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Friday, March 1, 2013

Sequestration and Salmonella at your local store

So here's another thought: 
The sequester will reduce the number of food safety inspections. These inspections are already too low. 
Considering the information from the shared email below on the levels of salmonella found to be resistant to antibiotics,
fewer inspections might be a terrible idea.  
Our local farmers' markets and homesteaders may be the best and safest options for many of us to avoid
food poisoning at the worst end of it, and meat shortages at the best end of it. 

" the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees 80 percent of the food supply, could cut 2,100 food facility inspections "

"Industry workers would experience over $400 million in lost wages, consumers would experience limited meat and poultry supplies and potentially higher prices for these products," said the official, without providing any specifics on how or when the furloughs would begin."

"Anyone who eats should be gravely concerned about across the board budget cuts that will happen if Congress fails to repeal the sequester," said David Plunkett, a senior food safety attorney at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "With fewer inspections, FDA won't be able to stop problems at food plants until people start getting sick—or start dying."

"Diane Dorman, president of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA, a mix of consumer and industry groups that lobby to give the agency more resources,  told the FDA' Science Board on Wednesday "Sequestration is the most immediate threat to the FDA's already-inadequate funding."  "

Here's how it's supposed to work:
"Salmonella in chicken is legal except when you have an outbreak," said Emilio DeBess, state public health veterinarian.





Here's the worrisome email about why we need inspectors in the first place, due to the 
overzealous pumping of antibiotics into meat animals. 


Another reason to love our antibiotic-free hens! 
BTW, Nancy Alderman's "Environment and Human Health" enews alerts are very helpful. You can ask to be on her egroup by emailing her below. 
 
From: Nancy Alderman [mailto:nancy.alderman@yale.edu] 
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2013 8:03 AM
To: Recipient List Suppressed:
Subject: The Meat Industry Now Consumes Four-Fifths of All Antibiotics
 
 
The Meat Industry Now Consumes Four-Fifths of All Antibiotics
 
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration proposed a set of voluntary "guidelines" designed to nudge the meat industry to curb its antibiotics habit. As we wait, the industry is madly pumping antibiotics into animals as fast as they can.
 
 
 
Not surprisingly, when you cram animals together by the thousands and dose them daily with antibiotics, the bacteria that live on and in the animals adapt and develop resistance to those bacteria killers. Pew crunched another new set of data, the FDA's latest release of results from its National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, or NARMS, which buys samples of meat products and subjects them to testing for bacterial pathogens. Again, the results are sobering.
 
Here a a few highlights pointed to by Pew in an email:
 
* Of the Salmonella on ground turkey, about 78% were resistant to at least one antibiotic and half of the bacteria were resistant to three or more. These figures are up compared to 2010. 
 
* Nearly three-quarters of the Salmonella found on retail chicken breast were resistant to at least one antibiotic. About 12% of retail chicken breast and ground turkey samples were contaminated with Salmonella.
 
* Resistance to tetracycline [an antibiotic] is up among Campylobacter on retail chicken. About 95% of chicken products were contaminated with Campylobacter, and nearly half of those bacteria were resistant to tetracyclines. This reflects an increase over last year and 2002.
 
Takeaway: While the FDA dithers with voluntary approaches to regulation, the meat industry is feasting on antibiotics and sending out product tainted with antibiotic-resistant bugs.
 
Nancy Alderman, President
Environment and Human Health, Inc.
1191 Ridge Road
North Haven, CT   06473
(phone) 203-248-6582
(Fax)     203-288-7571
 
 
--
Nancy Alderman, President
Environment and Human Health, Inc.
1191 Ridge Road
North Haven, CT   06473
(phone) 203-248-6582
(Fax)     203-288-7571
http://www.ehhi.org
http://ehhijournal.org


And some people worry about four little chickens...


Happy March. 

Pauline






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What is a Transition Town?

Transition Towns across the globe are quickly addressing the reality of Climate Change, Peak Oil and Economic Decline with creative and positive solutions.
There are over 400 globally and over 106 in the USA.
In the US Transition Westchester is the 106th initiative.
Transition Towns avoid fear based rhetoric, they are committed folks who want to ensure a hopeful and optimistic future for our kids.
Transition Towns are made of dedicated groups of citizens focusing on the life support systems of a community: Food, energy, economy, community
Transition Towns also focus on the arts, music, play and the fun parts of life that create tightly knit societies founded on harmony and trust.