Red, Raw and Contaminated? Posted by Daniela at 06/16/08 01:37 PM

I have a soft spot for tomatoes. I spent a long day in the fields of Immokalee, Florida, picking tomatoes as part of a college learning seminar on migrant farmworkers. Twisting tomatoes off the vine and casting them into buckets where they were thrown into a large collector truck, I realized the enormous value in labor and—hopefully—taste. Now some of us are uneasy about eating tomatoes, after certain types were linked to a salmonella outbreak infecting 228 people from 23 states, with at least 25 hospitalized since mid-April.

FDA officials said they still aren’t sure of the source of these suspect tomatoes, leaving us feeling like we can’t eat any tomatoes, anywhere.

If the FDA oversees 25 cents per every dollar we spend annually, we should have the ease of knowing these items are safe and that we won’t die because of them.

Two days after the tomato recall, the FDA requested an additional $275 million from Congress to help improve food safety. Representative Bart Stupak called the funding “a step in the right direction.” Dr. Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics called this amount “a pittance.” Yet this request came months after the recommendation by advisors, lawmakers, and groups like Consumers Union who argue the FDA needs new authority and greater resources to better ensure the safety of our food and drug supply. And unfortunately, we may have to wait until 2009 to see the effects of boosted FDA funding.

“The grave problem with [delayed payment] is that the FDA has become a joke,” said Senator Arlen Specter, as reported by the Health Blog.

Let’s ensure that the attack of the killer tomatoes remains just a cheesy 1970’s horror film. Mealtime should be delicious, not a game of chance.

comments (2)

1 Posted by amy zamarripa at 06/17/08 11:18 AM

amen sista!

2 Posted by Deena at 06/24/08 03:45 PM

Hopefully, these are going to be things of the past soon!