Contributing Writers
Dr. Richard Raymond
Articles Written by Dr. Richard Raymond
Subscribe to this author via RSSCan We Talk Turkey?
Opinion
On April 24, 2013, Mother Jones ran a story entitled “USDA Ruffles Feathers With New Poultry Inspection Policy,” by Tom Philpott. Like so many posts that I read about on the new proposed poultry inspection system, it is loaded with innuendos, inflammatory comments and is often just plain wrong. But to lay the ground work… Continue Reading
The Cull Cow Quandry
Opinion
Some of the most disgusting images of modern agriculture being presented to the American public are those of old cull cows being inhumanely treated and mishandled by workers in the slaughter house pens. The Humane Society of the United States, PETA and other organizations that want us to stop slaughtering animals for human consumption keep… Continue Reading
Antibiotics and Animals Raised for Food: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
Opinion
From what I have been reading lately, it appears to me that the next big fight over agriculture’s ability to provide consumers with plentiful, safe and affordable meat and poultry products will focus on the use of antibiotics in animals raised for food. And it also appears to me that the information being provided through… Continue Reading
Central Valley Meat Company: USDA Did its Job, OK?
Opinion
On August 19, 2012, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) ordered its inspection staff at Central Valley Meat (CVM) to go home. Because the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) of 1906 requires inspection by USDA to be continuous during slaughter of cattle, this USDA action essentially shuttered the plant for the time being. This action… Continue Reading
Is AMI’s Hodges Slinging Mud in the Name of Science?
This commentary was contributed jointly by John Munsell and Dr. Richard Raymond. Last week, James H. Hodges, Executive Vice-President at the American Meat Institute (AMI), ostensibly penned an opinion piece for Food Safety News titled “Wrestling With the Science of STEC”. You can read it here. But in case you are not inclined to go… Continue Reading
A Budget Neutral, Better Way to Boost Food Safety
Food Safety News, citing the Hagstrom Report newsletter, said on Jan. 14 that the Obama Administration may be considering a plan to merge the functions of food safety as currently performed at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration (FDA)… Continue Reading
Single Food Agency a Recipe for Singular Disaster?
Food Safety News Editor Dan Flynn reported on Jan. 14, 2012 that if Congress gives the Obama Administration the authority to consolidate six agencies that deal with international trade into one agency, bringing together the two major food safety agencies into one would follow. This possible move is not totally unexpected from this Administration, nor… Continue Reading
Simon Says
Michele Simon is turning into a pretty regular contributor to Food Safety News. In recent weeks she has had two opinion pieces on the evil McDonald’s empire that is preying on kids by offering toys in their Happy Meals, and another piece on the cereal industry’s awful attempt to get kids to eat their… Continue Reading
Changing Public Health’s Approach to Non-O157 STECs
September 13, 2011, will go down in the history of food safety as a very significant day. It will be remembered by many as the day that Secretary Tom Vilsack of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that the USDA and its Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) moved forward with the rule-making process… Continue Reading
There Ought to Be a Milk Law
To protect kids from their parents
Opinion
America is seeing more and more outbreaks and illnesses from people drinking raw, unpasteurized milk. This phenomena has been on the rise over the last 15 years or so. This documented increase is most likely because of PulseNet, the relatively new Centers for Disease Control (CDC) tool, introduced in 1996, that now allows us to… Continue Reading
How Many Killer Bacteria Does it Take?
How Many Killer Bacteria Does it Take to Adulterate the Meat I Eat? That question seems to have been put out there for public debate in quotes attributed to Betsy Booren of the American Meat Institute (AMI) Foundation in a recent USA Today story by Elizabeth Weise that can be read here. The story… Continue Reading