the House Appropriations Committee voted earlier this month to slash the FDA’s budget sufficiently that the agency would be unable to comply with the provisions of H.R. 2751, leaving Big Ag and the factory food producers pretty much free to police themselves, which has proved to be real beneficial to American consumers so far, hasn’t it?
The Appropriations Committee vote should come as no surprise because Big Ag and the big food producers have most of the members of the House Appropriation Committee on their payroll. They’ve been bribing making hefty campaign contributions to these congressmen for years.
The American Meat Institute, for instance, gave $91,999 to members of the Appropriations Committee in election cycles from 2000 to 2010, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, analyzed by Food & Water Watch.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association gave $91,306 to committee members over the same period. The National Chicken Council gave $88,176. Tyson Foods gave $76,724 all by itself.
All told, 17 big food producers or Big Ag industry associations gave $615,305 to members of the House Appropriations Committee. Strangely enough, $489,081 of that amount went to Republicans on the committee.
This is how representative government works today in the United Corporations of America. If you want enlightened representation, you have to step up to the plate.
You get what you pay for.
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I have a friend who recently retired from FDA and was involved in the food safety side of things. It is very tragic and most depressing and actually a few years ago under Bush a very depressing place to work due to the oppressing leadership at that time. We could have a crisis like Germany and then, of course, citizens will be screaming for food safety!