Righteous Blog

Pork & Peanut Butter

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

I’ve been mulling over the pork and peanut butter connection these past few days. Both contain a lot of fat, that’s true. But a much more troubling link is the lack of regulation by our government, you know the body that’s supposed to make sure food is safe and wholesome. Tainted peanut butter from a plant in Georgia has caused one of the Food and Drug Administration’s largest recalls in history. The contaminated paste has caused at least eight deaths and 500 cases of human illness. (It’s also believed to be in pet food, though I’ve seen no figures on the number of pet deaths). Numerous reports in the past two years, such as by the Government Accounting Office, have pointed out that the Bush administration had failed to fulfill its duties with respect to protecting our food supply. The peanut butter scare is just the latest in a series of incidents that make that all too clear. In pork, the issues have been meat tainted by the bacteria Listeria, various other antibiotic-resistant pathogens, and drug residues including ractopamine, a steroid-like drug that promotes muscle growth. The latter was the basis for China rejecting huge shipments of U.S. pork in July 2007. On January 30, the New York Times editorials opined that, “Consumers have faced far too many food-supply emergencies in the last few years… The FDA, an important agency charged with protecting the food supply, was one of many hobbled by the Bush Administration’s antiregulatory efforts.” I join with the Times’ editorial board in hoping that the Obama administration will swiftly remedy this failure.

1 Comment  |  Permalink  |  Posted in Food Safety, Pork

Comments

  1. Vines & Cattle  |  March 10th, 2009

    And yet I fear any new “swift remedies”. As a conventional producer making the switch to more diversified, artisan model, I get a bit nervous when I hear about proposals for new regulations. Regulations that Tyson and their teams of lawyers will have no problem navigating, but will be a burden to smaller producers.
    On another note, I just finished Righteous Porkchop, and I really enjoyed it. As a longtime beef producer I was pleasantly surprised at the rousing defense you gave to cow/calf operations. I’ve never read a more eloquent defense of the one sector of modern animal ag that has resisted the trend of confinement. Thanks!

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