Fundamentally, the issue of antibiotic resistance isn’t about medicines or animals, but about the relationship between people and what we eat. These new disease risks point to ethical questions on industrial farming, the mass consumption of animals, and the workers at the heart of this enterprise. When basic health standards are ignored, everyone gets hurt.

There was a federal court hearing yesterday on the age restrictions of the morning-after pill. Judge Edward Korman heard arguments, and while he did not take action against the FDA, he did move the case forward. Korman said he was “willing to hear arguments over whether the agency should have allowed the sale of the morning-after pill to girls younger than 17 without a prescription.”

Addiction Incorporated, directed by Charles Evans, Jr., methodically and dramatically lays the groundwork for the smoking gun–a research paper by scientists Victor DeNoble and Paul Mele which explains the addictive nature of nicotine, a paper whose research was funded by Philip Morris, a paper which the company ordered withdrawn from publication in a prestigious journal after it was made clear by the company’s attorneys that the data contained therein could provide litigants with evidence in pending lawsuits.

There is no such thing as rogue agencies or significant agency policy changes that don’t have Obama’s direct or implicit approval. The executive branch works for the President. The buck stop with him. Whether you approve or disapprove of the decision federal agencies make, the ultimate blame or credit rest squarely with the President.

During the health care reform fight the women’s reproductive rights groups and legislators were basically sold out. President Obama decided to cut a deal with Bart Stupak’s Gang. He assumed that the pro-choice and women legislators in the House and pro-choice groups would just fall in line, and they did with very little fighting. Today’s decision to stop the OTC availability of Plan B morning after contraception is another example of what happens when you don’t extract a price.

Though the FDA supported it, the Department of Health and Human Services decided against allowing young teens access to the morning after pill in over-the-counter drugstores without a prescription. Though birth control is now available for free from doctors for anyone with health insurance, women under 17 facing an unplanned pregnancy will still have to consult a doctor before getting the morning after pill.

The Obama Administration continued its “we can’t wait” initiative by ordering earlier notification of potential shortages and/or price gouging for medical drugs. But shortages and exorbitant prices are the natural outcomes of allowing drug monopolies and extended patent protection.

The Obama Administration promised a formal response to on-line petitions that got enough signatures, and highly popular marijuana legalization petitions got more than enough. The White House response is dismissive and insulting to those who signed the petitions.

When Barack Obama ran for president he promised to respect the states’ medical marijuana laws. But since taking office Obama has been steadily using more and more parts of the federal government to wage a war on medical marijuana.

One of the policy items you hear the Administration tout as part of defending their record is the food safety bill. Food policy experts considered it flawed, but generally a step in the right direction, and the first overhaul of the nation’s food safety system in decades. There’s every reason for the White House to use that as part of their list of accomplishments.

There’s only one thing: as a result of the legislation, the FDA has more responsibility but does not have more money.