Problems with food safety in the U.S.

  The McClatchy-Tribune Company reported on October 14 that  while our nation's top food safety officials were in Miama setting the "course for the next 100 years of food safety", the handful of boots left on the ground at the USDA were initiating a recall of 21.7 million pounds of hamburger.  While our national government is spending billions on the "war on terror" and in particular making enemies by attempting to police a civil war in Iraq, it is continuously stripping every other element of the Federal government of the workers needed to protect our citizens.

        The "starve the beasters" have used a combination of tax cuts and budget cuts to strip the number of inspectors in the USDA (and many other branches of government, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration), resulting in glaring problems  with safety in our food supply.  This recent embarrassment started in September when consumers in New York and Florida fell ill from E.Coli exposure.  By the time 32 people had been poisoned, inspectors had finally traced the problem to New Jersey-based Topps Meat Company.  A full 18 additional days passed, however, before Topps was forced to recall a FULL YEAR'S PRODUCTION:  apparently the problem that lead to the E.Coli poisoning had existed for that many months without being identified.   Inspectors who insisted on anonymity to avoid retaliation told the paper that managers are doubling and tripling their workload as a result of downsizing that has left the agency under-staffed [and over-managed in Miami, apparently].