With all the food recalls - don't you think it may be time

[radfringe]

for a wee bit more inspection and regulation enforcement?

nevermind - I forgot - the repubs would whine that it would:

1. place hardships on manufacture/processing plants
2. would cost more for the product in the grocery stores
3. would result in job losses due to drop in profits
4. increase government regulations/bureacracy
5. other nonsense

[Ian David]

1. Fire all the food inspectors, and just say Grace before you eat. n/t

[WorseBeforeBetter]

2. Grover Norquist wouldn't have it!

We need a new Upton Sinclair. But then, Glenn Beck would sit down to a meal of tainted spinach and trichinosis-laced pork to mock inspection, regulation, and worker conditions, and the dummies would agree with him without question.

[spanone]

3. Republicons assure us that US business will regulate itself. Tell that to the dead.

[liberal N proud]

4. They are too busy robbing the treasury for their pork projects and WAR!

When they say they are for less government all they mean is less government to protect you and me from them.

[originalpckelly]

5. No, we need private regulation so that Republicans can't fuck it up.

What we should do is boycott one brand at a time until they voluntarily submit themselves to a private, yet collectively owned, inspections organization.

We'll use peanut butter as an example:
Recently there was a massive recall of Peter Pan. We would refuse to buy Peter Pan peanut butter until they submitted themselves to inspections to ensure food quality. To minimize the harm to the consumer, we would just buy another brand of peanut butter in the meantime as Peter Pan was being boycotted.

Then when Peter Pan submits itself to inspections, we'll target another brand of peanut butter until they submit themselves to inspections, while buying the brand of Peter Pan exclusively to reward them for submitting to our demands, and to protect their employees from any harm the boycott may have caused them. (Though compared to the number of people who buy Peter Pan, the number of people who work at all of ConAgra is actually quite small.)

With private regulation, it's a free market solution, because no one can make you buy anything. On the other hand, big companies can't buy off the politicians to change regulations to help the company. The number of people in the consumer union would be large enough they couldn't buy us off.

[Lobster Martini]

6. What's needed most is a better way to disseminate information

There's really no good way for consumers to know when food has been recalled and the FDA is too slow to make the information available. Here's one example. Care for some glass fragments with your trail mix? The company issued a press release on December 29, 2006, and it didn't appear in the FDA Enforcement Report until February 21 2007, almost two months later:

PRODUCT
Sam's Choice™, Nature Trail Mix, Net Wt 28oz (1 lb 12oz) 794g, Recall # F-126-7
CODE
Best By: APR-23-2007; MFG: OCT-23-2006
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Recalling Firm: Ann, Jessup, MD, by press release on December 29, 2006.
Manufacturer: Ann House of Nuts, Inc., Robersonville, NC. Firm initiated recall is ongoing.
REASON
The product contains glass fragments.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
21,720 packages
DISTRIBUTION
AL, KY, MN, NC, NY, TX, VA

[kestrel91316]

7. We can't afford it. We have to pay for the Waronterra(TM).

Besides, in free market capitalism, if food producers kill all their customers, they will go broke once their customers are all dead.

So, you see, it will work out in the end. The producers of safe food will win more market share and thrive.