Over the past few days there have been numerous stories about hamburger recalls around the country. United Food Group and Tyson Foods have recalled over 6 million pounds of hamburger. As North Country News says, "It’s getting harder and harder to know what’s safe to eat."
What's safe to eat indeed! Between bacterial contamination, melamine in imports for China, and the FDA's inadequate staffing and authoritative powers, our food supply is in danger.
We have several looming crises in food security.
- FDA has little to no power to inspect and enforce health and safety regulations. They can only respond after the fact when contamination is discovered. And contamination often isn't discovered until somebody gets sick.
- Inadequate inspection of foreign imports of both food goods and ingredients like gluten. Again, response is limited to after-the-fact cleanup.
- Transportation costs. Rising gas prices mean rising food costs. Both processed foods like breakfast cereals and fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables are going to get more and more expensive as transportation costs rise.
Why do I include transportation costs? Because businesses, in an effort to undercut the competitor's prices, will without a doubt take shortcuts that will impact food safety.
And what's going to happen more and more Americans can't afford a week's groceries?