I don’t eat a lot of meat or poultry these days, but when I do chicken is usually what makes it past the gag reflex into my stomach. And my wife and son do eat chicken on a fairly regular basis. So, you can imagine how heartened I was to read this story about the complete and utter failure of Bush’s Compassionately Conservative FDA to prevent my family (and maybe yours) from being poisoned:
At least 2.5 million broiler chickens from an Indiana producer were fed pet food scraps contaminated with the chemical melamine and subsequently sold for human consumption, federal health officials reported yesterday.
Hundreds of other producers may have similarly sold an unknown amount of contaminated poultry in recent months, they added, painting a picture of much broader consumption of contaminated feed and food than had previously been acknowledged in the widening pet food scandal.
Not too worry, though, as these very same officials think that everything’s just jake with that:
“We do not believe there is any significant threat of human illness from this,” said David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration’s chief medical officer. FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach named Acheson yesterday the agency’s new “food czar” — officially, assistant commissioner for food protection. […]
[N]o recall of any products that may still be on store shelves or in people’s freezers is planned, officials said.
Makes you feel all warm and cozy doesn’t it? I mean, Bush’s Food Czar has spoken, and I’m sure he’s fully up to speed on all the possible risks to human health. Just like Clean Air Czarina, Christie Todd Whitman, who just told a few little white lies about how the air hovering over the World Trade Center site was safe to breathe.
Or like Disaster Relief Czar Michael Brown who reassured the country in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that “Things are going relatively well” even if thousands of people in New Orleans who didn’t “heed the advance warnings” probably died. Well, sometimes a lie is better than the truth. That’s what Karl Rove tells me, anyway.
In the meantime, now might be a good time to make the switch to a vegetarian life style. Especially after you read this:
(cont.)
… 100,000 Indiana chickens that ate the melamine-laced food and are still alive have been quarantined and will be destroyed as a precautionary measure — as will any other animals that turn up as the investigation continues to expand. […]
Meanwhile, the FDA expanded the number of plant-based protein products from China on its “do not import” list, pending the completion of further tests on various kinds of glutens, protein concentrates and other products. […]
Investigators are tracking streams of the contaminated food through several states.
“Our sense is that the investigation will lead to additional farms where contaminated feed may have been fed to either animals or poultry,” said Kenneth Petersen of the Agriculture Department Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Tofu anyone?