Democrats calling for change in food safety

It's refreshing to hear a voice of reason on such a critical issue Congresswoman DeGette may finally be helping Congress turn the corner on food safety. The current system has been cracking for a long time courtesy of the GOP "let industry self regulate" programs. Even the USDA and FDA are unable to make food recalls and instead, rely on the violators themselves to do this. Amazing, isn't it? To compound the problem, the Bush administration has equipped those federal agencies with industry people who are more interested in letting business do as they please rather than think of consumers. Budgets have been slashed, regulation has disappeared and the problem gets worse every year despite big talk by industry and their friends in the GOP.

DeGette's call for federal mandatory recall authority is the right thing to do for painfully obvious reasons. While I don't see the current administration showing any interest in taking action even if they did have the authority, we are only months away from a new administration that hopefully will care about consumers. The Big Food execs will continue to tell everyone that they are in control but history tells us something different. Providing regulation authority is a great first step.