Food safety & the politics of cheap food

From David E. Gumpert on the Complete Patient blog:

“I was explaining to a friend yesterday that the federal government in the form of the U.S. Department of Agriculture continues to allow a multibillion-dollar food corporation to sell product, even after its chicken has been associated with hundreds of illnesses, many caused by pathogens that are resistant to conventional antibiotics.

He didn’t believe me. “I’m sure the chicken has been recalled,” he said. No, I explained, it hasn’t. Nor has the producer been shut down.

“Well, something must be going on so the chicken isn’t being sold,” he concluded, hopefully. 

Monsanto GMO sweet corn to be sold directly to an unsuspecting public

From Ariel Schwartz, on Fast Company:

There is genetically modified produce in a lot of the processed food you eat, but this is the first time that Monsanto is taking fresh GM produce from the ground straight to your mouth. If it works out, there will be plenty more.

Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, is known for developing engineered crops (i.e. corn and soybeans) that end up in many of the food products found on grocery store aisles, as well as in fibers and animal feed. Up until now, the company’s GM crops have only been available in processed foods–in other words, in little bits and pieces. But now Monsanto is making a move into the consumer market with GM sweet corn, which will be found in a supermarket produce bin or farmer’s market near you starting this fall.

“Super-bug” chicken with antibiotic-resistant bacteria could be even more dangerous than raw milk “cooties”

From CBC News:

“Chicken bought at major supermarkets across Canada is frequently contaminated with superbugs — bacteria that many antibiotics cannot kill — an investigation by CBC TV’s Marketplace has found.

Marketplace researchers — along with their colleagues at Radio-Canada’s food show L’Epicerie — bought 100 samples of chicken from major grocery chains in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

The chicken included some of the most familiar label names in the poultry business.