Terrorist Warnings on Food…
There’s a “high likelihood” that sometime over the next year, government prognosticators warn, people will get sick from “an act of food terrorism or by an incident of food contamination.”
That nugget is from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which points out that Salmonella, E. coli 0157:H7, and ricin might be the biggest threats because they would be relatively easy to get into the food supply. That’s not to rule out, however, anthrax and botulism which are considered even more deadly.
“One of our greatest potential vulnerabilities” to terrorist attack, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said recently, “is something we depend on every day – our food supply.”
Animal Diseases…
A General Accounting Office (GAO) study has chastised the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for lax security at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York. The department failed to make background checks on or escort scientists from other countries who entered the facility, the study says.
Plum Island is the only place in the United States where vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease and swine flu are held. Therefore, GAO said, it could be a terrorist target. Since June, the Department of Homeland Security has been overseeing the facility.
And Lawmakers?
Speaking of potential terrorist targets, what about lawmakers and administration types who live and congregate at least a lot of the time in the Washington, DC, area? And what would happen to our government if a significant number of them were hit?
The Continuity of Government Commission, put together by two big think tanks, has been challenging lawmakers to not only think about the possibility but to come up with a contingency plan.
The U.S. Constitution, commission members point out, allows state governors to appoint new senators to fill vacancies, but empty House seats must be filled by special elections, which take time.
Former Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-WY), co-chairman of the commission, chided House members for dragging their feet and saying they didn’t want to “alter the character of the House.” What more, he asked, could alter the character of the House than (dead) “bodies?”
Double the Pleasure
FDA, in a draft report released to the public, as much as says that cloned animals are safe to eat. In bureaucratic language, it states: “Edible products from normal, healthy clones or their progeny do not appear to pose increased food-consumption risks relative to comparable products from conventional animals.”
Note that FDA is not officially saying that cloned animals are okay for food. The next step will be a longer version of the draft due out next spring. Then there will be a public comment period before any final policy is made. It’s clear, however, that barring something unforeseen, cloned animals will be declared safe for food and therefore outside of FDA regulation.
Biotech companies and some livestock and dairy producers are rarin’ to go with their cloned products. They are hoping that FDA won’t drag out its final decision.
Not so COOL
Country-of-origin labels (COOL) for meat, seafood, and produce will be mandatory after September 30, 2004 – if proposed USDA rules take effect. The department’s recently released price tag of $582 million to $3.9 billion for the first year, however, has fueled calls for repeal of the law.
Meat groups, grocers, and the Bush administration don’t like the law. The National Pork Producers Council warned that the costs could lead to a lot of bankrupt hog farmers.
Even USDA could find only “negligible” benefits from new labels and “little evidence” that consumers are likely to increase their purchase of U.S.-labeled food items.
Don’t Blame it on the French… Fries
We’re a nation of fat folks and getting fatter, headlines tell us. Consider these headlines in a mere two-week period in the Washington Post newspaper: “Severe Obesity Rises Sharply;” “Some Ambulances Modified for Obese Patients;” and “Toddlers’ Diets Too Fatty, Study Indicates.”
The stories tell us that one in five Americans is now obese, double the number from the 1980s.
The last story, based on a study commissioned by baby food company Gerber, says that many toddlers don’t eat fruits or vegetables, but when they do, it’s French fries. More than 20 percent of kids between 19 months and two years old ate French fries daily, while nine percent of those a mere nine to 11 months old ate them each day.
One-fourth of the older age group also ate hot dogs, sausage, or bacon each day. Of the younger group, seven percent did.
Note: Despite toddler munching of fries, sales of fries have been leveling off. The U.S. Potato Board said sales for the first quarter of 2003 were down five percent from record highs two years before. USDA had been warning that worldwide growth in the fast food industry had been slowing, so too would fries.
Others point to all the emphasis on trans fatty acids not being good for you as a damper on sales. And the economy hasn’t helped either, they add, discouraging eating out.
Overtime Debate Over
At press time, President Bush’s attempt to revamp overtime pay rules appeared dead on Capitol Hill. GOP lawmakers who had earlier supported the administration’s efforts voted against the proposal when push came to shove.
As Kansas Republican Congressman Todd Tiahrt put it, “I just had to represent the concerns of my district.”
President Bush and many employers would like to cut off higher-paid employees from overtime benefits. At the same time, the administration insists, more lower-paid employees should get them.
Congressman Ralph Regula (R-OH) defended the administration by saying that it is trying to “bring the rules on overtime into the next century.”
Note: Thanks to this administration’s axing of a Clinton-era rule that would have gone into effect January 1, 2004, employers won’t have to separately list workplace injuries considered musculoskeletal. Those “ergonomic” injuries will be listed with the others.
In a nod to labor, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration did create a National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics.
Briefly
• Tallahassee, FL, has had its problems with sheep rustlers. The city had enlisted sheep to devour kudzu, the vine that has threatened to overtake the south. When the second flock was recently stolen, Meaghan Thacker, the woman who had shepherded them, noted that if anyone tried to eat them anytime soon they would get sick because of recent vaccinations. And since they were all five-year-olds, eating them would be like “eating old shoe leather.”
• A new study suggests a link between hog farming and asthma. The University of Iowa study found that children who lived on hog farms were four times as likely to have asthma as children who didn’t. Pork producers challenge the results, noting that asthma has been on the rise in the general population.
• New York City has received more than 1,600 complaints about rats this year, up nearly 30 percent from last year. Hence, “the Rat Bill,” which would hike fines to property owners who don’t keep trash cleaned up.
• The city council of Lucedale, MS, has decided not to enforce – just yet, anyway – its new law that horses wear diapers, or as the companies that manufacture such call them, “equine hygiene products.”
The council had said the law would have protected toddlers from playing in poop left by hundreds of horses that participate in the annual Christmas parade.
Horse owners, however, wouldn’t hear of it.
December 2003 Render