Saturday, July 05, 2008

Why the recent outbreaks?

The FDA isn't checking farms and packing plants as regularly as they used to. The U.S. Department of Agriculture inspects every meatpacking plant in the country each day; in contrast, the FDA might inspect a vegetable packing facility just once a year. In 1972, the FDA inspected 50,000 farms and plants, by 2006, that number had dropped to only 10,000.