We think: The plight of Florida's tomato growers shows the need...

It is difficult for me to feel are warm and fuzzy about "Government inspection" when I know for instance in pharmaceuticals, the FDA does NO testing of their own but merely reads reports of the maker's own alleged tests - which all too often omit damaging side effects and deaths. In meat packing plants, workers of the packing plant itself more often do the so called "inspection" of meat and stamp the carcasses with the Government stamp.[Hardly an independent inspection]. Vegetables and fruits get only a small fraction of imports even looked at as they pass through. It is all a big joke made to make consumers feel like something has been done to safeguard their health and welfare. Mexican imports? Probably the so called inspectors are Mexicans.

Well let's vote on it. I didn't stop eating tomatos when the outbreak happened. I wonder how many other people kept eatin em? I washed them a little more than I usually do and never got sick.

The growers & packers also need to take some blame in all of this. They have been fighting and successfully so, to keep label of origin out of our food distribution chains for many years. If one can't tell where something came from, then how can you trace anythinq? Maybe they may wake up now that it has hit them where it hurts.

The bigger issue to me is how quickly Americans panic or in this case mini panic because of stuff like this. The tiny fraction of the population this affected is so absolutly tiny and yet we flip out when the government jumps in the fray and declares a food unsafe to eat.

Hey America, THOUSANDS DIE IN 2008 IN CAR ACCIDENTS, HUNDREDS DIE FROM LIGHTNING...please refrain from driving your cars and stay indoors.

I think its a blend of govt, media fenzy, and American panzies.

There needs to be a massive new bureaucracy at the local, state and federal level to evaluate, research, control and regulate the tomato industry. We need vast hierarchies of government workers from Pensacola to Miami to deal with this!

Big Govt For Tomatoes wrote:

There needs to be a massive new bureaucracy at the local, state and federal level to evaluate, research, control and regulate the tomato industry. We need vast hierarchies of government workers from Pensacola to Miami to deal with this!

Here here! Great idea. I won't feel safe until billions of taxpayer dollars are spent to test tomatoes. Why stop there?

Maybe we should just have government feeding tubes installed in our houses so that only government approved, inspected food would be pumped in a nice pureyed, perfectly portioned meals. It would save us all time of shopping, cooking, cleaning up after meal time. Plus they could just shut off suspected terrorists food tubes and starve them.