"Is your food making you sick?" Vomit Alert!

[another saigon]

Is your food making you sick?

Nicole Colson looks at the recent egg recall--and explains why the drive for profit is the reason that our food system is unsafe.

September 14, 2010


http://socialistworker.org/print/2010/09/14/food-making-you-sick


-snip-

According to reports, at Wright County Egg, FDA inspectors found chicken manure in piles four to eight feet high. Access doors were forced open by the piles, allowing "open access to wildlife or domesticated animals."

Other violations listed in the FDA inspection reports <1> include:

-- Live rodents and mice at both farms;

-- "Live flies too numerous to count" on egg belts, in the feed and on the eggs themselves at Wright County Egg;

-- Dead and live maggots "too numerous to count" on the manure pit floor in one location at Wright County Egg;

-- Structural damage to several facilities at both farms, including holes in siding, which allow access to wild animals;

-- Uncaged chickens walking through manure piles between various portions of the facilities at Wright County;

-- Employees not changing clothing properly when moving from one location to another, and not sanitizing equipment properly;

-- Wild birds flying in and out of two areas, and pigeons roosting in another, at Wright County Egg;

-- Liquid manure seeping through the foundation to the outside of laying houses in more than a dozen locations at Wright County Egg; and leaking in at least one location at Hillandale Farms;

-- Rusted holes in feed bins and birds flying over the feed bins at Wright County Egg.

Former employees of Wright County say that they had long warned about hazardous conditions, but were ignored by USDA officials who, incredibly, were on site several times a year, grading and inspecting eggs.

Robert and Deanna Arnold, who worked at Wright County on and off for years, told the Associated Press <2> that they reported conditions including "leaking manure and dead chickens" to USDA employees, but nothing was done. "It didn't matter which USDA officer was working, if we reported something, they would just turn their heads," Deanna Arnold said. "They didn't care."

According to the Associated Press:

Deanna Arnold said she worked on the line sorting eggs and saw live and dead chickens on the conveyer system that carries eggs from the poultry house to the USDA-staffed packing area. She said she also saw mice, tools and even a live cat on the conveyer system in the plant.

Her husband said he saw manure leaking from buildings and piles of manure that stood 40 feet high.

They also said boxes that contained eggs that were cracked in shipping and rejected by stores were returned to the distribution center. Although by then they were weeks old, some eggs that were not cracked were repackaged and sent back out, Robert Arnold said.

"I complained that that was wrong because they were old eggs, and the USDA person said it was okay because they do it all the time," he said.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THAT SUCH conditions would exist at these particular farms was entirely predictable. Jack DeCoster, the owner of Wright County Egg, has a lengthy history of serious violations and lawsuits at his various production facilities, in Maine, Maryland and Iowa spanning back several decades.

:puke:

[Lucian]

1. "The drive for profit" is the reason why our govt. is telling us Gulf seafood...

is safe to eat, which I don't buy at all.

I'm not going to eat any seafood unless I know for sure it's not from the Gulf of Mexico.

[still_one]

2. That is why eggs should be cooked, along with meats, and vegetables and fruits

should be throughly washed and cleaned

[Kalyke]

9. Have you ever noticed that the Food Network constantly

shows meat and eggs far undercooked?

I realize a lot of fru-fru food connoisseurs like rare (raw) meat, but all these shows should come with a disclaimer that says: Unless you know who grew/raised your food, I'd cook it at least medium to medium well and cook eggs nearly solid.

[City Lights]

3. Profits over people is the continuing theme...

:puke:

[dkf]

4. What's up with the FDA?

Why yet again do we see no interest in cleaning up Bush's lax policies until people die? AWOL.

[Skink]

5. Obama needs a crisis to take on an agency such as the Mineral folks.

[another saigon]

8. there is only interest

in PROFITS regardless of who sits in the oval office.

[femrap]

6. Factory Farming needs

to be regulated by strict laws. DeCoster needs to be in jail.

And all of the gov't 'regulators' need to be, in fact, regulators, not cronies from the industry that they are supposed to be regulating.

If they're 'burrowed,' unburrow them and let people who actually care about the health of the food supply and the animals have their jobs.

[AnArmyVeteran]

7. You should even cook lettuce, but it's not very tasty on salads. :(

[Urban Prairie]

10. Jack DeCoster

Should be indicted, convicted, and imprisoned for his culpability in permitting these horribly unsanitary, polluted, and toxic conditions on his farms to exist, sickening thousands, as well as the likely corrupted, careless, and bribed USDA inspectors, who unfortunately give conservatives all the ammunition that they need, to continue to be opposed to more government oversight and regulations, while ignoring the fact that greedy sociopathic capitalists like DeCoster would just become richer, absent penalties, bans, and monetary punishments, albeit they are mostly just a "slap on the wrist". Someday soon, these massive "super-farms" are likely going to produce an untreatable and mutating bacterial agent and/or virus that is high cooking temperature-resistant, and may seriously sicken and maybe kill millions.

The more I read about this criminal, and how he operates his businesses, the more I despise the SOB:

http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/9-30-02-b.cfm

http://www.good.is/post/the-criminal-behind-the-salmonella-infected-eggs

[lonestarnot]

11. K & R.