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Clark had tomatoes as part of his last meal…and he's hoping it's not going to be his last meal! The salmonella scare has shaken a lot of people. It seems like food borne illnesses have become an epidemic in recent years. But Clark thinks it's not that there are necessarily more instances, it's just that there's better media coverage of them.

Business Week reports that the FDA is short of the necessary technology and manpower to do reliable inspections of food plants. In fact, they say it would take the FDA some 1,900 years to check every single food plant just once. Clark doesn't know about you, but he doesn't plan on being around that long!

Libertarians would say that the food industry should be self-regulated. But since it is not, Clark believes government should reasonably be expected to step into this role. It is sheer madness that we live in a wealthy developed nation and can't routinely ensure that our food supply is safe.

Some people say that we should just grow our own food on a household level. But that's not a practical solution for everyone. So we either need to set the challenge up to industry, or assess the industry a tax so that that FDA can hire more people and buy the right equipment to get the job done.

Clark knows people will take issue with him on this, but he wants to know that something his children or his mother eats is not going to harm them.

What others are saying

Food Safety
First, I think that a single entity should regulate food safety instead of the current regulation by both the FDA and the USDA. There is too much regulatory overlap between those two organizations and perhaps too little communication to cover food safety properly. The FDA has it's hands full with drug research and approval for medications. Second, the organization definitely needs more inspectors to regulate food safety. If you ever want to be totally disgusted by food safety look into the meat packing industry! The hazards of the job as well as the sanitation in a meat packing plant are often horrific.
By Kelly @ 06/17/08 05:14:51 PMreport abuse
food safety
Just your children and mother eating safe food? What about your wife? I hope Costco has a special on dog houses this week - you'll need it.
By sherry @ 06/17/08 12:20:11 PMreport abuse
Dedication is better than Money
I am a Libertarian and a former solder in the US Army. Part of my job in the Army was food safety inspection.

On a regular basis we would be short of funds for supplies; at any given time a third of our equipment was nonfunctional or out for calibration; manpower shortages were typical as a result of soldiers being pulled away temporarily for other missions; yet at the end of the day our performance and effectiveness ratings were almost double that of the local inspectors we worked with.

The critical difference, I can tell you from experience, was having a properly trained staff who is dedicated enough not to "cut corners" while doing inspections is a far more effective step than just throwing money at the situation.

Not every food item is inspected, only a sampling and the whole lot is judged by that. A well-trained inspector knows to test the worst-looking samples (not best), the inner samples, to ask for records, to use psychology by assessing the shipper's attitudes and bearing during inspection interviews, and to use a number of other secondary clues to zero them in on any bad lots.

My biggest concern is that the FDA will fall victim to the same fallacy that other government agencies have fallen to in the past: all problems can be solved just by throwing more money at them. Isn't this reasoning akin to making up for lack of accuracy by using excessive volume. It reminds me of that old saying about an infinite number of monkeys typing away at an infinite number of typewriters...

Trim away the bad or corrupt inspectors and reward and promote the best inspectors; more than just money, they will be the true force multipliers to bring credibility back to the FDA.
By Eddie @ 06/16/08 06:24:12 PMreport abuse

Food Safety

First, I think that a single entity should regulate food safety instead of the current regulation by both the FDA and the USDA. There is too much regulatory overlap between those two organizations and perhaps too little communication to cover food safety properly. The FDA has it's hands full with drug research and approval for medications. Second, the organization definitely needs more inspectors to regulate food safety. If you ever want to be totally disgusted by food safety look into the meat packing industry! The hazards of the job as well as the sanitation in a meat packing plant are often horrific.

By Kelly @ 06/17/08 05:14:51 PMreport abuse

food safety

Just your children and mother eating safe food? What about your wife? I hope Costco has a special on dog houses this week - you'll need it.

By sherry @ 06/17/08 12:20:11 PMreport abuse

Dedication is better than Money

I am a Libertarian and a former solder in the US Army. Part of my job in the Army was food safety inspection.

On a regular basis we would be short of funds for supplies; at any given time a third of our equipment was nonfunctional or out for calibration; manpower shortages were typical as a result of soldiers being pulled away temporarily for other missions; yet at the end of the day our performance and effectiveness ratings were almost double that of the local inspectors we worked with.

The critical difference, I can tell you from experience, was having a properly trained staff who is dedicated enough not to "cut corners" while doing inspections is a far more effective step than just throwing money at the situation.

Not every food item is inspected, only a sampling and the whole lot is judged by that. A well-trained inspector knows to test the worst-looking samples (not best), the inner samples, to ask for records, to use psychology by assessing the shipper's attitudes and bearing during inspection interviews, and to use a number of other secondary clues to zero them in on any bad lots.

My biggest concern is that the FDA will fall victim to the same fallacy that other government agencies have fallen to in the past: all problems can be solved just by throwing more money at them. Isn't this reasoning akin to making up for lack of accuracy by using excessive volume. It reminds me of that old saying about an infinite number of monkeys typing away at an infinite number of typewriters...

Trim away the bad or corrupt inspectors and reward and promote the best inspectors; more than just money, they will be the true force multipliers to bring credibility back to the FDA.

By Eddie @ 06/16/08 06:24:12 PMreport abuse

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Jun 16, 2008 -- Debating the government's role in food safety

What others are saying