About 13% of our food is imported and only about 1% of this food is inspected, with the exception of meat. As the amount of food we are importing increases, the percentage of food inspected decreases. We are getting food from over 100 countries with much hidden knowledge of their farming conditions. Food shipped from other countries doesn't have as many safety restrictions as in the United States. Micheal Doyle, the head of the center of food safety at the University of Georgia, claims that in many countries pesticides are more frequently used, many workers are not as informed about food safety practices, and the water quality is not as good. The FDA has found that imported produce is about four times as likely to be affected with salmonella. The FDA's lack of funding forces them to focus just on what is most important. Imports with salmonella and other problems are often not found by the FDA in time. Many foods don't have information on which country they are from, basic information that consumers should know to feel safe about what they're buying.
I think that the best solution to this problem is for the government to encourage an increase in local farming. Ideally, this could decrease the cost of fuel to transport foods and increase the amount of fresher foods with fewer pesticides. Not only do we need to turn our focus locally though, we should also increase funding for the FDA so they can place stricter regulations on food safety on the foods we import.
Several sites I found interesting and helped me to find information:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-03-18-food-safety-usat_N.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-16-imported-food_N.htm
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3060799n
“Ideas on America”, by Jaime has an interesting blog titled, “Risk of Imported Foods”. I don’t understand why we can’t use our own resources instead of other countries. We are blessed to have a country with almost all varieties of terrains. What do really need from other countries that we can’t grow here?
ReplyDeleteSo these other countries are sending us their pick of poison, pesticides, so that we can send them our money instead of supporting local famers? The good ol FDA has got our backs on this one right?-WRONG! These other countries are not held to the “standards” that our country holds for food safety.
In addition to the plethora of diseases we can’t cure, there is a major uprising of severe food allergies in our country. My two children both are highly allergic to a couple different foods, (neither me nor my husband are). No one knows the cause. Because of this, I don’t buy anything, knowingly, that is internationally transported. I can barely trust our own regulations, much less those of another country!
Another point made in Jaime’s blog is that the food isn’t as fresh. It would be great if we could just support our local farmers instead of outsourcing. The faster locally grown food can sell, the less poison, eh hem, I mean pesticide we will consume.
I agree that the funding we use for the transport of imported foods could go towards the FDA, so that they can be more thorough on our inspections and regulations. I don’t mean to sound selfish, but when are we going to start focusing on taking care of our own country? Thank you Jaime for a most interesting blog!