I was asked to post this by one of many people who are keeping up with the recall...
"Consumers are becoming more and more wary that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is withholding information about the safety of the nation’s food supply, both for human consumption as well as for pets."
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/2007/06/30/dismal_scorecard/ " .... you have a right to believe that the products you use and food that you eat, that you feed your children and pets, is free from contamination and safe to use. You have a right to expect that the FDA will do its job and so far, it appears that the government doesn’t have a very good scorecard. "
All of us blogs regulars and comment writers and readers agree FDA has been less than honest and open over the entire history of this event. On numerous times FDA has declined to identify companies and/or suppliers. We all remember during one of the phone tele-conferences when Christie Keith asked about a particular recall which was just then breaking during the conference. They talked about it after she asked, in the Q & A phase, but not up front, and they HAD to have known beforehand because companies are required by law to inform FDA when they’re doing a recall. That’s just one instance.
The media largely feel the investigative phase of the story is over.
There is ONE place where this is still ‘not over’ — its Congress. The SECOND “Diminished Capacity: Can the FDA Protect the Food Supply” hearing of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations is scheduled to come up soon. Some in Congress are already as disgusted with FDA officials as we are: Remember Dingell and Stupak had to threaten subpoenas to get info, DeLauro threatened to zero out FDA top dogs salaries, Durbin and Cantwell wrote a letter and tried to embarrass FDA by sharing with the media, asking FDA to identify the unnamed second importer of RPC. If there’s one thing Sens and Reps don’t take well it’s Fedl agency people dis-ing their authority. This is where we all have to go with this folks, BEFORE the second hearing takes place, we need to demand of the House subcom that they take a more complete look at the FDA’s dragging their feet and lack of openness throughout all this. The media feels this is over, the House is still open for business.
I’m asking everyone here to join me and write House Committee (Energy & Commerce) Chair Rep John Dingell, Subcommittee (Oversight and Investigations) Chair Bart Stupak, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and demand that they conduct a more in depth review of FDA actions in this. Rep Rosa DeLauro also because she’s already on record expressing strong discontent with FDA. And also your own Rep if he or she is on either Dingell’s committee or Stupak’s subcom, Dem or Repub doesn’t matter. The more of them we can enlist the better. Point out for them correctly every instance where FDA has withheld info…. they're not hard to find -- go back through the ‘live-blogs’ and transcripts. Remind them that Dingell and Stupak had to make threats to get questions answered. (I have concerns about Corn-Gluten and Cyanuric Acid still, and I notice one common ingredient among most of the foods that have tested positive for C/A is C-G, and I believe FDA may woke up to this too late, after a lot of it was already processed, and after the import alert went into effect, so now don’t feel much like talking about it any further).
Mail your concerns to all of the above. It’s not over in the House. This hearing is supposed to take place soon, and regular mail with all the security precautions may not make it in time, so its better in addition to regular mail to FAX it also. Thanks, mike
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