I bought a jar of peanut butter yesterday. Meanwhile, one of our high-end chains has pulled all peanut products off their shelves. What’s a chunky nut to do?

WTF?!?!?

Just occurred to me that the next time I fly, I’ll probably have to put all my peanuts in a little plastic bin. Does the FDA make us safer? Sometimes, long after the fact.

What part of that seemed like a good idea when that regulation was written?

The part where the regulations were written by the industries being regulated. Because the Bush administration did that All The Time. Can’t have regulations that would be burdensome to business now, can we?

Go to a natural foods store and use the machine that makes butter out of peanuts. Hmmmmm, hmmmmmm, good. It ain’t chunky but it’s 100% peanuts.

From the article:

“They can’t even get a press release out on this stuff without industry approval. It’s just unbelievable.”

In what world is this right? When was this rule/law written? By whom?

i’m sure everyone will be glad to know that congress is on the job. hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.

Yummmm. I forgot this option. Thanks.

And btw, my point earlier is that, as is our way in this strange and wonderful country, we now will focus solely on peanuts while ignoring what the peanut story tells us about food safety, about alerting the public in a timely fashion, etc.

Christy

You have to understand the conflict between private profit and the public welfare infects everything. This is only the latest of a series of serious damage done to people in the name of profit starting with the asbestos industry, then the dalkon shield, various pharmas concealing info that their products aren’t as good as they claim. The foolish regulation which requires the federal government to get permission is simply another example of private property covering its ass.

And can’t Obama overturn that nonsense with a Presidential Order? What’s the peanut company gonna do, sue the Government?

Even more nuts: the same company opened a Texas peanut processing plant that operated for two years without any federal agency knowledge and no inspections!!!

The vending people *finally* pulled the peanut butter & crackers out of our machines. They had been there for weeks since the announcement. I guess there’s no real regulation for that either.

Don’t our taxes fund the government agencies to protect us? Or, am I just dreaming?
The New York Times article seems like very shallow reporting to me. Reporting a problem, such as the FDA needing approval from the company before a recall or press release can happen, without investigating and reporting on the why seems Pretty Nuts.
Who, What, Where, When WHY…

Agency rules are easy to manipulate. Rules are the things an agency writes up in order to execute the laws passed by Congress. If an administration “friendly” to business comes into power, the first thing it does is change an agency’s rules to cut the most slack possible for business, while staying within the letter of the statutes governing the agency.

Should come as no surprise that rules constructed under the Bush administration will have many such giveaways to business at the expense of the public.

As just one example, take a look at the mining industry in terms of the highly ‘relaxed’ environmental and labor-safety rules that ‘govern’ the agency and industry. These rule changes led directly to expanded mountain-top removal (and dumping waste into streams) on one hand and lax safety inspections for mines and associated mine failures and mine disasters.

Did anyone expect anything different from a Bush administration?

If it wasn’t recalled, they didn’t have to pull it. Our vending company pulled all peanut butter snacks last week, whether they had been recalled, or not. At that point, it’s all voluntary by the vending company.

Lots of comments here assuming this rule was put in place during the Bush administration. Not a bad assumption, but I think we really need to confirm that.

What I don’t understand (among most things happening in our country lately) is why total responsibility seems to be leveled at the dangerously incompetent source of the peanuts. Do not the peanut product manufacturers have responsibility to test their primary ingredient? And now what’s happening to the manufacturers who do, who don’t buy from PCA and are taking a huge hit from this. Locally, Pearson candy manufacturer (think Nut Goodies and Salted Nut Rolls) are scrambling to retain their customers in what is already an iffy economic environment. They don’t buy from PCA, or so they tell us. See? Everyone is now suspect.

Since 9/11:
Americans killed in US by terists – 0

Americans killed in US by unsafe food/drugs – 100’s. 1,000s sickened.

All the money (that hasn’t been given to failing banks) has gone to a rediculous teraist infrastructure (most we can’t even have an accounting for).

Had thought I’d read that all commercial peanut butter products had been recalled. Not the case?

Don’t our taxes fund the government agencies to protect us? Or, am I just dreaming?

it’s self regulation. just like at the sec and every other gov agency.

anthrax?

but your overall point is imo quite right. tens of thousands of americans dead from lack of health care, pollution, etc.

