I am reading about the recall of a half billion eggs from two Iowa farms that are linked to 1,300 cases of salmonella poisoning. It got me to wondering that thank God we have government inspectors looking out for our health and safety.
Perish that thought. Inspectors were lax and their responsibilities overlapped.
The FDA oversees inspections of shell eggs, while the Agriculture Department is in charge of inspecting other egg products. They duplicate inspections by state officials.
And never shall they meet on common grounds until the fear of food poisoning sweeps the nation.
One of the egg producers has a long history of state and federal food contamination and health violations dating back nearly two decades.
What we are experiencing is the consolidation of the egg industry into an agricultural conglomerate so big that $3.5 million in fines including $125,000 as recently as this past June is written off as business as usual. Does that have a familiar ring?
State and federal food inspectors are our only line of defense to avoid public health epidemics stemming from our food chain. But recent years state government budgets have been cut and the federal government role has been more permissive by design.
To me this is a fundamental question of the role government plays in our lives in those same terms of health and safety.
Would limited government be an issue if one of its staunch advocates died of food poisoning?
How many oil blowouts do we need before people realize government influenced by large corporations can destroy our environment more often than not?
What rules would it take to prevent greedy money managers shoving our national economy into the ditch, destroying 80% of limited government advocates’ 401k retirement savings?
Government cannot prevent these disasters from happening nor repeating themselves but they can help keep the monsters honest.
Just a thought to munch on.
(Photo from lancaster.unl.org)
Cross posted on The Remmers Report
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Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.