The FDA, EPA, USDA and Outbreaks

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I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays, I certainly did. Last month I shared a report that the FDA
would be charged with regulating farm manufacturing in an attempt to prevent large scale, deadly
outbreaks of foodborne illness. In the regulation's language, they talk about workers washing
hands, and monitoring irrigation water for harmful bacteria. The monitoring irrigation water, got
It works like this: Industries, hospitals and households send their waste to municipal wastewater
treatment plants. The treatment plants remove as many contaminates and solids as possible from
the sewage. The leftover solids are sludge or bio­solids. These bio­solids are used as fertilizers.
Bio­solids come in two classes, A & B. The regulatory difference between the two are: A has less
fecal coliform than B. Class B may only be applied to land where crops fed to animals are grown.
Class A can be used everywhere including home gardens. So, when an E­coli or Salmonella
outbreak occurs, I assume a quality control breakdown in the fertilizer. We're not talking about a
zero tolerance of fecal coliform, we're talking about government approved levels.

The EPA has had regulatory authority since the Clean Water Act, initiated in 1972. The act, no
doubt led to sewage sludge control. Monitoring the approved levels of the contaminates in the
sewage sludge is probably what brings the FDA to the farm So that means there's the FDA, the
EPA, and the USDA, all providing regulatory bureaucracy to the nations farms and farmers.
Looks like it's politics to me, so I have no further comment.

Finally, for my cancer survivor colleagues (and everybody else). I recently read an article in
'Science Magazine” written by Tormasetti & Vogelstein, that suggest the hypothesis that 90% of
most cancers are a result of bad luck. More or less the “luck of the draw”.
I disagree. I believe that cancer like most diseases are a result of lifestyle or environment. I'll close
with an example. The most popular meat food products consumed in the U.S. are ham and bacon,
derived from decaying female hogs (estrogen) , preserved with a suspected carcinogenic additive
(sodium nitrite). The “luck of the draw” does not correlate with the real world. The Western diet is
all about the corporate bottom line.

Remember everything that is edible is not food. You need to scrutinize what you're putting in your
body, and determine what it's expected to do.