Food safety has been a controversial topic for many years now. The US realized the flaws in the food industry at an early time and did the best in their power to fix it, but as time went on it seems we've become more corrupt rather than more safe. The US government should spend more time making sure the places our foods are coming from are safe in order to resolve all of the health issues people are faced with due to the foods we consume.
For many years, there have been concerns on the foods that are being put into our bodies. Although we are more aware of the foods we have now, they didn’t just brush these problems off in the 1800s. “Wiley devoted his career to raising public awareness of problems with adulterated food; developing standards
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“The United States' food safety regulatory system is in urgent need of reform ... Congress needs to act now to modernize the FDA and fund it sufficiently. The cost of inaction is high, both financially and in terms of illnesses and deaths Americans have endured during the numerous contaminated food outbreaks that have recently occurred.” (DeWaal 1) Flaws in the food system are causing an incredible amount of illness within the US. The US people cannot wait any longer for the solutions to our broken food system. (DeWaal 1) “Reform of the food safety system is overdue. CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] estimates that foodborne diseases cause 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths annually. Economists believe that these illnesses pose a huge burden to society, with estimates for emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and lost work ranging from 40 billion to well over 100 billion dollars annually. Even if these numbers were cut in half, they are still too high. These are illnesses and deaths that are largely preventable.” (DeWaal 1) All we need to do is make a change so our food system does not remain corrupt and we would automatically fix so many current issues. Millions of lives could easily be saved, as well as money due to the decrease of hospital visits caused by contaminated and …show more content…
“The agency has billed the proposed regulations as key tools for implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the biggest FDA food-safety update in more than seven decades, which President Obama signed into law in January 2011. The new rules would cost about half a billion dollars per year. The cost of FSMA will be borne by farmers and food producers of all sizes. The FDA estimates the FSMA will cost America’s small farms about $13,000 each per year. Larger farms — much more capable of bearing the costs — will be out about $30,000 per year. Other food producers are likely to face varying fees. But will the proposed rules make America’s food supply — already quite safe and getting safer thanks to conscientious farmers, producers, and sellers of all sizes, vigilant watchdog groups, and eagle-eyed food-safety lawyers — any safer?” (Food Safety News 1) These people believe the food reform is costing the US too much money and that it’s not necessary. They think our food system is safe enough. Many others disagree with this statement. They believe more should be done in order to improve the system. “A central contention is the degree to which either side trusts, or doesn’t trust, pronouncements by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies that food resulting from genetic engineering is safe and no different
“The passive American consumer, sitting down to a meal of pre-prepared or fast food, confronts a platter covered with inert, anonymous substances that have been processed, dyed, breaded, sauced, gravied, ground, pulped, strained, blended, prettified, and sanitized beyond resemblance to any creature that every lived (Berry 9).” This a great example that makes that makes us learn and think about when we eat a fast food product and also what it contains. This should a reason for us to be thinkful of the food products that we consume on a daily basis, and so do our
A trip to any supermarket in Canada will reveal nothing out of ordinary, just the usual of array of fresh and packaged goods displayed in an inviting manner to attract customers. Everything appear familiar and reassuring, right? Think again. A closer microscopic inspection discloses something novel, a fundamental revolution in food technology. The technology is genetic engineering (GE), also known as biotechnology. Blue prints (DNA) of agricultural crops are altered and “spliced” with foreign genes to produce transgenic crops. Foods harvested from these agricultural plants are called, genetically modified (GM). Presently, Canada has no consumer notification; GM foods are being slipped to Canada’s foods without any labels or adequate risk assessments. This essay argues that GM foods should be rigorously and independently tested for safety; and, consumers be given the right to choose or reject GM foods through mandatory labels. What is the need for impartial examination of safety of transgenic foods? And why label them? GM foods are not “substantially equivalent” to conventional foods, genetic engineering of agricultural crops is not a mere extension of traditional plant breeding, and finally, there are human health implications associated with it.
McCoy, J. J. How Safe Is Our Food Supply? New York: F. Watts, 1990. Print.
In her book Marion Nestle examines many aspects of the food industry that call for regulation and closer examination. Nestle was a member of the Food Advisory Committee to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the 1990’s and therefore helps deem herself as a credible source of information to the audience. (Nestle 2003). Yet, with her wealth of knowledge and experience she narrates from a very candid and logical perspective, but her delivery of this knowled...
