Our Food Supply

I am very, very concerned about our food supply. Over the last couple of years, we've found out that not only are American bees dying in an alarming plague, but that they're also being killed off by African killer bees, which are a serious threat to the human population as well. And without bees polinating our crops, there will be NO more crops.

As I wrote in March of last year, the FDA is criminally negligent in it's governance of the American food supply. As I said then, the FDA is "...only able to inspect 2% of all imported fresh seafood. They are not even able to enforce restrictions on the cattle feed supply, which can cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) in cattle which is easily passed on to humans (that's right; our beef is STILL not safe). Their attempt at preventative inspections for cattle with BSE is criminally negligent. And Consumer Reports Agency researchers ruffled feathers in January 2004 when they reported in Environmental Health Perspectives that young chickens contain three to four times more arsenic than other poultry and meat."

Nothing has changed: Our meat supply is still threatened.

Now we have just found out that "The deadly fish virus, viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS previously found in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario was detected in the Lake Winnebago chain of lakes, the first such infection confirmed in inland Wisconsin waters, according to media reports Sunday."* To sum it up: This virus is fish Ebola.

And, of course, there is the bird flu.

This brings me to another question: Since diseases are known to adapt and jump to other species, and the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) think that it's only a matter of time for the bird flu to adapt to humans, what might happen with this new fish Ebola?

In July of 2005, Consumer Reports issued a warning (that they haven't rescinded) about deer and elk meat:

"Chronic wasting disease (CWD), an animal disorder similar to mad cow disease, is spreading in deer and elk populations across North America, particularly in the Rocky Mountain states and Wisconsin. Unlike the experience with infected cows, there is as yet no direct evidence that eating the meat of deer or elk with CWD actually causes disease in people. Still, test-tube experiments with prions have shown that human infection is theoretically possible. And researchers are investigating the deaths of several people who hunted or regularly ate venison and subsequently succumbed to brain-wasting disease. Should consumers avoid eating deer and elk meat? Until more is known, the answer to that question depends on your personal risk tolerance."

I hate to sound the trumpet of doom early on a Monday morning, but these are valid questions I'm raising and I'm not happy with the possibilities. Just because nothing has happened YET doesn't mean that it won't.

We Americans tend to live very placidly. We have had so many long years of peace an prosperity that even the attacks on 9/11/01 have not affected our complacency. This is evident in so many matters: We don't save money, we don't vote in elections, we keep living as if there is a lifetime of ease ahead of us. What will we do when (not if) we're faced with disaster? I am worried for us, for our children, and for our country.

We cannot even stop eating beef, when we know that it's potentially lethal! I go to restaurants and see overweight Americans everywhere, gorging on steaks, hamburgers, and pot roast. I want to stand up and scream "Don't you know you're playing Russian roulette?!" But too many people disregard this, in the mistaken belief that the government has it covered.

The reality is that the government lost control of this a long time ago. And it's just a matter of time before the American public is taught this in a very terrible way.

* You can read more about it here.