Not that we need more proof that Corporate America cares only about profits, not about people; but we have another one anyway. FDA Finds Many Problems at Peanut Plant Americans outsource everything, and it is beginning to become clear why. First there was the E-coli break out on Spinach and now Salmonella in Peanut butter. I am not saying that I want us to outsource things. Outsourcing is part of what is killing our economy. The topic at hand, however, is peanut butter. The government believes it has located the source of the salmonella outbreak and it's in Georgia.
First off, the FDA knew there was a problem. They posted several of these problems in a report on the Internet. These reports included that Peanut Corp. had found salmonella in a dozen internal tests over the past two years. The managers shipped the product anyway. Are there no decent human beings left working in the corporate world? Are we going on the mantra "no harm no foul" or maybe it's "they'll never link it to us!" What is human life compared to corporate profit? Nothing apparently. More than five hundred people have gotten sick and 8 are dead!
Did the FDA do anything? Well they issued reports. Outstanding. Did anyone read them? Cockroaches and leaking water (which by the way water makes salmonella really happy). The thing is, the FDA really can't do much. They are virtually powerless. So they can suggest things be changed and they can write reports. Well making suggestions to people who knowingly would sell food contaminated with salmonella is like suggesting to the mob that they not be bad guys anymore. Well dually noted, but I think we'll keep doing what we're doing cause it's making us money.
And talk about stupid criminals (cause criminals they are). Did they not think that with all the transportation logs, and product labels and etc that eventually when the product they KNEW was tainted finally made people sick that they wouldn't get caught? And gauranteed, the managers that authorized the shipment immediately went home and told their families not to buy or eat the stuff.
I just can't understand how greed can surpass human life. Could they not think of the children? I don't even like children that much, but to send out a product that is a main food staple for the majority of kids in this country is unconscionable. It's like we've stepped into Scrooge's world and it's ok to let people die "to decrease the surplus population." I just cannot fathom rationalizing in my mind the thought--as long as we make our numbers and profits this month, a few casualties are ok. I just don't get it.
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3 comments:
OK first, outsourcing food items really won't help anything. After the Chinese melamine scandal, and the repeated outbreaks of salmonella from Mexcan imported produce, other countries don't seem to be much better at this than we are. The Chinese are putting people to death, and still it goes on.
You can thank the Big Business lobby for the toothless FDA. The FDA can't even pull product off the market. They can only ask that it be voluntarily recalled. That's right. If there is rotten meat on the market, the FDA cannot order the packer to take it off the shelves. Up until very recently, they couldn't even identify the companies that released the contaminated meat.
Every time Congress discusses giving the FDA some actual power, the food industry floods Washington with lobbyists and cash until they go away. Of course, even if they did have real power, their staff have been cut so much from budget cuts that they basically only have enough people left to really push paper. Smaller government - what the people want. Your government at work.
And of course there are our old friends corporate de-regulation, and the aforementioned depersonalization of working for a company you can blame stuff on. Working for one myself, I can tell you that there are probably people who would have lost their jobs if those salmonella reports had gotten out, or if they hadn't approved the shipments.
You just said everything else I thought that I didn't say. This is it exactly.
Aw shucks.
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