The Senate passed last week the Food Safety Modernization Act that stiffens enforcement, tracking, inspections and gives the Food and Drug Administration recall power (that’s right, the FDA only has the power to “ask” food items be recalled; it can’t mandate). The House is set to vote on the bill next.
As cases of food contamination grow along with the factory farming of our food supply (one Canadian study shows that diseases such as H1N1 spread more among large, factory farms than small, family farms) new laws and regulations must be passed and enforced to protect our health and well-being.
Food inspections are famously lax in this country. There were less than 7,500 government food inspections last year. To put that in perspective, there are more than 2 million farms in the United States. Imported food also comprises a bigger part of the American diet; 15% of the food we Americans eat comes from overseas.
The Food Safety Bill would up foreign inspections and hold these foods to the same standards as the FDA imposes on domestically grown agriculture products.
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