Hot Topic (1/28): Is your food killing you?

[Cafe GroupAdmin]

Obama nominates Hagen as food safety undersecretary

The White House announced Monday a nominee for undersecretary for Food Safety at the Department of Agriculture. The position has been vacant for almost a year.

The nominee is Elisabeth Hagen, who currently holds the position of USDA chief medical officer, where she serves as an advisor to USDA on human health issues. Prior to that she was with USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service where she worked on public health. Hagen was a practicing physician before coming to the USDA. She is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and a board certified expert in infectious disease.

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Do we need a "food safety undersecretary"?

Should the government do more to ensure food safety?

Do you worry about the American food supply?

[Talee]

I worry about the food supply....watch Food, Inc...lol I know I posted this before...

I am not sure if more regulation needs to happen or not though...I would hate to see smaller farmers pay even more and go under in the end because of regulations...some of those regulations may be unnecessary and if the big food companies push that stuff for their own gain...well you get my point.

[katy_kay]

From tainted peanut butter to melamine laced baby formula the last few years have definitely shown that standards surrounding the safety of our food supply have been slipping so yes, it seems more needs to be done. 

[GoodMomma24-7]

Now you see, this would not be a problem if we had all been raised Amish or on a farm, and knew how to produce and grow our own food...just kidding (halfway, lol)

But in all seriousness, we need safe food, but you know what would be even better?  Real food - that isn't processed and pulverized into something completely unsubstantial and unhealthy like most of our country's food.  Not to mention, sometimes tainted.  I really wish we could count on food producers to ensure our food safety, but nothing matters more than saving a buck, even if it means cutting corners, giving the animals hormones, and cruelly cram-packing them into cages throughout their poor, miserable lives.

Sometimes I worry about the food supply, especially when I see that the weather doesn't allow farmers to get their crops started in time, and some of the fields go untouched for the year.  Many did last year in IL.

[bakebiscotti]

Yes, I worry about food safety.  I try not to eat processed food very often.  I buy most of my food locally, including meat.  I won't ever buy grocery store ground beef.  If I cannot see the guy put the cut of meat I'd like ground, into the grinder, I won't eat it. And I won't eat anything fresh that I don't know where it comes from. 

I only eat organic potatoes, celery, carrots, lettuces and apples. 

[rfourangels]

I too worry about food safety. I think the problem though is more at the service/ store level than at the level of a new "undersecretary of food safety."

I buy organic things too, I buy an organic antibiotic free cow every year from a farm and have the meat in my freezer, that is our beef, I don't buy it at the grocery store, (same with chickens) on and on. I don't eat at potlucks, or allow my kids to do that either (from past experiences), or allow my kids to eat anything from someone at school that didn't come from a package in a store- even if a mom hands out homemade cupcakes for a birthday, I don't trust it.

 In general, I don't think people are conscious of food safety. I'm not sure that more regs will make a difference. They need to be followed and enforced. I remember in my public health training the gross things that happen in the back rooms of grocery stores and restaurants, the rules are in place, but it doesn't mean that they are followed. People touch and squeeze all those vegetables before they are bought, do people really scrub it as good as they should?

I try, but I also realize that there has to be element of trust in there. As careful as we are, it doesn't mean that e-coli didn't get into the farm water where our spinach was grown, even as good as I may wash it, check temperatures of meats, store it, etc.

There are things out of my control, I still worry about it though, and take every precaution that I can.

[AMom29]

 Well, someone needs to do their jobs, and the FDA doesn't seem to be too worried about it...

[AMom29]

Quoting Talee:

I worry about the food supply....watch Food, Inc...lol I know I posted this before...

I am not sure if more regulation needs to happen or not though...I would hate to see smaller farmers pay even more and go under in the end because of regulations...some of those regulations may be unnecessary and if the big food companies push that stuff for their own gain...well you get my point.

You mean the farmers like the dairy farmers, who think they are OPEC now and cut production of milk to raise the prices?

(Sorry, small vent.  I don't want to make this thread about that, but that's what popped into my head when I read this.)

[Talee]

Quoting AMom29:

Quoting Talee:

I worry about the food supply....watch Food, Inc...lol I know I posted this before...

I am not sure if more regulation needs to happen or not though...I would hate to see smaller farmers pay even more and go under in the end because of regulations...some of those regulations may be unnecessary and if the big food companies push that stuff for their own gain...well you get my point.

You mean the farmers like the dairy farmers, who think they are OPEC now and cut production of milk to raise the prices?

(Sorry, small vent.  I don't want to make this thread about that, but that's what popped into my head when I read this.)

I think that is along the same lines....in another post in this group we were talking about similar stuff with crops....

I am very new at understanding some of what is going on...OPEC, does that mean they are working for the "big companies", therefore going by their direction and standards? If it is...I don't want to see ANY more of that...its BS.