U.S. Food Supply is the Safest in the World
Dec. 13th, 2004 by adminBy Yvonne Vizzier Thaxton on December 13, 2004
For Meatingplace.com
(Excerpt - For complete article please visit Meatingplace.com)
Shame on you, Mr. Thompson
There has been a lot of flack concerning former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson’s comment about the vulnerability of our food supply. (See Thompson warns of possible attack on food supply, Meatingplace.com, Dec. 7, 2004.) I do not agree with Mr. Thompson. I’ve thought a lot about the dangers to the food supply since 9/11 and have concluded that it isn’t so easy to attack.
One of the criticisms is that so called “factory farming” increases our vulnerability by concentrating animals in one place. I understand the argument, but there is no one central location that receives all of our animals or even most of them. There are thousands of feed lots and poultry houses scattered throughout the United States. It is possible to target one large confinement group or even to target multiple units at one time, but it would be virtually impossible to get them all at once. And, if it were possible to get all of the chickens in a single large complex, the loss would reduce the food supply for a period of time, but it would not cause massive problems.
Tampering with food would cause short-term alarm, but it could be calmed quickly as a result of the “factory farming” arrangement. Companies have controls in place that would allow them to quickly replenish the food supply and verify whether or not the food was safe. The delay would be brief and the harm minimal. We know this because product recalls are a common occurrence. These recalls have shown us that problems can be identified and quickly removed from the marketplace. The number of recalls has increased over the years, not as a result of less security, but as the result of more. Companies take more samples and use more sensitive techniques than ever before. Technology is constantly improving the methods available to assess quickly the quality and safety of our food.
For complete article please visit Meatingplace.com
