The Right To Remain Ignorant


We interrupt our irregularly scheduled attack on the commander-in-capitulation to dump on the former governor of Alaska. This wasn't planned but prompted, as criticism of her usually is, by something ridiculous uttered by John McCain's former running mate.

On November 23, Sarah Palin appeared on Laura Ingraham's right-wing talk show and attacked former first lady Barbara Bush, who had the temerity to suggest that ex-governor Palin might wish to spend more time in her beloved Alaska. But she criticized also the current First Lady, Michelle Obama, remarking

Take her anti-obesity thing that she is on. She is on this kick, right. What she is telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat. And I know I'm going to be again criticized for bringing this up, but instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us according to some politician or politician's wife priorities, just leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country gets back on the right track.

On her website, "Let's Move," Mrs. Obama explains

Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. One third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives; many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma.

Although Obama cites a declining level of exercise among young people, she notes also

Portion sizes have also exploded. Food portions are two to five times bigger than they used to be. Beverage portions have grown as well. In the mid-1970s, average sweetened drink portions were 13.6 ounces. Today, kids think nothing of drinking 20 ounces of soda at a time.

In total, we are now eating 31 percent more calories than we were forty years ago–including 56 percent more fats and oils and 14 percent more sugars and sweeteners. The average American now eats fifteen more pounds of sugar a year than in 1970.

Arming parents with the information they need so they can make educated decisions about child-rearing is a far cry from "not trust(ing) parents to make decisions for their own children." But Palin also advised

instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us according to some politician or politician's wife priorities, just leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country gets back on the right track.

So what happens when industry and Republicans convince government to "leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country gets back on the right track?"

According to MakeOurFoodSafe.org, which describes itself as "a coalition of public health organizations, consumer organizations, and groups representing the families of victims of foodborne illness"

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made the assertion that about half of the food borne illness outbreaks in the U.S. in recent years have come from imported food products. According to an August 2009 report issued by USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS), U.S. food imports grew from $41 billion in 1998 to $78 billion in 2007.

The growth has come in consumer-ready foods, such as fruit and vegetables, seafood and processed food products. It has been estimated that as much as 85% of the seafood we now consume is imported, and depending on the time of the year, upwards of 60% of the fresh produce we consume is now imported....

In its most recent budget request to Congress, FDA stated that it will have completed a paltry 200 on-site inspections of foreign food establishments by the end of this fiscal year which ends on September 30. Furthermore, of the 9.5 million shipments of imported food items that will arrive at our ports-of-entry this fiscal year, FDA inspectors will physically examine only 1.53% of them.

Food & Water Watch released three reports in 2007 and 2008 that further shed light on how woeful the food import inspection program has been at the FDA. With laboratory data that we secured through Freedom of Information Act requests, we discovered that FDA conducted tests on only 0.59% of the 1.3 billion pounds of shrimp - the most popular seafood consumed in the U.S. -- that we imported in 2006 ; and one test for every one million pounds of all seafood imported in 2006. Much of our imported seafood comes from Asia where the aquaculture practices are generally unregulated and the seafood is often times contaminated with pesticides, illegal antibiotics and other food additives in addition to pathogens. For fresh produce, only 0.23% shipments of fresh produce imports received laboratory testing by the FDA between 2005 and 2007. FDA data show that imported fresh produce is three times more likely to be contaminated with food borne pathogens such as salmonella and shigella than domestic produce and four times as likely to have pesticide levels that exceed U.S. standards.

What happens when government doesn't "just leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions?" In July The Huffington Post reported

To date, roughly 400 samples of commonly consumed species caught mostly in open waters – and some from closed areas – have been chemically tested by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Officials say none so far has shown concerning levels of contaminants. Each sample represents multiple fish of the same species.

NOAA and the Food and Drug Administration began catching seafood species in the Gulf within days of the April 20 BP rig explosion off Louisiana that generated a massive oil spill.

The agency is mostly looking for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, the most common carcinogenic components of crude oil.

The first line of defense in keeping tainted seafood from the market is the closing of about one-third of federal Gulf waters to commercial fishing – roughly 80,000 square miles.

Seafood inspectors also have been trained to sniff out oily product. One fish sample has failed the smell test, but did not show concerning levels of contaminants, Kevin Griffis of the Commerce Department said Friday.


Contemplate this- seafood from the Gulf of Mexico, reeling from the BP oil spill, is, due in part to inspections and regulation, safer than fish imported from Asia, rarely subjected to inspection. NOAA concluded "shrimp, grouper, tuna and other seafood snatched from the fringes of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico are safe to eat."

While it is particularly disgusting when the threat comes from imported food, other imported products are largely free of inspection and adequate regulation. But fear not- at least government is not "on our back" interfering with "our God-given right" to remain ignorant.

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