By: Eric Schlosser

                                                      Order the Fish

    This article written by Eric Schlosser a best selling author for Fast Food Nation. IT explains in great detail how the government has given the meat packing companies more control over food safety. During Ronald Regan's presidency the ability of inspectors to keep our food supply safe was dismantled. Richard Lyng removed almost half the meat inspectors from the plants. George Bush followed suit due to the huge influence of donations from the meat packing companies to the republican cause. Bill Clinton battled for reform but had to settle with the creation of HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). They would outline how potential risks would be addressed. The USDA then granted them limited authority to test for bacterial contamination. In 1997 a Jack in the Box located in the Pacific Northwest was found to have meat contaminated with EColi bacteria and 700 people were reported sick.

  Con Agra foods has a meat packing plant in Greeley, Colorado that everyday 200,000 cattle are turned into two million pounds of boxed beef and 800,000 pounds of trim is turned into ground beef. They have nearby feedlots with 200,000 cattle that produce more waste than Denver, Boston, Atlanta, and St. Louis combined. This plant was responsible for the largest meat recall in U.S. history. Out of 19 million pounds of tainted meat only 3 million pounds were returned. Barbara Kowalcyk had her two year old son die from EColi poison and has led many efforts to reform the U.S. meat packing industry standards for testing and what is ultimately considered  safe for us to eat.

   The largest of the meat packing and fast food companies have lobbied Washington and gotten laws passed which protect them from being sued and allows them to sue their critics. The Cheese Burger law stops obese people from suing and the Veggie Libel Laws can put people in jail for speaking out against them.


  This was a very informative article and had many things in it which I did not know. The laws against speaking out really worries me and makes me wonder  how much longer will retain the freedoms our forefathers fought so bravely to defend. I would not change anything about this article