This makes perfect sense in the Evil Parallel Bushiverse. If St. John had been elected by 2012 we’d have all been buying out of “company stores” and they’d have brought back Debtor’s Prisons as well, most likely with the Bi-Partisan support of Joe “MBNA” Biden.

Next time you eat food you don’t grow (and that’s most of us), think about all the corners cut to bring it to your table, and how many palms were greased to get it there.

Business: We get to poison you until you prove beyond a shadow of doubt that we are poisoning you.

The vending companies are usually very small independent operations. Buy a machine, get permission to locate it someplace, Keep it filled and collect money. Some states have registration or licensing laws.

Just checked the official FDA list, and the crackers that were in our machine (Austin Quality) had definitely been recalled.

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/…..at=Cracker

good point. any suggestions of where to find the rules?

“Atlanta Constitution” cites failure of state of Georgia to do oversight, and notes that the failures of PCA were recurring.

oh lord, just when i think the news is as bad as i can stand, it gets worse.

the fda needs permission! i have some nice peanut butter as a gift for the people who implemented that!

one of my most important priorities is that we have an fda with sharp teeth and claws.

the environment used to be my highest priority, but a few things have interceded in the meantime, like media conglomeration that creates a lack of people-friendly news; like our food supply getting increasingly unsafe; like wars in afghanistan and iraq and supporting the israelis in their war on the people of gaza and the west bank; like our cratering economy.

some of my deepest prayers are for us to have rulers in this world who are ruling for the good of the people.

Short of the privatization of Social Security, Cheney/Bush got just about everything they wanted, beginning with an unnecessary war and cross-the-board deregulation of everything from food and drugs to the environment and banking. Why should we be surprised about this latest fiasco? It’s part and parcel of the broader pattern.

The goal was a return to the pre-Roosevelt Gilded Age–the pre-TR Gilded Age, that is–and they damn well got it.

Now we’ve got it.

Worse, our little friends in the Senate seem determined to plunge the country into a Depression.

RE Deadly Dick (Cheney) in The Politico today: Well, you know, people like me, liberal Democrats who knew perfectly well that the 2000 election had been stolen, nevertheless rallied behind the country and the President in the wake of 9/11.

But these bastards haven’t the least intention of rallying behind President and Nation in the wake of what is fundamentally a far, far greater potential disaster.

They twiddle and diddle while the country and the economy burn. Shame on them. Shame on them.

Not that I know of. The FDA site has a list of all of the current recalls, and there are foods I have thrown out that are not on that list.

Sounds as dangerous as folks who self medicate. I’m not always successful at self modding either.
Regulation should be from the outside, no? Or, what’s the point. Sort of like why we have friends and family to help keep us in line. Me and the mirror just ain’t gonna cut it. I’m not honest enough.

Ooops, forgot that. Anthrax – killed 3? Sickend – ??

It was terror, but was it foreign terror?

BushCo effectively dismantled government that corporate buddies didn’t like–damn the little people problems resultant, full speed ahead.

That went along with corporate givaway and corruption on a scale never seen before. Yet they still say: “Loot Country First!”

Atlanta newspaper article today speaks of ongoing filth in the PCA plant. As in rats, roaches, baby mice.

That’s a perfect sound bite for an ad.

“Don’t our taxes fund the government agencies to protect us?”
Don’t our taxes fund the government agencies – yes they do.
protect us? No.

btw, hearing on madoff ponzi scheme is just starting. markopolous to testify.

Had thought I’d read that all commercial peanut butter products had been recalled. Not the case?

PCA supplied peanuts to food companies that made other products with them, so most, if not all, products with a peanut component are subject to the recall. The main name-brand peanut butter folks appear to have their own dedicated supplies of peanuts and are not affected.

The full list of recalled products is here.

Don’t forget about the test lab shopping.

Thanks…had just Googled it as well. Austin Quality products was indeed on the list. If anyone had eaten them in the weeks since the recall, and had gotten sick, I guess the vending machine people wouldn’t have been to blame. Oh no. ;)

:-) Ice cream!!

