FDA Lacks “Rocky Mountain Oysters”

Necessary to Protect the Nation’s Food Supply 

           The FDA is the mighty, giant agency that’s supposed to protect the integrity of our foods?   The points of this now eight-rant series exposing the FDA corruptions and incompetence are these: A. American lives and health are at risk B. American taxpayers are not getting 1% of what they’d should expect from the FDA on the positive side C.  The American people are getting 100,000% of the negatives they should expect from the FDA  D. President Obama is calling for health care reforms and a whole new expensive federal program but has not really shown much interest in the FDA when reforming the FDA is the single most necessary step that needs to be taken if our health care system is to improve.  Additionally, President Obama’s programs have addressed exactly one significant point out of the forty-three raised by the Ol' Health Educator Rajjpuut’s “A Far Better Health Care Alternative” series . . . .

           The FDA which makes twenty-man raids of natural foods stores and offices of doctors who dare to prescribe nutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) for their patients has uniformly shown itself to be gutless and toothless when dealing with big food, big drug companies and the USDA (Agriculture Department).  

Well before the recent scandals, four and a half years ago the FDA responded to anonymous and correct information about salmonella in peanut better which ConAgra’s internal testing had noted but which had NOT been reported to the FDA. Unbelievably the agency turned away when told they would only give the documents asked for in response to an FDA written request. 

Specifically, the company officials A. confirmed the test results reported by the anonymous informant but B. refused to turn over the lab reports and incredibly C. the FDA walked away without further ado. Apparently the FDA according to this example and others gleaned by internet sources will almost NEVER serve paperwork requests and even more rarely take a big company to task (make a raid or take them to court or fine them) regardless of the circumstances. They make big showy raids of small organizations and doctors' offices but back away at the merest sign of resistance at big companies.

This is the mighty giant agency that’s supposed to protect the integrity of our foods?

Of greatest concern is the FDA absolute cowardice in the face of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The first noticeable problem is that the jurisdictions of the two agencies overlap in many places (a huge waste of tax-payer money). The second problem is that it appears that the agriculture department might well be every bit as inept and corrupt as the FDA, perhaps moreso (Rajjpuut can’t believe he said that! Is that possible?) but in cases where the FDA has discovered the USDA dropping the ball . . . reportedly, the USDA ignores anything the FDA says. 

This is the mighty giant agency that’s supposed to protect the integrity of our foods?

The huge 143-million pound beef recall announced in February, was apparently foreshadowed by FDA officials telling USDA officials of problems they’d noticed back in November (three months earlier). The USDA officials did nothing until February and then reported the Hallmark/Westland meatpackers had been “skimping upon inspections” and ordered the recall.  Because of the delay in action the USDA admitted at the recall time that most of the beef had surely been already eaten by consumers – including school children who received the beef as part of a school-lunch program. The wonder is that it was discovered at all. Apparently a video of plant personnel abusing fallen cattle, trying to get them to stand up and to walk to the slaughter point had been surreptitiously recorded by a Humane Society member according to an L.A. Times article. By law, non-ambulatory (they can’t walk) cattle canNOT be slaughtered since “Mad-Cow Disease” is much more likely under those conditions.

If the Humane Society had not created this cause-celebre` would the USDA or FDA have done anything or even reported anything (since what they did had NO positive effect)???

This is the mighty giant agency that’s supposed to protect the integrity of our foods?

            ‘Tis to laugh!

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

 Regular readers of Rajjpuut’s little rants will recognize a strong personal antipathy toward the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). That once great organization created in 1906, the very year that Upton Sinclair’s monumental novel/expose` “The Jungle” hit the bookstore shelves, has degenerated into the most corrupt federal organization in America. Rajjpuut, health educator he, believes that only a complete top-to-bottom remake of the FDA will allow any health care plan, now or in the future, any hope of success.