Tomato, Tomahto
SALMONELLA OUTBREAK SPREADS TO TWENTY-THREE STATES
By Mande Wilkes
FITSNews – June 13, 2008 – The Food and Drug Administration is once again out to lunch. For the brazillionth time this decade, the “Food” portion of the agency’s title has again taken a back seat to more pressing matters. It’s too tied up worrying about breast implant innards and forcing STD vaccinations on 9-year olds to monitor such pesky issues as food safety.
Worst of all, it appears that the healthiest foods have been the culprits of illness outbreaks. Last year the spinach was contaminated; now it’s tomatoes. As of today 228 people have contracted salmonella from bad tomatoes, and the illnesses continue to mount each day.
The FDA has thus far failed to pinpoint the types of tomatoes responsible for the salmonella outbreak, though it has advised that grape and cherry tomatoes have not yet been implicated. Of course, this is not because those tomatoes are inherently safer, it’s because none of the ill people have yet reported eating those types.
That’s pretty much the extent of the FDA’s guidance on the matter, except for a tedious and probably inaccurate list of states and counties that haven’t yet been associated with the outbreak. Unless you’re prepared to arm yourself with pages of printed material from the FDA website, your summer salads are going to be lacking.
Juxtaposed with the pet food hysteria that occurred earlier this year, the FDA’s lackadaisical response to this salmonella scare is pathetically ironic. If only our food merited as much of the agency’s attention as dog chow, we probably wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with.
Comments
By bfd on June 13th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Nice to know that you have broken a story that came out 5 days ago….
By Eat smart and healthy on June 13th, 2008 at 8:49 am
It is not just the FDA that is at fault with this one. Once again our federal government has created programs with unintended consequences. Billions in subsidies given to produce corn yet very little to support the local farmer producing healthy produce for his local community.
Support your local farmers markets.Help increase the production of healthy food in our local areas so we do not rely on cheap mass production methods such as these. This example above could have one huge farm with the ability to contaminate vegetables in every state .
The answer, from an environmental standpoint and a health standpoint, is more healthy food produced closer to home.
By Negatron on June 13th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Maybe if the Republicans weren’t trying so hard to eviscerate our government agencies, they would do a better job.
By flounder on June 13th, 2008 at 9:57 am
I notice that no one wants to handle the fact that the outbreak is probably due to illegals that won’t wash thier hands… We have good hearted liberals that want to post bi-lingual traffic signs, check the number of illegals being hit by cars on Ashley Phosphate Rd in North Chuck, for assumed no habla english that still mightn’t bother to read the signage if they are literate.
Imagine if Al Queda did this the way the Rajhneeshis hosed a salad bar in Washington State, to keep voters from the polls… but Al Ja Gorea would be taking credit already.
By R. Hayden on June 13th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I don’t think the FDA is worrying about “breast plant innards” or “STD vaccinations” anymore considering both of those reports were written in 2006. It is now 2008.
I am a no journalist, but if you want to argue that the FDA has been too busy investigating frivolous products recently to adequately regulate America’s food supply, then you should probably cite to ongoing or recent FDA investigations.
Once again, Ms. Wilkes fails to impress.
By fitsnews on June 13th, 2008 at 10:39 am
R Hayden,
We think Mande’s rocking it out, personally.
Perhaps your problem is that you’ve “failed to impress” more than a few times yourself, but fortunately they make pills for that.
-FITSNews
By Scooter Libby's Lawyer on June 13th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Negatron is right on the money on this. The problem is the Republicans gutted the regulatory and investigatory mechanisms that were working to keep us safe. Just like they did in the EPA, the FTC, the FCC and the Justice Department.
The idiots in the GOP always say Government doesn’t work, then they spend millions to get into office and prove it.
By R.Hayden on June 13th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
If that is your defense to shoddy research, that is truly sad.
And I admit, I regularly fail to impress. That is why I choose not to do certain things in a public forum. I know I am not a pro, so I don’t pretend to be one.
My “problem” is that I want to trust FitsNews, but Ms. Wilkes’s makes that difficult.
By bfd on June 13th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
My…. my…. someone slams Mande and her groupies come to the rescue!!! She reports news that has been out 5 days…. Others have stated that the rest of her facts are 2-3 years old….. Alot of dribble.
By free2write on June 14th, 2008 at 4:34 am
we don’t need the fda to respond to a free market;
companies that create unsafe products
will go out of business if the nanny-state
would simply let the marketplace alone;
the press informs the public,
the public makes informed decisions –
otherwise, please leave us alone.