Bill Marler, a nationally recognized food safety attorney, says “It really is long past time to put me out of business.” Listen to his comments on the audio.
Read more: Put a Food Safety Attorney Out of Business
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Bill Marler, a nationally recognized food safety attorney, says “It really is long past time to put me out of business.” Listen to his comments on the audio.
This time last year we were reeling from the recall of 550,000,000 eggs and 2000 people got sick. This week 36,000,000 pounds of ground turkey made 76 people sick and killed one. What is our industrial food system doing to us?
At Amaltheia Organic Dairy, Belgrade Montana, Mel and Sue Brown milk between 250 and 280 goats and produce award-winning organic cheeses that are sold across the United States. While the dairy and cheese plant may be small by some standards, size makes no difference when it comes to careful and sanitary handling of food products. Andrew Kimbrell is one of five attorneys who form the Center for Food Safety. Kimbrell, a bioethicist and author, was named one of the 100 leading visionaries by Utne Reader and his work focuses on legal battles to keep our food safe.
When six-year-old Lauren Rudolph was rushed to the hospital with severe abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea, and fever, doctors were mystified as to the cause of her sudden and terrifying symptoms. Just five days later Lauren would become the first victim of a mysterious bacterial pathogen. Hundreds of sick children began to show up at hospitals across the Western states, three more children died. After frantic research, health officials managed to trace the deadly outbreak to a single source: undercooked hamburgers eaten at the popular fast-food chain Jack in the Box.
The nation’s highest-ranking food safety official laid out the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s vision for strengthening the food safety system to better “meet the demands of the 21st century” before the annual American Farm Bureau meeting.”No one … no one … is more important to that farm-to-fork system than you,” said Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety, in her remarks Sunday at the conference in Atlanta.
We tip our hats and offer congratulations to Bill Marler for his contributions to the passage of the Food Safety Bill. The new law will contain a provision that is intended to give small, local farmers and food producers some protection from the cost of developing risk management plans and product testing required by larger producers. Many small farms and food producers have embraced the Internet as a low-cost sales and marketing tool, and more and more consumers are buying online. The law can be interpreted in such as way as to restrict online sales as well.
A plate full of raw oysters is a delicious treat for discriminating diners. But that treat can be risky too, if contaminated with the Vibrio vulnificus bacteria, relative of V. cholerae, which causes cholera, or Karenia brevis, a microscopic marine algae that causes “red tide.” The algae that causes red tide is clearly visible and occurs irregularly, however the V. vulnificus bacteria is invisible and can be persistent. |
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Where is Law and Order when we need it?
It is illegal to “adulterate” food products. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 set up civil and criminal liability for those who do. So why aren’t we seeing the courts and prisons filling up with the guilty parties in the recent outbreaks of food borne illnesses?
Read more: Where is “Law and Order” when we need it?