now be quiet and eat yer baloney

[Guest guest]

http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/2770/1/4/?TopicID=

 

 

White House Adds Rule to Hit List After Calling it 'Accomplishment'

Just three months after touting an interim rule controlling Listeria

in ready-to-eat meats as a " regulatory reform accomplishment, " the

White House added that same rule to a list of regulations that should

be weakened or eliminated.

 

 

Corporate special interests nominated the Listeria rule for rollbacks

in response to a call from the White House's Office of Information

and Regulatory Affairs, which used its annual draft report on the

costs and benefits of regulations last February to request industry's

nominations for regulatory protections to be weakened or eliminated.

 

When OIRA released the final version of that report in December, it

summarized the public's nominations and submitted them to the

agencies for their review. In addition to a separate list of the

White House's own suggestions for rollbacks and a list of anti-

regulatory initiatives that it wanted moved to higher priority

status, OIRA included a list of what it called " regulatory reform

accomplishments. " The Listeria rule was on that list.

 

OIRA released a new report on March 9, announcing 76 of the industry-

nominated rollbacks that the administration was endorsing as its

regulatory reform priorities. Incredibly, the same Listeria rule

touted in December as an accomplishment appeared on that list of

regulatory protections to be weakened or eliminated.

 

Listeria monocytogenes is a deadly pathogen that has the highest

hospitalization rate and the second-highest fatality rate of all

foodborne pathogens. Pregnant women who contract Listeria poisoning

will almost always miscarry or bear a child with severe developmental

disabilities. Because Listeria outbreaks have been traced to ready-to-

eat meat products such as hotdogs and lunch meats, the Clinton

administration began work on a performance standard with related

requirements to test the final products as well as food-contact

surfaces.

 

When the Bush administration took office, however, the Department of

Agriculture made an about-face and abandoned the idea of a strong

performance standard, issuing instead an interim final rule that

favored the food industry and weakened the USDA's power to enforce

any protections against Listeria in ready-to-eat meats. As the

Consumer Federation of America has documented in a recent report, the

Bush administration has campaign finance ties to the big food

companies, in particular ready-to-eat meat producer Pilgrim's Pride.

After holding a meeting with food industry representatives, OIRA

ordered the USDA to make changes in the rule.

 

40 years in the local store

Got forced out by the supermarket

The price of all your favorite meals

Stays low but now you can’t afford it

Send in the supermarket forces

Stick it on a card to save you cash

They know your details in a flash

Streamlined sets the mental tone

Now everyone’s a shopping clone