In the documentary, Food Inc., we get an inside look at the secrets and horrors of the food industry. The director, Robert Kenner, argues that most Americans have no idea where their food comes from or what happens to it before they put it in their bodies. To him, this is a major issue and a great danger to society as a whole. One of the conclusions of this documentary is that we should not blindly trust the food companies, and we should ultimately be more concerned with what we are eating and feeding to our children. Through his investigations, he hopes to lift the veil from the hidden world of food.
The momentum generated by the passage of the Meat Inspection Act helped secure the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act, which had been stalled in Congress since 1905. With these two pieces of legislation, the federal government took important steps to assure the public that the food they were eating met minimu...
“There are … responsibilities more important than making sure the food our families eat is safe” (Joe Biden). The vice president of the United States does not consider food safety important. The government food agencies such as The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), do not do enough to ensure our safety from food. Our standards of ensuring food safety have dramatically dropped due to government food agencies not doing enough to protect us and making new rules and regulations to hard for food producers.
Almost every angle of the food industry can be considered dangerous. It is dangerous to make the food, as a meatpacking job is one that is viewed as having abnormally high risks; however when the food is handed over a counter on a tray or prepared in a family of four’s kitchen, it poses a huge risk to humankind. Foodborne illnesses are all too common and almost everybody has the possiblity of contracting a foodborne illness. These are life threatening diseases that need to be monitored and regulated; therefore the enforcement of government regulations in the fast food industry could potentially save many lives that are lost annually due to the numerous factors that need regulation.
American society has grown so accustomed to receiving their food right away and in large quantities. Only in the past few decades has factory farming come into existence that has made consuming food a non guilt-free action. What originally was a hamburger with slaughtered cow meat is now slaughtered cow meat that’s filled with harmful chemicals. Not only that, the corn that that cow was fed with is also filled with chemicals to make them grow at a faster rate to get that hamburger on a dinner plate as quickly as possible. Bryan Walsh, a staff writer for Time Magazine specializing in environmental issues discusses in his article “America’s Food Crisis” how our food is not only bad for us but dangerous as well. The word dangerous could apply to many different things though. Our food is dangerous to the consumer, the workers and farmers, the animals and the environment. Walsh gives examples of each of these in his article that leads back to the main point of how dangerous the food we are consuming every day really is. He goes into detail on each of them but focuses his information on the consumer.
Although it may seems like we may have some important questions answered with this new method, there has been much controversy circling these genetically engineered foods. In the United States and many other countries around the world, the actually safety of these foods have been questioned. There has also been much concern involving the supposed benefits for farmers, environmental risks, and labeling of these genetically engineered crops in our food.
Many people pick up food products off the shelves and put it into their shopping carts without actually knowing what exactly the product has been through. The documentary “Food Inc.,” directed by Robert Kenner helps us realize all the predicaments we have in our Food Industry. For example, one of the main problems we have is that our food is no longer being produced in all American farms, but instead in dirty abusive factories. Not only is this processed food unhealthy for us, but the workers and animals are being severely abused as well. Our food industry is spreading many different diseases rapidly amongst our American society, ranging from brain damage to miscarriage and birth defects.
More and More people are becoming concerned about what they eat, especially if they consume food products that are manufactured in food industries. However, it is hard to know what exactly you are consuming if food industries provide false nutrition content and mislead consumers by placing false advertisements on the packaging. When a company produces a product that contains misleading label, consumers are not receiving complete information about the food they are eating which could lead to health issues including allergies and problems with diabetes.
First off, The government of the United States of America is ultimately responsible for keeping our foods safe. Many of the Presidents of the major food companies also obtain government jobs. When a problem occurs with food and a food has to be recalled a change has to be made. Someone comes up with a law to make sure that the problem does not occur again. The government evaluates the law and either passes or denies it. The type of foods that we buy from the grocery store were pre evaluated by the government. I think the reason why most foods are unsafe and are still being obtained by local residents is because the major food companies work and make deals with government so
The third weakness is the fact that food tests, inspections, and the detection of contaminants are taken seriously only after an outbreak of some food-borne diseases, food poisoning, or deaths. The increase in the number of food establishments or outlets such as cold stores, hypermarkets, and supermarkets reported by the Public Health Director has also made inspection and control mo...
Food safety is an increasingly important public health issue. Governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. Food borne illnesses are diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. “In industrialized countries, the percentage of people suffering from food borne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30%. In the United States of America, for example, around 76 million cases of food borne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.” (Geneva 2)