Okay, you got me.  It took you four freakin' months, for cripes' sakes, but you got me.  You finally figured out that it was me, from a farm in Nuevo Leon, and my cousin, Jalapeno, from a farm in Tamaulipas, that were the source of an outbreak of Salmonella across the US that led to a panic with all kinds of unintended consequences, including an unwarranted fear of my good friend Tomato.

Let me say upfront that I deeply regret any pain, suffering or angst that may have resulted from this unfortunate incident.

Crossposted from BluegrassRoots

This week the U.S. House of Representatives took a very important step in promoting better health among Americans; it voted to extend FDA authority to cover tobacco.  Since our Food and Drug Administration is charged with protecting and promoting our health, it stands to reason the FDA would have some say in regulating the number one cause of preventable health problems in America: smoking.  Not only is smoking responsible for an enormous percentage of our nation’s healthcare problems, but it is responsible for roughly 25 cents of each healthcare dollar spent in America today.  

Photo courtesy of State Symbols USA

So, it wasn't a tomato after all.  It was either a jalapeno or seranno pepper which caused the outbreak that completely shut down the tomato market for three weeks.  Florida growers alone estimate an economic hit of 47 million dollars.  

Today in Longworth House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture held a Public Hearing on this outbreak. California Democrat Dennis Cardoza presided. .

You Say 'Tomato', I say 'Tomato'...

AP: Food industry bitten by its lobbying success

More Bush Administration's HANDIWORK, to make you Sick, REALLY SICK!

Ooooh, did they have you all worried about tomatoes and salmonella?  Have you been all upset the FDA couldn't track down the culprits?  Were you assiduously following the tomato trail, wondering where it would lead?  And did you find that suddenly, it was jalapenos all along?  Geez, It's like tracking Osama and next thing you know, we're in Iraq after WMDs, and no one can find either.

Actually, it's very much like that.  Fear, fear, fear.  Upsetting the public, so everyone will be eager for a push for ... war.  So, when it comes to tomatoes - scratch that, jalapenos - the public is scared again, and the government suggests more FDA power to track better those enemy germs and more regulations, it just like more troops and extensions of FISA.  

WMDs.  Oh my gosh.  Rev up the military.  

Salmonella.  Oh dear, oh dear.  Rev up the FDA.  

Only ... didn't we get set up about WMDs, if I remember correctly?

Activists in Canada have wrung some changes from the government in regard to Bill C51 ithttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/07/19/natural-health-advocates-defeat-gove rnment-power-grab.aspx?source=nl

but the bill is so draconian that it stands as a warning to all of us of what corporate/government agencies will do to destroy alternative movements that are growing, whether in health or in food, and the means that they are using.

http://articles.mercola.com/...

Dear friends,

I write you as a burdened Cassandra, someone who has begun to see too much of what is going on, and needing to warn good people to be careful, to make plans to protect yourselves.  i have believed as you do in the wholeness of things and in the inherent goodness of people, and from that in the growth of millions of small efforts to improving our world that would coalesce bit by bit into a better and healthier and lasting world.

I have just read one of the best pieces of medico-political journalism I have ever encountered, and I urge you all to read it as well. Not only does it provide more evidence (as if it were needed) of John McCain's hypocrisy and political cowardice, it contains vital information about the dangers of melanoma and how to prevent it, the incredible increase in incidence, and how the FDA caved into the cosmetics industry on the issue of sunscreens after lobbying by John Roberts (remember him -- head of the SCOTUS).

Please read Brian McKenna's McCain's Melanoma Cover-Up piece immediately, especially if you have children. I lost a dear friend to melanoma about one year ago (he was 40 years old with a child). Learn the basics of protection, and learn how McCain is acting, as usual, as an ass. Some excerpts after the jump.

Note: McKenna is a 16-year survivor of melanoma. He writes brilliantly, and knows what he's talking about.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) is pushing to get a provision into the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2008 that would give the FDA the power to issue mandatory recalls of contaminated food.  Oh, dear.  We need to not give any more power to that agency to do squat.

Let's take a moment for a little background.  The FDA is essentially run by Big Pharma, including Monsanto, and not for our benefit.
http://www.localforage.com/...
http://articles.mercola.com/...

Oh you didn't know?  Well neither did I, until early today when I took my sons to our local travel clinic.  

