What can we eat?

We are once again facing a major recall of food. This time the Westland/Hallmark Company of Chino, California has been sited for improper treatment of cattle at that plant. 173 million pounds of beef are question. What concerns me is that it took the Humane Society to make this discovery. When according an FDA spokesman, there are government inspectors on site.

So what where the inspectors doing when these violations occurred? Additionally why did it take over a month for the recall to be announced? This is the latest in a long line of recalls from spinach to peanut butter. If you check the FDA website you will see that there have been over thirty recalls issued this year alone.

If we don’t do a better job of protecting our food supply then we all might be at risk from some type of food borne epidemic. This epidemic could have devastating consequences on our population in general and our children in particular.

I have personally endured one major health scare with my daughter. She had to undergo a bone marrow transplant a few years ago. When we asked what caused her to develop aplastic anemia the doctors said the cause was idiopathic. In layman’s terms that means they had no idea what caused it. We also have an autistic son and the causes for autism are still unknown.

I can’t say conclusively that my children’s condition where caused by some type of contaminated food. But this can not be ruled out a cause either. We must protect the safety of citizens and restore confidence in our food supply before a national disaster of biblical proportion befalls our country.