The US Senate passed a new food safety law which would allow the FDA to announce food recalls and inspect more of the food that comes into the country. It was a popular and easy-to-pass piece of legislation that was approved unanimously, so imagine the shock on the Hill when the Republican-led House of Representatives began talking about defunding the law.
Completely ignoring the fact that 1 in 6 Americans gets sick from unsafe food, the House Republicans approved a plan to cut $87 million from the FDA and $35 million from from the USDA's food inspection program. What's the reasoning?
“Do we believe that McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Safeway and Kraft Food and any brand name that you think of, that these people aren’t concerned about food safety?” Kingston said on the House floor. “The food supply in America is very safe because the private sector self-polices, because they have the highest motivation. They don’t want to be sued, they don’t want to go broke. They want their customers to be healthy and happy.”
Right. Because big corporations have the safety of their consumers in mind, not making money at any cost.
Republicans: They don't want to just take away your health care, but they want you to be exposed to toxic food, all for the sake of getting paid.
People really need to start reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle again. That, people, is how things would look without federal regulations on food safety.
ReplyDelete(And yes, I know, Sinclair was not trying to create a safer food supply, just saying)