Food Safety Failures – Why The Fda Can’t Protect You

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Food Safety Failures – Why The Fda Can’t Protect You, american, beef, antibiotics, exports.

Since its inception in the early part of the 20th century, The Food and Drug Administration has been no stranger to controversy. Born during a climate of public uproar over various food scares and scandals, the FDA attempted to reestablish consumer confidence after muckraking journalists such as Upton Sinclair exposed the nightmarish practices of the meat packing industry in his seminal book The Jungle. The turbulence surrounding food industry standards eventually led to President Theodore Roosevelt signing into law the Food and Drug Act in 1906.

However, the controversy didn’t end there as the efficacy of the FDA continues to be hindered by outside agendas, bloated bureaucracy and general incompetence – as evidenced by the recent contamination of peanut products with salmonella. Listed below are some of the reasons not to trust the FDA.

Ties to Big Pharma

While the absurdly long disclaimers that often accompany commercials for drugs and pharmaceuticals might lead the average consumer into believing that the FDA has done their work in vocalizing the potential dangers of these products, that assumption would be misguided. This is because many of these drugs shouldn’t have been manufactured in the first place – let alone marketed with tens of millions of dollars in ads to susceptible seniors and insecure males.

The reason many of these drugs do make it past the FDA and into production is due in part to some controversial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. In 2006, it was revealed that two of the top positions at the FDA were being headed by representatives from Big Pharma – a move that helped pull many of the stops out of the drug approval process.

The FDA’s ties to Big Pharma have further been cited as evidence for why certain dangerous drugs ever saw the light of day. Some of these drugs include Vioxx – a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory painkiller that was tied to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes which was pulled from the market in 2004. Other drugs pulled from the market include Cylert, Palladone and Baycol – which were linked to side effects ranging from liver failure to muscle spasms and even death.

“FDA-approved prescription drugs have killed over half a million Americans since 9/11,” said Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate. “And now this Congress wants to give it even more money and power… The problem at the FDA is not a lack of funding. It’s a lack of honesty and ethics.”

Food AND Drugs?

Though we all know the FDA as the watchdog of both food and drugs, some have argued that in today’s hyper-consumerist society, this is too big of a task for one gargantuan agency.

Criticisms over the bloated size of the FDA have started to emerge recently as increases in food and drug scares continue to plague the nation. Just this year, 9 deaths and 677 illnesses have been attributed to a salmonella outbreak in many peanut products, leading to a recall of more than 1,800 products from store shelves.

A major reason for such egregious oversights is due to the inability of the FDA to properly supervise the safety and standards of both the food and drug industries at the same time. That’s why some have already begun the fight to split the agency into two separate entities, as was recently proposed in a bill earlier this year by Rep. Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut.

One problem DeLauro claims this will address is the jurisdictional issues between the FDA and the Department of Agriculture, which slows the process of investigating poisonous food outbreaks.

“This jurisdictional limbo is potentially dangerous because it delays the investigation into an outbreak that began over four months ago and any delays in these critical investigations can sicken more people,” DeLauro said. “The scope of this recent salmonella outbreak is a reminder that reforming and modernizing our food safety laws should be a top priority in the new Congress.”

Bovine Intervention

With the growth of factory farms and the ever-increased pressure to produce bigger, better and meatier animals, once simple family farmers are now turning to cutting edge science and technology to increase their output.

To do this, the FDA has approved the use of controversial products such as bovine growth hormones, antibiotics and even cloning in the quest to perfect our dinner steaks. And while studies into the harmfulness of these products remain largely inconclusive, most European nations have already taken to banning some of the controversial techniques practiced over here in the States.

In fact, the decision to resume imports of US beef to South Korea in the April of 2008 sparked days of riots and protests from citizens and politicians alike.

The FDA has even more recently approved of the use of irradiation on vegetables and meat in an attempt to combat outbreaks such as the E. coli spinach scare of 2006, and though the FDA swears to the technique’s safety, others remain more skeptical.

“It is unbelievable that the FDA’s first action on this issue is to turn to irradiation rather than focus on how to prevent contamination of these crops,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “Instead of beefing up its capacity to inspect food facilities or test food for contamination, all the FDA has to offer consumers is an impractical, ineffective and very expensive gimmick like irradiation.”

Gimmick or not, the move illustrates the FDA’s awareness of the problems facing the proper regulation of food products while also avoiding the need for tighter regulations.

FDA 2.0

So what will the FDA look like in the future? While it’s impossible to tell, it’s clear that as the world continues to globalize and it becomes more and more difficult to keep track of the ingredients that go into our food and drugs, the FDA’s role in keeping us safe from harmful products will become increasingly vital to the health of the nation. Let’s just hope that they care more about the health of the nation than the health of their wallets.

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