Now, conservatives will say, "Don't regulate free commerce, you'll just kill it, you'll slow economic growth and cost us jobs!" When asked how people should react to food poisoning, the conservative True Believer will answer, "Let the market sort it out! When somebody gets ill or dies from tainted food, that company will be punished when people find out about it and stop buying their products." In this perfect laissez-faire economy, the "invisible hand" of the market sorts everything out, and companies clean up their act in order to maximize sales & profit.
There are at least four things wrong with this view:
> There's no guarantee a person who becomes ill from tainted food will find out that tainted produce caused his illness.
> This view assumes there is what's called "perfect information" in the market, where the presence of dangerous tainted food becomes known in a timely fashion to all consumers, who can then avoid it.
> This view also assumes that consumers know which food producer to "punish" by not buying their products. But food can become tainted at several points in the supply chain. Consumers may punish the processor, for example, whose tainted lettuce was actually the fault of the producer. Hence, that producer can go on selling bad lettuce to other processors, with no consequences. By the time "the market" figures out which producer is selling tainted products, untold numbers of consumers may have been hurt.
> Even assuming "the invisible hand" works as it should, is that much comfort if you've already been made ill -- or even killed -- by tainted food? Are YOU willing to be the sacrificial lamb at the altar of The Market?
Obviously, the best approach is to regulate fresh-cut produce, including strict gov't inspection at various points in the supply chain. But this commonsense approach entails an added compliance cost for producers and processors, who lobby "pro-business" politicians to get "big government" off their backs, in exchange for campaign contributions, which are relatively cheaper than complying with protective regulations. (And yes, it entails paying a few cents more for your produce to make sure it's safe).
Moral of the story: Keep voting for "pro-business," "anti-regulation" politicians... if you want to get sick from your food someday!
FDA unveils voluntary food safety rules
By LIBBY QUAID, AP Food and Farm Writer
The government has new rules for preventing food poisoning in fresh-cut produce, but companies don't have to follow them.
Fruit and vegetable-related outbreaks of food poisoning are on the rise and in recent months have struck in spinach, tomatoes, lettuce and cantaloupes.
In the new, voluntary rules, announced Monday by the Food and Drug Administration, fruit and vegetable processors are urged to adopt food safety plans similar to those in the meat industry.
"We've never before formally recommended that the industry adopt regulations such as" the meat industry's, said Nega Beru, director of FDA's Office of Food Safety. "So this is a first."
The difference is that controls in the meat industry are mandatory. Slaughter and processing plants are required to take a scientific look at vulnerable places in the production chain and do constant monitoring of those points. And the Agriculture Department inspects the plants daily.
Food safety advocates and the produce industry are calling for greater government oversight of fruits and vegetables.
The new guidance is "totally unenforceable," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group.
"While a grower or processor may chose to use the guidance one week, they could choose not to use it the next, and there's nothing the government can do if the grower or processor chooses not to use the standards," she said.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (news, bio, voting record), a Connecticut Democrat who heads a subcommittee on food and farm spending, said the FDA guidance "merely tells growers what they already know."
Last fall, an E. coli outbreak in spinach killed three people and sickened nearly 200, and an outbreak of salmonella in tomatoes sickened more than 180 people.
At a field hearing Monday in Wisconsin, Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisc., said outbreaks are on the rise for many reasons — growing imports, more widespread distribution, lack of inspection and growing consumption.
During the hearing, Tom Stenzel, president of United Fresh Produce Association, pledged to see the guidelines followed in every processing operation in the country.
Fresh-cut produce includes shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, salad mixes, peeled baby carrots, broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, cut celery stalks, shredded cabbage, cut melons, sliced pineapple, and sectioned grapefruit.
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