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...foul-up had its beginnings in mid-August. In the Budget Reconciliation Act, Congress charged the USDA with proposing changes in the school lunch regulations that would have reduced the cost of producing meals and partially offset the cuts in federal subsidies. A USDA task force had already been set up to address the question of "meal patterns," bureaucratese for guidelines that determine the permissible size and nutritional quality of lunches. In three weeks, the new USDA meal proposals were rushed through the agency, hastily given the green light by Stockman's Office of Management and Budget, and made...
...tissues taken from the rats could not confirm the study's conclusions. The reviewers found that some cell abnormalities had been mistaken for cancer and that some cancerous lesions were of a type that occurs spontaneously in rats and has no human equivalent. Thus, said the FDA and USDA, "there is no basis to initiate any action to remove nitrite from foods at this time...
...dietary horrors, Congress has been asking what the three government agencies responsible for monitoring food are doing. They've found some disturbing answers. The House Commerce Oversight Committee points out that "a distressingly large number" of chemicals known to leave meat residues simply aren't looked for by the USDA, probably because less than 1 per cent of USDA's total inspection budget is devoted to residue monitoring. In addition, the USDA uses a "wholly inadequate" data base to determine permissible levels of chemical residues. Called the Total Diet Study, the data consists of a mere 30 supposedly representitive grocery...
Even when a chemical does exceed one of the few limits set by the agency, Congress has found that the FDA "investigates few of the residue violations...and rarely prosecutes violators." Both the FDA and the USDA, the Congressional study adds, "almost never result in meat or poultry recalls." In fact, the highly-touted USDA "stamp of approval" has frequently been given to meat known to be illegally contaminated--but sold to consumers anyway...
Even if Congress is stirred into action, though, the Office of Technology Assessment notes that increased regulation by the FDA, USDA, and EPA "are not likely to prevent the deliberate or accidental misuse or disposal of the thousands of toxic substances manufactured in the U.S." The answer, then, is to create incentives within industry, and so to encourage industry to regulate itself. This answer has been proposed in a bill coming up in the House of Representatives. Sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-Cal.), H.R. 4973 imposes a minimum of two years in jail and a fine...