more on food aid to Katrina victims being destroyed by FDA

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Robert Lee <robertslee () verizon net>
Date: September 21, 2005 9:44:59 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] food aid to Katrina victims being destroyed by FDA


FACTS:

This is terribly interesting in that the administration and its
incarnation of the USDA recently backed and Congress passed legislation
that makes it actually illegal for the USDA to inspect American meat,
produced and processed by American meat companies.  Under the new law
the meat producers have to inspect their own meat.   Why did no one
think of this in the previous two hundred years?

The proof of this is found in your supermarket.  Go there.  Pick up a
package of meat. Read the USDA label.  It used to say "USDA inspected",
followed by the USDA rating (prime, choice, etc.).  It now says eerily,
only, "This meat has been inspected."  There is no USDA rating because
there is no USDA inspection.  People over 50 and those younger who did
not go to public schools will recognize that the verb is in the passive
mood, with the object taking the role of the subject, rendering an
action with no agent.
It should say "The USDA has not inspected this meat."  Actually, it
should say, "WARNING: THE USDA HAS NOT INSPECTED THIS MEAT."

In Maryland the state legislators have passed a law making it a tort for
anyone to publish the identity and location of a poultry farm that has
had an outbreak of avian flu.  With a straight face the concerned
legislators state in news conferences that such knowledge would be bad
for that farm's business.  Crazily the current generation of frightened
reporters does not choke and gag and ask follow-up questions, and
citizens do not march on the capitol.

OPINION:

Yet, from the story below it appears the Bush administration has not
cemented its relationship with foreign meat producers.  Or, possibly,
the Bush administration has knowledge that while only 1,900 American
soldiers have died from trauma, many more have died from bad hummus and
meat.

Perhaps if we changed the election campaign contribution laws to allow
foreign meat producers to contribute to Republican politicians we could
get some action and these rations that are good enough for British
soldiers would find a home in New Orleans.

Where are the marches; where is the public outrage?  It is not only a
vile administration; it is a heroically incompetent one.  I truly
believe that Bush's obvious mandate stems from a quiet but pervasive sub
rosa hatred of Moslems, Arabs, brown-skinned Middle Easterners.  Real
journalists are stuck between a rock and a hard place.  They write
revealing articles, wait for a public reaction, get none, and then are
punished by the newsmakers.  I watched a Rumsfeld briefing the other day
in which he spent most of his time denigrating witheringly the questions
of reporters.  The reporters melted in fear.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 5:10 PM
To: Ip Ip
Subject: [IP] food aid to Katrina victims being destroyed by FDA



Begin forwarded message:

From: docx () io com
Date: September 20, 2005 4:52:06 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: food aid to Katrina victims being destroyed by FDA


For IP if you deem appropriate.  I can't come up with words to
express my
astonishment at this.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/
tm_objectid=16147117&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=exclusive--58--
up-in-flames-name_page.html

EXCLUSIVE: UP IN FLAMES
Tons of British aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be
BURNED  by
Americans


> From Ryan Parry, US Correspondent in New York

HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving
Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.

US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.

Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as
those  eaten
by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human
consumption.

And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for
incineration.

One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening
senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".

The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a
huge
warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had
already  left
to be distributed.

Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock,
Arkansas, to
dump it at an FDA incineration plant.

The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000
operational
ration packs had been shipped to the US.

But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which
impounded the
shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.

The aid worker, who would not be named, said: "This is the most
appalling  act
of sickening senselessness while people starve.

"The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned
as  unfit
for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved
rations
of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq.

"Under Nato, American soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations,
yet  the
starving of the American South will see them go up in smoke because
of  FDA
red tape madness."

The worker added: "There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock
soon -  of
burned food, of anger and of shame that the world's richest nation
couldn't
organise a p**s up in a brewery and lets Americans starve while  they
arrogantly observe petty regulations.

"Everyone is revolted by the chaotic shambles the US is making of this
crisis. Guys from Unicef are walking around spitting blood.

"This is utter madness. People have worked their socks off to get
food  into
the region.

"It is perfectly good Nato approved food of the type British
servicemen  have.
Yet the FDA are saying that because there is a meat content and it
has come
from Britain it must be destroyed.

"If they are trying to argue there is a BSE reason then that is
ludicrously out of date. There is more BSE in the States than there
ever  was
in Britain and UK meat has been safe for years."

The Ministry of Defence said: "We understand there was a glitch and
these
packs have been impounded by the US Department of Agriculture under
regulations relating to the import and export of meat.

"The situation is changing all the time and at our last meeting on
Friday  we
were told progress was being made in relation to the release of
these  packs.
The Americans certainly haven't indicated to us that there are any  more
problems and they haven't asked us to take them back."

Food from Spain and Italy is also being held because it fails to meet US
standards and has been judged unfit for human consumption.

And Israeli relief agencies are furious that thousands of gallons of
pear
juice are to be destroyed because it has been judged unfit.

The FDA said: "We did inspect some MREs (meals ready to eat) on
September  13.
They are the only MREs we looked at. There were 70 huge pallets of
vegetarian
MREs.

"They were from a foreign nation. We inspected them and then released
them
for distribution."




--
Dylan Northrup - docx () io com - http://www.io.com/~docx/
"Harder to work, harder to strive, hard to be glad to be alive, but it's
  really worth it if you give it a try." -- Cowboy Mouth, 'Easy'



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