We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Privatized Meat Inspection Experiment Jeopardizes Food Safety

Click here to access article by Anna Ghosh from Food & Water Watch.

Austerity explanations are used to transfer government assets and agency roles into private ones for the obvious benefit of the ruling One Percent. This article illustrates this trend with the current Department of Agriculture's experiment with private inspection of the meat and poultry you eat. Yes, that's right, we should turn over meat and poultry inspection to unaccountable profit oriented companies because government must cut costs.
In the name of budget-cutting, more defective and unsanitary poultry contaminated with feathers, bile and feces could make its way to consumers if the USDA’s controversial pilot project for privatized inspection in poultry slaughter plants is expanded.