Tainted Food, Tainted Government

Remember the salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 1,200 people this summer? An understaffed and underfunded Food and Drug Administration spent months gouging American farmers with a cry of “tainted tomatoes” before finally locating the likely source in hot peppers imported from Mexico. The FDA didn’t have the records it needed to locate the source of the contamination. The Bush Administration has allowed food-industry lobbyists and representatives to gut laws that would have improved food safety. We need an administration and Congress dedicated to insuring our inspection agencies can do the job, rather than starving them of the resources and authority they need.

Learn more in this Making Sense issue alert.