Reader comments
Make food safety top goal

Let market forces help keep the food supply clean. I used to work for a dairy farmer in the early 1970's. When the milk truck came to pick up the milk from the farmer, they would take a sample. The less bacteria in the milk, the more per pound he would be paid. When they instituted this he never did make top dollar. That frustrated him, and he tried and tried until he got it right. It turns out he wasn't cleaning a certain part of his milk tank once the milk was emptied. Once he figured this out he started making top dollar.

Something similar could be done for farmers who sell produce. We could have a carrot and a stick. Farmers could be sued if they harm anyone. Farmers could be given or sold test kits so they could find sources of contamination on their own.

This problem is solveable, we just need to do it.

I just avoid foods from China and Mexico. Improves my chances to have a safe food supply.

This problem is solveable and the solution is simple.

1. Take a capfull of bleach
2. Put it in a bucket of water
3. Put produce in the bucket for five minutes

Done

Frank -- above -- is suggesting something too simplistic as a solution. E.coli 0157:H7 is able to avoid many oxidant solutions (bleach/chlorine). Merely washing vegetables consumed raw can also be an ineffective way to remove some of the more tenacious pathogens.

Yet the US is the only place having problems with ecoli. All the contaminated produce is just being sold back on the streets of their origin city without a problem because the US is the only place that doesnt clean its produce before consumption

The FDA like many other federal agencies and departments have been hollowed out over the last 7 1/2 years so that they are unable to carry out their missions of protecting workers, ensuring safety of good and medications, over-seeing product safety, etc. Although many of these functions may not have been stellar in performance in previous administrations they have clearly been hobbled in a misguided attempt to allow industry to be unregulated.

It remains for a new administration to clean house and completely rehabilitate various agencies and departments. The devastating failure of MSHA with the preventable deaths involved in the Crandall Mine accident is a devastating example of the underlying problem.

The failures of the EPA to protect the air, water and environment is known to some. Less well known to many is the extensive list of anti-worker actions taken by the Department of Labor which promote worker injuries, relaxes safety regulations and often results in loss of pay to workers.

Hopefully, the next president will be able to address these issues in addition to the higher profile issues discussed in the campaign.