Cantaloupe vs. al-Qaeda: What's More Dangerous?

[marmar]

Cantaloupe vs. al-Qaeda: What's More Dangerous?

Sunday, 15 September 2013 00:00
By Michael Meurer, Truthout | Op-Ed


One of the most important revelations from the international drama over Edward Snowden's NSA leaks in May is the exposure of a nearly lunatic disproportion in threat assessment and spending by the US government. This disproportion has been spawned by a fear-based politics of terror that mandates unlimited money and media attention for even the most tendentious terrorism threats, while lethal domestic risks such as contaminated food from our industrialized agribusiness system are all but ignored. A comparison of federal spending on food safety intelligence versus antiterrorism intelligence brings the irrationality of the threat assessment process into stark relief.

In 2011, the year of Osama bin Laden's death, the State Department reported that 17 Americans were killed in all terrorist incidents worldwide. The same year, a single outbreak of listeriosis from tainted cantaloupe killed 33 people in the United States. Foodborne pathogens also sickened 48.7 million, hospitalized 127,839 and caused a total of 3,037 deaths. This is a typical year, not an aberration.

We have more to fear from contaminated cantaloupe than from al-Qaeda, yet the United States spends $75 billion per year spread across 15 intelligence agencies in a scattershot attempt to prevent terrorism, illegally spying on its own citizens in the process. By comparison, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is struggling to secure $1.1 billion in the 2014 federal budget for its food inspection program, while tougher food processing and inspection regulations passed in 2011 are held up by agribusiness lobbying in Congress. The situation is so dire that Jensen Farms, the company that produced the toxic cantaloupe that killed 33 people in 2011, had never been inspected by the FDA.

In the past 10 years, outbreaks of foodborne illness have affected all 50 states, with hundreds of food recalls annually involving many of America's leading brands, including Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Taylor Farms Organics, Ralph's, Kroger, Food 4 Less, Costco, Dole, Kellogg's and dozens of others. There have been multi-state recalls of contaminated cheese, organic spinach, salad greens, lettuce, milk, ground beef, eggs, organic brown rice, peanut butter, mangoes, cantaloupe and hundreds of other popular foods. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18715-cantaloupe-vs-al-qaeda

[BlueToTheBone]

1. And the sequestration has cut the number of

inspectors even more. IIRC they have now started allowing companies to inspect themselves. It is important more than ever to buy local.

[truebluegreen]

2. Kick kick KICK!

Excellent perspective on the disproportionality of the US government response to real danger as opposed to the imaginary sort (imaginary in the sense of actual threat levels).

[bvar22]

3. Bin Laden, laughing from the grave.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

[heaven05]

10. +that

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. Beyond any expectation.

[KG]

4. a 'war on foodborne pathogens' wouldn't require a new aircraft carrier, so nobody that matters cares

[marmar]

6. Sad but true.

[BrotherIvan]

5. A new perspective

One I had not thought of. I wish everyone could see how much we lose when we funnel our taxes toward the MIC. It seems as though if everyone turned off their television, with the non-stop screaming propaganda, we might be able to change course before we sink. Otherwise, I just don't know.

[xchrom]

7. du rec.

[zeemike]

8. There is no money to be made by insuring a safe food supply.

In fact it cost industry money.
But boy o boy there is a ton of money to be made by protecting us from the terrorist...billions and billions.
So guess what wins?

[RC]

9. Who is protecting us from the real terrorists?

The MIC and factions within our own government.

[Coyotl]

11. Talk like this threatens the life-long suckling at the teats of government by Bushbots.

How dare you even mention anything that would take one iota of privilege away from the loyal, right-wing soldiers of God that Bush gave high-paying jobs with healthcare and pensions to?

That is what they call a threat to their national security! You can see why you must be spied on, not?

[CrispyQ]

12. The title of that article shows us for the fools we are.

[Electric Monk]

13. k&r