Putting the Adults in Charge

If someone can logically explain to me in a thoughtful and reasonable manner why on earth George Dubya and his ilk thought it was in the best interest of the residents of the United States to consume diseased cows I'm all ears.

While I'm waiting for that explanation (which won't be coming), I'm relieved to see that adults are in charge once again and has put an end to this horrendous and dangerous practice.

From The Washington Post...

President Obama accused the Bush administration yesterday of creating a "hazard to public health" by failing to curb food contamination problems, and he announced new leadership and other changes aimed at modernizing food-safety laws.

"There are certain things only a government can do," Obama said. "And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and do not cause us harm."

The announcements signaled another shift from the policies of President George W. Bush, whom Democrats accused of ignoring a worsening food-safety problem and politicizing the work of the FDA.

Most disabled cattle were banned from the U.S. food supply in January 2004 after the discovery of the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which has been linked to downer cattle. But the Bush administration allowed exceptions and did not follow through on promises to plug the loophole last year after the uproar over the beef recall.

"The closing of the loophole improves the welfare of animals and strengthens the safety of our nation's food supply," the Humane Society said in a statement.

Obama noted in his address that many of the nation's food-safety laws "have not been updated since they were written in the time of Teddy Roosevelt," and said the FDA was "underfunded and understaffed" during Bush's tenure. Obama said that outbreaks of illness from contaminated food have risen from 100 a year in the 1990s to 350 a year now and that only 5 percent of the nation's 150,000 food processing plants are inspected each year. "That is a hazard to public health," he said. "It is unacceptable."