Food Supply

The AP has found that water for approximatley 41 million Americans is tainted with drugs:

A vast array of pharmaceuticals - including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen - in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

Third world nation? Yes we are there.

Amazing how much more we resemble third world nations every day. This is the largest beef recall in history.

Beans are now on the list. Why should we be any safer in 2008 than in 2007?

That must be the reason for this:

The Bush administration said yesterday that it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too. The Agriculture Department argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.

A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test that the government relies on and said the government did not have the authority to restrict it.

The ruling was to take effect this Friday, but the Agriculture Department said yesterday that it would appeal -- effectively delaying the testing while the court challenge continues.

Yup - because the USDA and government has done such a knock up job at protecting our food supply so far!

Back when Bush and all the government officials talked about protecting our food and water supply? They tried to scare us with these scenarios that al Qaeda might put something in the supply.

Here we are 6 years later and is our supply any safer? In the past year we have had numerous food recalls and today we get a town in Massachusetts that has their water supply contaminated with a corrosive lye of all things.

So is Bush doing anything to protect our water and food, or was that just another one of his boogy men theories? This is a very serious issue, and I hope Congress looks into it. We seem to be getting far more cases of bad food and water than any other time in history. Oh wait - maybe that is "thinking post 9/11" like the Republicans do!