Good Article on FDA Failure

"beobjective" over at Daily Kos has an excellent article on the tainted food from China and FDA's lack of response. He reminds us of the Bioterrorism Act passed after 9/11 and how it ws suppose to give increased authority and resources to the FDA to detect adulteration of the food supply -- but instead a Canadian pet food company responsibily gave the first alert.

The money quote:

The FDA has the authority to cut off food shipments and raw material shipments that could end up in food or medicine. After the story of diethylene glycol contamination in Panamanian medicine appeared, the FDA warned drug manufacturers to be especially cautious. Wow, now that's reassuring. Apparently the FDA could care less? I don’t think so. Someone (want to bet it’s a Republican?) has a vested interest in keeping the flow of food products and raw materials from China uninterrupted and public health interests are a secondary concern. The fact that clear cut regulatory action beyond simple monitoring hasn’t occurred is frightening and tells you that the administration, once again, is behaving as an arm of the Republican party not the US government. The health of its citizens are being sacrificed to the financial well being of someone.

USDA shut off imported beef for a couple years after BSE was found in a single cow in Canada -- what is going on with the FDA?