Not such a surprise when one of the company CEO’s sits on the FDA. Typical over the past 8 years – those that live by the rules get to make their own rules.

they are expanding the recall to include 50,000 plus meals sent to the troops!

http://www.fightingliberals.co…..roops.html

hearing starting on CSPAN 3

That list is really long, and I noticed some of the low price stores are there, like Pay Less, Food For Less, Pic’n Save or Big Lots as it’s know here. Do you suppose that very many of the poorest folks who shop those stores have seen that list?
What a shame.

chocolate mint chip

Economists have been writing about the capture theory of regulation (regulated industries capture regulators) since Stigler identified it in the 1960s. It’s a perpetual problem that gets better and worse, depending on the goodwill of the govt enforcers toward voters, vs. the amount of money the regulated contribute to the campaign.

Officials at the FDA have stated: “Our client is not the public, it is the manufacturer.”
This is what happens when corporations dictate government policy. When Monsanto plants its own executives in the FDA to approve its carcinogenic neurotoxin products for human consumption, for example Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone and Aspartame.
By the way, it was the Clintons, on behalf of Monsanto etc. who ramrodded RBGH and Aspartame into consumer prodccts.

Amount of goodwill vs amount of money. Yes, that theory sounds like a reasonable answer, considering human nature. I better self-mod or I might say something mean and ugly.

Nothing unique about regulation in that regard. It’s the way the whole U.S. democracy works.

A shame, indeed. Although responsible stores are pulling those items, there’s no guarantee they all will be pulled. Also, as you point out, many poor probably won’t have the time or computer connection to get this information. Because many of the items recalled have significant shelf lives, I suspect we will be seeing more people coming down with Salmonella for several more months.

Gosh durned corpo rat terrrrrists…

This is part of the lobbyist problem. It needs to be tied to the upcoming health care reform debate to show the “benefit” of allowing all of special interests to capture the debate.

If you have a food processor, get some nuts, a little oil and you can make your own.

The recalls are just dribbling out 15-20 a day when they have known from the beginning it was a problem.

Will their sternly worded letter need corporate approval?

Excellent! My favorite is butter pecan. Close enough!

It’s interesting that according to the AJC article, federal officials had to use anti-terrorism laws to get the records from the PCA that showed they were “shopping” test results on tainted food until a lab said “No Problem” to foodstuffs they knew were salmonella-ridden.

Does anyone here remember the art of Sister Corita?
I was thinking of the poster she made in the 60’s, Damn Everything But The Circus just the other day and thinking that again this morning.
Here’s a link to a website about her and her activism:
http://www.corita.org/coritadb…..8;Itemid=6

Oh man, just noticed that one of my favorite teevee dinners (Ethnic Gourmet) is on the list for their Pad Thai.

And further, I don’t believe it’s unique to US Democracy either. :(

They may not have known that there was salmonella present. They could have had inadequate or improperly calibrated equipment. The labs involved should be certified.

Heh. Testifier on Madoff just referred to capture theory.

Not familiar enough with other countries to comment intelligently, but I think some countries have kinds of elections that makes campaign fundraising less important.

Welcome America to Your Sizzlin’ Larry Summers Shitburger
Jane’s up

You’re in touch with the universe today. *g*

The problem is not that there were labs that knew they were approving products with salmonella. As I ubderstand it, PCA sent a sample from a batch to one lab. That lab found salmonella in that particular sample. Then, PCA sent a different sample from the same batch to a different lab. That particular sample (from the same batch as the first sample that was positive) tested negative. PCA then distributed the product. The bacteria is not present throughout the batch, only in concentrated areas.

The FDA/USDA’s policy of benign neglect regulation has been a series of spectacular failures from the spinach –tomatoes and now peanuts with a bunch of other stuff in between. Not a single lesson learned. And by the way the regulations put in place post spinach have been a pain in the neck for small farmers trying to use better ag practices.

I believe it was Darth Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld who pushed Monsanto, RBGH and Aspartame on US, not Billy-Boy..

Officials at the FDA have stated: “Our client is not the public, it is the manufacturer.”

Gah!!! Same as BushCo.

One of them took over FDA and within a couple of weeeks(?) Aspartame was approved over huge protest by legit people..

I know! that just pissed me off too. What is wrong with those people???

