Issue #3 Safe to Eat?

The recent issue of the large health care reform has made many issues dealing with health, hot topics to discuss and find not just a partisan agreement on change but a bipartisan agreement. Such as the issue of the increasing number of people suffering from food poisoning from now not only meat, but fresh produce as well. One thing that people argue is that health comes at a price that people have to be willling to pay. There have been several reasons for the large increase of food borne illness in the past couple years. One of them is that Americans, in an act to try and eat more healthfully, are consuming a greater amount of fruits and vegetables. Unlike meat, fresh produce is usually eaten raw, where if it were cooked, the high heat usually will kill off harmful microorganisms. A lot of the produce goes through incredibly large scale processing and distribution factories, which means things can get overlooked easier, and if there is an outbreak, a larger number of people can be infected. The issue is over whether or not there should be new safety regulations installed for the nation's supply of fruit and vegetables.Meat and Poultry in the nation are highly regulated but produce has fallen beneath this standard.The recent common outbreaks of food borne ilness has caused some people to say that there should be one central agency responsible for ensuring the safety of the U.S. produce. They say more money should be put into the funding of the FDA so there can be more inspectors hired to monitor the many produce facilites, hopefully ensuring customers that their products are safe to buy and eat. However, other people are saying that the increase in funding for the FDA will spike the cost of producing fruits and vegetables, and that expense would be passed on to customers. Detractors say that the more expensive produce will push buyers away and reverse public health efforts to get Americans to try and eat more healthfully.

Personally, I think that increased funding to hire more people to regulate facility conditions would cause people to stop buying so much produce. The increase in cost to produce fruits and vegetables that would casuse the higher produce prices would stear people away from purchasing such a large amount of produce. I think one needs to look at the large picture, at least Americans are headed in the right way when trying to eat more healthfully  by buying more produce. However, people in these tough economic times, don't have the extra money to spend on higher priced produce. I think it would be much more beneficial for the regulations to stay the same and the people who are buying the produce can do the work to make them clean and safe to eat, the safety should be in the individuals hands. If they are too lazy to take proper precautions, if they get a food borne illness it is their own fault. Making safety regulations higher for produce would not be a good thing, it shouldn't happen it would only cause a downfall in the econonmy of produce and the already poor health of most Americans.Just like Grist said in an article talking about the positives and negatives of a raise in regulations. He also agreed that the raise would hurt the economy, especially small farms. The regulatory power would eventually wipe out small farms.
 http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-11-02-wanted-your-informed-opinions-on-the-food-safety-reform

To view issue number 1 view my classmate's blog at:
http://rachelrachrachel.blogspot.com/2010/11/issue-1-comprehensive-vs-incremental.html

To view issue number 2 view my classmate's blog at:
http://daniellescurrenteventblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/issue-2-ensuring-quality-care-for.html