I thought my lack of knowledge may have been due to being on vacation visiting my parents in Denver at the end of June. When does one really stay as attuned to all the news that affects them when they are visitng family?

So I came home from the tavel clinic today and checked on Dailykos.  The result, searching with the keyword either "rabies" or "Rabies" was zero.  Nothing, nada, goose egg.

So I went to google news and searched using the words "Rabies Vaccine Shortage."  There are, as of this writing, 38 stories written on this subect for the past month.

I shit you not, folks.  There have been zero tomato samples found contaminated by salmonella.  The  initial mainstream media account relied wholly on a statistical analysis of people interviewed who had become ill.  The thing which was found to be most in common was that they had eaten pico de gallo at a Mexican Restaurant.  However samples taken of tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro from the restaurants cited (in Texas and New Mexico) were all found to be clean.

Let me repeat: Zero Tomato Samples found with Salmonella!!!

Tomato industry groups have criticized the use of statistical analysis and say that government health officials should wait until they find a contaminated product before taking serious actions such as recalls. But government officials say that delaying a warning could cause serious harm to public health, because more people could become sick without an early alert.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/...

More after the jump:  

Feeling somewhat depressed today, I indulged my current negative worldview by watching CNN.

Some things I have learned today that I never knew before:

Most people know that the cost of prescription drugs is going up, and that the drug companies are not hurting despite most business and industries taking a hit in the recent recession.  We look at the cost in one county, and the causes nationwide.

Last summer, the American Cancer Society ran an ad that many dermatologists found unnecessarily inflammatory and misleading.  It's gist: skin cancer kills, wear sunscreen.   The ad raised eyebrows for overstating the mortality risk of skin cancer, but it also received criticism for exaggerating the protective powers of sunscreen:

“It’s just not that simple,” said Dr. Barry Kramer, associate director for disease prevention at the National Institutes of Health.

“We do have some pretty good evidence that sunscreen will reduce your risk of the less lethal forms of skin cancer,” Dr. Kramer added. “There’s very little evidence that sunscreens protect you against melanoma, yet you often hear that as the dominant message.”

The chief financier of the ad: Neutrogena

crossposted from unbossed

Last month I reported on court actions that were taking away our rights to protections from unsafe food, drugs, products, and medical care in a three-part series and one follow-up piece. The links are at the end of this piece, but if you want that background, feel free to be a bottom-reader. As I said in those pieces: This is huge.

Now Senator Patrick Leahy has taken action to address this miscarriage of justice / Bush Supreme Court power grab / payback to industry.

As you probably have noticed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reporting that 167 people in 17 states have been fallen sick with salmonella after eating raw tomatoes, and at least 23 have been hospitalized. But, days later, FDA still hasn't identified one specific source of the tainted produce.

With food contamination emergencies regularly making headlines, one would expect the agency's Office of Inspector General, the designated internal watchdog, to be knee deep in investigations, audits and inspections, per its stated mission. But, food and other public health issues have received little attention at HHS and another public health agency, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, both victims of a disease called "smaller government."

.
AND WHY DOESN'T ANYBODY KNOW?

SHIT HAPPENS. DID IT HAPPEN ON OUR TOMATOES?

The Real Question Is, How Can FOUR U.S. Gov't. Agcy's STILL Not Know, After Almost A Week? The Politics Of Food Safety:

CDC
Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases
Salmonellosis
"Salmonella live in the intestinal tracts of humans and other animals, including birds. Salmonella are usually transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces. "

We all know that big business and their lackeys in the Republican Administration don't give a shit about public health. These are the people who mass-marketed you tobacco, alcohol, sugar-water, fast food, polyunsaturated fats, and even baby food with no food in it at all, just chemicals. And babies were their business, their only business.

[more after the jump]
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How terribly sweet of them: FDA Scraps Helsinki Declaration on Protecting Human Subjects

Let me offer some basic background on research ethics:

Medical research is essential to modern life.  It uses a lot of animal models.  Animal use for research does not even remotely approach the numbers used for food & clothing—it’s but a tiny fraction of one percent compared to those numbers, and an even smaller fraction of one percent in terms of biomass, since much of the work entails the use of rodents, which are tiny compared to cows.  Despite the statistics and obvious usefulness of medical research, it is inordinately (and puzzlingly) singled out for charges of ethical misconduct and abuse.  In fact, animal use in research is much more highly regulated in terms of ethical responsibilities than in many industries.