Barry Estabrook wrote for OnEarth and Reader’s Digest Magazines: The Dangers in Our Food Supply Are Worse Than You Think
As Barry correctly points out – Foodborne illnesses are escalating in the United States, and it’s not because of a few unwashed spinach leaves. Foul conditions, lax regulations, and too few inspectors are threatening our safety.
But, what got my 86-year-old mom’s attention was this:
If there is an enforcement arm for food safety in the United States, it’s trial lawyers like Marler, an intense workaholic who estimates that his firm, Marler Clark, has won more than $600 million for clients since he filed his first lawsuits in the early 1990s. As he sees it, the FDA is being slowly starved of the resources and manpower required to fulfill its mandate. In the 1970s, the agency conducted 35,000 inspections of food-processing plants each year. Today, it inspects fewer than 8,000, although the number of facilities under its jurisdiction has skyrocketed.
Well, it is Sunday – off to work.