Marler Blog - Despite being on Colbert the AMI opposes making non-O157:H7 STECS adulterants - Comments http://www.marlerblog.com/ Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : Bill Marler : Marler Clark en Copyright 2012 Wed, 16 May 2012 04:22:26 -0800 Wed, 16 May 2012 04:22:26 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sam "If we trust science..." Therein lies the root of the issue.

As America becomes more ignorant, and less educated, science is increasingly viewed with hostility. As long as people like Sarah Palin and Glen Beck make it cool to be stupid, and uncool to be informed, science will take a back seat to greed and emotion.

]]> http://www.marlerblog.com/lawyer-oped/despite-being-on-colbert-the-ami-opposes-making-non-o157h7-stecs-adulterants/#9865 http://www.marlerblog.com/lawyer-oped/despite-being-on-colbert-the-ami-opposes-making-non-o157h7-stecs-adulterants/#9865 Lawyer Op-Ed Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:31:16 -0800 bmarler@marlerclark.com (Bill Marler) doc raymond Bill, I am on your side on this as you know. And many within the Agency (FSIS) are beginning to also lean in your direction. The AMI list of 8 things that must be done before protecting American lives is laughable at best. Like we need to determine if our trading partners would like this or not? Come on. We made the decision to start testing trim coming into this country during my tenure, New Zealand did not like it, but we found contaminated trim and recalled it. And AMI's call for more testing, research, public hearings and rule making would effectively delay implementation of calling non-0157 STECs as adulterants by at least ten years, and by then J Pat will be retired and soaking up the Sun somewhere saying I prevented this from happening under my watch.
When 0157 was declared an adulterant, we did not have testing available to get results back in 8 hours. That evolved and so can testing for these pathogens. We just need someone at FSIS (like and Undersecretary) to push ARS to prioritize the research like we did for Bird Flu and Melamine.

]]> http://www.marlerblog.com/lawyer-oped/despite-being-on-colbert-the-ami-opposes-making-non-o157h7-stecs-adulterants/#9869 http://www.marlerblog.com/lawyer-oped/despite-being-on-colbert-the-ami-opposes-making-non-o157h7-stecs-adulterants/#9869 Lawyer Op-Ed Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:31:16 -0800 bmarler@marlerclark.com (Bill Marler) JM Increased monitoring is only one aspect of a viable solution. The root causes as well as potential preventative measures (ie. kill steps such as phage, high pressure pasteurization, irradiation, etc.) need to be examined by a cooperative contingent representing industry, academia, and regulatory. The key word being "cooperative". As long as individuals insist on making these issues political, the solutions will evade us and more people will be injured.

The comment by Sam is a good example of what is wrong with this country. The left-right paradigm is one that needs to be retired in exchange for a more enlightened view. IF synergy can prevail, we just may have a chance at improving this situation.

]]> http://www.marlerblog.com/lawyer-oped/despite-being-on-colbert-the-ami-opposes-making-non-o157h7-stecs-adulterants/#9890 http://www.marlerblog.com/lawyer-oped/despite-being-on-colbert-the-ami-opposes-making-non-o157h7-stecs-adulterants/#9890 Lawyer Op-Ed Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:31:16 -0800 bmarler@marlerclark.com (Bill Marler)