Eric Schlosser, Aldous Huxley & Food Safety

Hey guys!

You know I’m a huge supporter of all things Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser (co-producers of Food Inc.), so when Schlosser’s Op-Ed in the New York Times hit today, I was all over it like vegan cupcakes [full article here].

Schlosser’s piece focuses on the FDA Food Modernization Act — a bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to “order” the recall of contaminated foods (I thought they already had this authority! Crazy that they don’t, no?) and to discipline companies that consciously sell tainted products. Additionally, passage of the bill would grant the FDA the authority to test “widely for dangerous pathogens and improve the agency’s ability to trace outbreaks back to their source.”

So what’s the hold-up? Apparently the bill’s been in a “legislative limbo” and if it doesn’t get passed by the end of this session, Congress will have to reinvent the wheel to get this going again. Marion Nestle, NYU professor and author of Food Politics
wrote on her blog today that the hold-up is related to “nothing but politics of the worst kind” [source].

Why does this matter? What’s at stake? Basically, the food industry has become a Brave New World (happy birthday, Aldous Huxley!) in that mass commercialization has meant less regulation and concerns for profit winning over those for safety. Here are some key quotes — relating to what’s at stake — from Schlosser’s piece:

• “…right now, very few cases of food poisoning are ever actually linked to what the person ate, and companies that sell contaminated products routinely avoid liability. The economic cost is instead imposed on society. And it’s a huge cost. According to a recent study sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the annual health-related cost of food-borne illness in the United States is about $152 billion.” [Schlosser]
• “Without tough food safety rules, a perverse economic incentive guides the marketplace. Adulterated food is cheaper to produce than safe food. Since consumers cannot tell the difference between the two, companies that try to do the right thing are forced to compete with companies that couldn’t care less.” [Schlosser]
• “Every day, about 200,000 Americans are sickened by contaminated food. Every year, about 325,000 are hospitalized by a food-borne illness. And the number who are killed annually by something they ate is roughly the same as the number of Americans who’ve been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003.” [Schlosser]
• “Today, a problem at a single factory can swiftly lead to an outbreak that extends nationwide. Last year’s peanut butter recall illustrates what can go wrong. Executives at the Peanut Corporation of America knew that peanut butter from their filthy, rodent-infested plant was testing positive for salmonella — but shipped it anyway, for months.” [Schlosser]
• “Thousands of different products, manufactured by more than 200 companies, including candies and cookies marketed to children, were potentially tainted thanks to that one plant. And in the end, roughly 20,000 Americans got salmonella; about half of them were under the age of 16 and one-fifth were younger than 5.” [Schlosser]
• “The enormous rise in imported food also exposes American consumers to food safety lapses overseas…Chinese companies have been caught adding lead-based whiteners to pasta and selling beverages made with industrial alcohol. Two years ago, almost 300,000 Chinese infants were sickened by baby formula that had been adulterated with melamine, a cheap but toxic chemical. The overuse of antibiotics and pesticides in Chinese agriculture is rampant.” [Schlosser]
• “Despite those food safety problems, China has become the largest exporter of food to the United States after Canada and Mexico. About 60 percent of the apple juice in America — like peanut butter, a product consumed largely by children — now comes from China. This is yet another reason that passage of the F.D.A. modernization act is so urgent; it would, for the first time, subject foods from overseas to the same standards as those produced in the United States.” [Schlosser]

As Marion Nestle adds on her blog, “Lives are at stake here and everyone who cares about our food system should be urging the Senate to get moving” [source].

I’m not sure what we “every day citizens” can do to show our support for this bill. So, uh, I’ve asked around and will share with you when I hear If you know how, please share in the comments section! Also, if you’d like to stay on top of all the latest food recalls, check out Recalls.gov, where multiple government agencies report their recall info. [recalls.gov info. via Hungry Girl]

In more light-hearted news:

• Today is National Coffee Milkshake Day (darn food producers coming up with daily food-related holidays!). [photo cred]
  If you’d like to celebrate, I’d recommend making yourself a cup of coffee as your normally do, then letting it get to room temp. Add 1/2 cup of vanilla-flavored, coffee-flavored or mocha-fudge flavored vegan ice cream (I’d recommend Turtle Mountain’s Organic So Delicious variety), 1 cup unsweetened Almond Breeze and lots of ice and blend them all together! Lots o’ drink all for approx 170 calories, 6g fat, 240mg sodium, 26g carbs, 4g fiber, 13g sugars, 2g protein
• Today is Meatless Monday. Haven’t heard of it? Craziness! Check out the site here and start making Mondays your meatless day if only to try some cool new plant-based recipes!
• The Food Network is doing an open casting call for, “The Next Food Network Star.” Casting call is on Tuesday, August 10 from 10am-3pm at LA Marriott Burbank Airport, 2500 Hollywood Way [via Caroline on Crack]

Hope you guys have a wonderful day! Any of you non-veg peeps participate in Meatless Monday? Why do you think people are dragging their feet on passing the FDA Food Modernization Act?

<3,

The Cranky One

Tags: eric schlosser, FDA, food network, food safety, michael pollan