If you want to see people who protect the public’s interest get on the mailing list (and support if you can) the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Obama should just turn over the Ag dept to them.

This is so Pro-business. Trickle down works(from the leaky john, one floor up)

When Bush was doing all of his dirty work to limit liability and curtail the public’s access to the courts, many predicted then that we would see a decline in our food and drug safety as a result – that there were corporations out there who wouldn’t think twice about poisoning people if they didn’t have to worry about lawsuits. Now it’s coming to fruition, and I don’t believe for a nanosecond that this will be the last of these cases.

The article seemed to imply that they had “shopped” the labs to get a negative result. Your explanation seems to make sense, but why were they shipping anything with a positive result at all? Oh, yeah the FDA protects us all from evil companies. Not!

Donald Rumsfeld–heading Searle, at the time–knew which levers to pull to get aspartame approved. To see the benefits of this wonderful additive, visit: http://www.mpwhi.com/ –it’ll make you think twice before gulping another Diet Coke. As for RBGH . . . I believe it entered the marketplace AFTER rDNA insulin, which gained FDA approval in a mere 6 months, despite being the 1st ever biotech drug–thus, no guidelines to direct approval issues. The year: 1982. Here’s another case of industry-friendly approval, followed by industry support as Eli Lilly withdrew ALL natural (animal) insulins, leaving insulin-dependent diabetics ONLY rDNA genetically-engineered insulin as a lifeline. Still waiting for comparative studies . . . or even the completion of Phase IV studies required (back in 1982), but FDA is obviously in no rush.

Buy peanuts, put them in a blender.
Press button. Voila, peanut butter.

Forgive the pun but that’s just plain NUTS.

On a different topic. Firedoglake had Jim Holbert as their guest this past weekend. Mr. Holbert is running to unseat Republican Hal Rogers in Kentucky’s 5th Congressional District. I participated in the discussion and I corresponded with Mr. Holbert after the discussion. During my correspondence with Mr. Holbert I told him that I was impressed with his answer about prosecuting Bush war criminals. I told him that I’d be glad to help his campaign in any way that I could but that I couldn’t make a donation at this time because I was unemployed. Today I get the mail and I have a letter from Mr. Holbert. Enclosed with the letter was a check for $20 to help me put gas in the car for my job search. I’ve never had a politician give ME money before, it’s always been the other way around so I felt that I should share this with you guys. I hope Firedoglake will invite Mr. Holbert to talk with us again in the future so that all of us can ask questions and possibly donate to his campaign.

I just noticed that the title of this piece is called “This is Nuts”. Sorry to steal your pun Christy.

Of course, eCAHN, as you no doubt recall, Stigler’s solution was to have no regulation at all, on the grounds that that would make it impossible for private firms to ‘capture’ the regulators — sort of like Alan Greenspan’s approach to the financial sector. One of those things that ’seemed like a good idea at the time.’

Chicago economics turns first and third-class minds into second-class minds.

I wondered whether it was a reg or a statute: according to the website of Center for Science in the Public Interest, it is the Food and Drug Act itself:

Recalls. Today recalls of contaminated food are voluntary. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act does not give the FDA the power to order a producer to recall a food product, with the exception of infant formula. If a firm does not recall a product, the FDA can go to court to seek an injunction or seizure of the product. But these legal actions waste precious time, and if a food company or importer fails to recall a contaminated product, it can continue to reach consumers. Mandatory recall authority would ensure that recalled foods are removed from the market more quickly and effectively.

Oops, forgot to put the link to that quotation from CSPI: scroll down pretty far to find it, under “Responses.”

http://www.cspinet.org/foodsafety/captions.html

And, yes, it is pretty amazing. Maybe there’s hope of changing it now.
For all our complaints and worries about Obama, he has made some 360 degree changes in his first two weeks. I’m still cautiously optimistic…

Where’s “Get Your FDA ON!” when we need it!???

Back in 2002 I heard a former FDA inspector on the radio explain how regulation and deregulation affect the meat slaughterhouses. He said when they had inspectors, the holding pens and the ramrod conveyors were inspected and hosed down to remove fecal matter; deregulation in the 1980s reduced the hosing to the slaughter house fecal matter only; after further deregulation in 2001, they let the consumer lick it off.