The Center for Disease Control, or CDC, are now saying that we need an overhaul of the current regulation system. When the food safety system was made, food were groen and consumed more locally, but now there is a whole shipping and transporting factor in the food supply that makes it easily for E. coli and other harmful bacterias to find their way into our food.
Here in the US, people assume that the food we are eating is fully inspected and okay to eat because of our extensive regulation. But are we regulating enough? Growing up in the United States, I never thought twice about eating something that I bought from the store, assuming that it was fresh and not contaminated in any way. I'm scared to learn that that may not be the case.
Do you think that the government should spend more money to update the food regulation system in the country? With this economy, should that be the first priority? Or should our first priority be injecting the economy with money?
4 comments:
Too many priorities to choose from, though given Obama's intense focus on this issue during his March 14th video address, it's clear that this is important to him. Personally, I think he should ban high fructose corn syrup while he's at it.
I definately agree that further precautions should be taken to combat e.coli...wasn't there a recent e.coli scare with tomatoes and lettuce? (I just remember that In N Out refused to put tomatoes on their burgers for a while because they thought it was contaminated). However, a lot of the diseases that get onto our food during the transport process can be killed with a clean washing. Rather than eating vegetables straight from the supermarket, we need to take the time to wash them thoroughly. This would save us a lot of medical problems! As for Douglas's comment, I don't agree. High fructose corn syrup is in everything we eat and it is what allows us to have such a variety of produce to choose from. By banning it completely, you'd be limiting our power as consumers. Also, high fructose corn syrup isn't really that bad for you if you have it in moderation.
I believe that having an effective food regulation system should definitely be one of our priorities. I know the economy has been the main focus, but it's not reasonable to risk our health with contaminated foods. We all expect the government's food safety regulations to be effective; we consume food everyday that has passed through it. Thus, when the recent string of warnings of harmful foods started, we immediately stopped buying them from fear. I remember seeing employees at markets emptying the whole section with bags of spinach during the E.coli scare and I couldn't help but think that a lot of that food was being wasted. Yet, now, with so many various food warnings, I've really started to not keep track of all of it. This kind of attitude could get more people sick and lead to increased fear. This would then again result much food being wasted because restaurants and markets wouldn't want to buy the certain foods anymore due to low customer interest. This would hurt those growing the foods and probably our economy in general. Therefore, I think it's time we update the food regulation system.
Lauren C. Strojny- There are way too many important factors in the US right now. I think it is very important that our food be safe to eat, but these regulations lay in the hands to the US government, eventually the process needs to change. For now during our current recession just be careful what you eat, because it looks like it could be a while until we see change in our food regulations
One can always buy organic! Maybe that would help with the risk of disease. Plus organic foods are more expensive most of the time therefore that would boost our economy. Just a thought.
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