Is lack of inspectors and regulators leading to these food born disease outbreaks?

[Swede]

Listeria,e-coli,salmonella seem more common. Or is it just the 27/7 news cycle?

[Overseas]

1. Yes. Cutting those government jobs. Save capital not people.

[FarCenter]

2. It's also that there are a lot more people with impaired immune systems

So they die instead of getting a bad case of food poisoning.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. All I know is the outbreaks always mention "fecal matter" as a source

so the crops are being irrigated with dirty water
OR
they are using manure contaminated soil to grow the crops.

[TheMadMonk]

7. We've been pouring shit on our crops for thousands of years.

There are I think two parts to this problem.

1) People assume fresh produce from the supermarket is clean and don't wash it themselves.

2) Way too fucking much hygiene. We no longer properly challenge our immune systems and pay the price in the form of susceptibility to relatively minor pathogens and strong evidence is emerging that the lack of challenge is responsible for a number of auto-immune disorders, with type 1 diabetes topping the list.

[HereSince1628]

12. You might also consider

--old practices around night-soil can present new dangers when a once harmless form of bacteria acquires genes from other pathogens. Just because a practice was safe doesn't mean it remains so...


--also the mass production of food products can create the possibility of mass distribution of contaminated products. If you grow carrots for your own use, bad sanitation probably affects only your family. Food poisoning within a family is generally ignored by health depts.
If carrot peeler in a processing plant has a sanitation problem it could, hypothetically, contaminate thousands of pounds of product and affect thousands of households...people from different households getting sick from the same product is specifically what health departments watch for.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. I thought in one case this turned out to be because workers had no porta-potties ...

overseers just made them go in the fields. So *human* fecal matter ended up on the produce, and of course caried human-adapted bacteria. Remember, leaving your row just to take a crap costs MONEY !!

[kestrel91316]

4. Lack of personnel is part of the problem. It's hard to hire veterinarians

to work in USDA because medical professionals want more than $60k (though I'd take it in a heartbeat if I weren't tied down by my current situation).

Watered-down regulations and higher-ups in the pockets of industry (aka monkeywrenchers) are also a problem.

[Lint Head]

5. And ...this is perfect for the GOP and the big insurance companies. They love death

because it produces profit. I would not doubt there will soon be GOP applause for the deaths of people from food borne illness.

[era veteran]

6. When enough people die the private sector will fix it.

Poor agriculture practices.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Assuming the cost/benefit ratio justifies it.

Otherwise, X deaths a year is an "acceptable" tradeoff for very, very slighter lower prices.

[era veteran]

11. As long as it does not affect the bottom line.

[valerief]

8. Killing people saves pensions, social security benefits, Medicare, etc.

It's better for the 1% when we die.