James Andrews recently had a very well-written piece on Food Safety News covering the press conference held by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CFL) regarding the Pew Commission report written five years ago. It was well-written and well-researched, but that does not mean I agree with all
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Dr. Richard Raymond
Dr. Richard Raymond is the former Undersecretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2005-2008. He now works as a food safety and public health consultant. He is an editor for two food safety blogs, Meatingplace.com and Feedstuffs Foodlink. He graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical School with distinction and had longtime family practices in Nebraska, where he also served as that state's Chief Medical Officer.
Can We Talk Turkey?
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…
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The Cull Cow Quandry
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…
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Antibiotics and Animals Raised for Food: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
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…
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Central Valley Meat Company: USDA Did its Job, OK?
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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…
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