The not-so-sweet truth
The Wall Street Journal today reveals yet another reasonwhy federal legislation is needed to beef up food safety in this country: the Nestle USA plant in Virginia had a history over the past five years of refusing to let Food and Drug Administration inspectors view their records on consumer complaints, pest control and other safety issues.
That would be the same plant that produced the Toll House cookie dough implicated in an outbreak of illness cause by E. coli. Food companies aren't obliged to show their records to inspectors. Some do, others don't.
The so-overdue bill to give the FDA the authority it should have had from the start -- as well as step up inspections and allow the FDA to issue recalls -- recently won the unanimous support of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but Republicans (heeding the complaints of the food and agribusiness industries) have been weakening it all along the way.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
As any good free-marketer knows, getting the government involved under the guise of consumer protection will distort the market. The republicans are only trying to make consumers smarter in making their purchases. If a product harms or kills people, the right thing to do is not buy the product, end-of-story. If consumers did their part, there would be no need for any government regulation. Companies who's products harm or kill people wouldn't be able to sell their products and would go out of business and companies who's products didn't harm or kill people would benefits. This is call creative-destruction, this is what makes the free-market work. A few people harmed or killed is a small price to pay for the benefits of a free market and the republican know this. Down with the nanny-state, and long live the free-market.
Posted by: David | June 28, 2009 at 11:34 AM
The Feds should increase its regulatory over view of not just the food industry, but also all aspects of the financial industry. That is where the real problems in the country lie.
Richard Miller
Posted by: Richard Miller | June 28, 2009 at 07:52 AM