Yup. Them Republicans with thier 'no such thing as a good regulation' and 'cut taxes so much that we can't pay to oversee and inspect plants like these' methods, we're sure to have an ever increasing body count as companies opt for pure profit and care even less for the lives and welfare of the consumer.

If one of these lame excuses for a GOP Candidate get's elected in 2012, be prepared to have the body count dramatically ramp up as regulations fall.

Instead of dozens killed it will become hundreds of dozens all over the country from unclean and impure food and shoddy products.

Oohrah for the right wing future when it comes to food and product safety. We'll not have any way to protect ourselves AT ALL.

Will YOU be the next one to die from unclean and impure foods? Just as your local right winger who wants to eliminate regulations and reduce taxes so that inspections never, ever happen.

the irony is - the republicans are killing their own potential voters by getting rid of regulations. and that's not good when you're a dying political party- unless of course you are the rest of the USA.

People! Wash your produce before eating!!! Yes, the farm was negligent, but so were the people who did not wash their fruit.

Max 108: Who said the purchasers were negligent by not washing their fruit?

So 25 people died? A big price to pay but government overseers can't point it at themselves, so others can say it is small price to pay thereby diverting attention to forget about it...

Goshdarn government regulators :(

UP with government ... up with profits.

keeping all those used (potatoe farm) equipments spotless would make the farmer spend good money on more worthless lazy employees who want a paycheck for doing nothing but cleaning.

Just like the court said Fox news has a right to lie and corporations are people ... business has a right to kill customers in order to increase profit.

In conclusion, government has the right to do like those they govern. A bible thumber can agree an eye for an eye. Only news is fox news. Cantaloupe is so good, people eat the thick skins too or somehow listeria penetrate the thick skin to embed itself inside the juicy cantaloupe protected by a thick skin barrier that got peeled.

boo har har

Nobody cleans nuttin now days. Bosses don't want to pay people to clean equipment. Went into a Fastfood restaurant, Manager herself took my order and served me. Looked to be maybe 30 years old. Had on the plastic gloves so things stay sanitary right !. She took money, operated the cash register, layed her hands on the counter all while wearing the gloves, and then assembled the next food order. People all over this country have their heads up their you-know-what when they go about their business. Like watching an entire population with a mental development problem. Then they cry on TV when something bad happens to their job. SO the Farmer didnt do basic cleaning duties - Because there's no regulation and there's no gubmint employee to make him do it. And when he gets sued for killing and maiming a bunch of those mentally challenged folks will carp on about how lawsuits are killing business.

The real problem with regulations is that these things keep getting reported. If we don't have the CDC to track food-borne illnesses, no one would get sick. At least we wouldn't know who to point the finger at when they did get sick and die. If the FDA wasn't sticking its nose in business practices, like requiring clean food-handling equipment, businesses will just regulate themselves. Seriously, requiring a business to clean equipment is onerous govt. oversight and kills jobs. <Sarcasm>

Ahhh, hmmm...dirty equipment?

Without the government, enough people would have eventually died for surviving people to be able to know what they ate and where it came from. And it wouldn't have cost the taxpayer a dime if there was no FDA which simply interferes with businesses which are trying to make a profit by it's enforcement of costly regulations about cleaning and such. If more lives are lost without the FDA, that's just the price of living in a free society. Learn to accept it. Those people chose to eat those cantaloupe, they should accept the consequences of their actions, and die quietly and quickly.

I'm sure Ron Paul would agree.

Max108! Washing your food does NOT remove the listeria bacteria when it is INSIDE the food! This has already been proven beyond doubt many times!

idiots blaming gop, i tell you ' you people are really pathetic and ignorant to say the least

Quacked One, I was heading to the end of the thread to say the exact same thing!

Hey Nitt Picking;

I work part-time at a cheese processing factory. A couple/few weeks ago there was a listeria scare - two samples tested positive for listeria. Thankfully, it was a false positive result, so the lot shipment did not have to be destroyed. But I happened to hear the plant manager say quite clearly (he was standing right next to me as I was cleaning out some of the equipment to get it ready for a thorough washing) "Damn I wish I didn't have to close down just to wash this equipment!" Right, better to just keep on packaging and shipping potentially deadly product than to make triple-damn sure that there is ZERO listeria/e-coli/salmonella/etc contaminating the processing equipment.

Yep, Nitt Picking, that's 100% correct. The plant manager is another Right-wing CONservative REPUBLICAN. So is the owner of the Corporation that "happens" to own the plant.

Hey Garrick;

I'm sure that if it had gone on long enough, YOU would have been one the many thousands to eat one of those cantaloupes. Congratulations on showing your own stupidity.

"We are quite confident and certain," that those factors led to the outbreak blamed so far for 123 illnesses in 26 states, said Sherri McGarry, senior advisor to the FDA's CORE Network in the Office of Foods, who spoke at a Wednesday press conference.

Sherri conveniently failed to mention that 25 people have died

Hey Quacked One, do you process Frumunda cheese? It can make you sick too.

Safety Alert! Frumunda Cheese has been tainted by the Quackey One.

Orthe - there is NO way the bacteria was INSIDE the produce. I see Americans eat all sorts of fruit without washing it - it is a VERY imprudent practice.

floyd-335513

Read the article dumb a$$ it was the processing plant equipment not the farmers.

Who you calling dumb A$$. It was the processing equipment and storage " AT THE FARM" Read the article.

In this article 'processing' means sorting, washing, and container packing of WHOLE melons. It was not a 'cut and package' operation. The failure of equipment was a failure to properly WASH the outside of the melons. Listeria got there either from the field (manure fertilizer) or from truck tires taking bad melons to the cattle feeding lot. You need to understand the operation in question before you jump to conclusions.

FormerMarineSgt

I suppose you expect us to believe you are a former Marine Sargent just because you use that screen name. What company, where and when did you serve?

Regulate then fine them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

The FDA had not inspected the farm before the Sept. 10 session.

Well now, instead of writing some rant aimed at the evil greedy corporate empire (which this farm obviously isn't) or faux news (what?) or profits (i guess making money is immoral... unless its you and your paycheck.)

Maybe, just maybe, we could, oh, I don't know, ENFORCE THE RULES ALREADY IN PLACE.

This isn't de-regulation. This is the FDA not doing their job.

Why does everybody want someone else to take care of them, do you still need your mommies to wipe your noses. What ever happened to a certain degree of personal responsibility.

Yes the farm was negligent and should be fined

But really folks, think about it your eating something that was grown mixed in with cow manure and handled by how many people who sneezed, picked and wiped their noses with their hands.

Before regulations were in place our parents had enough brains to wash their veggies and fruit before they ate them - What has happened to yours

Maybe, just maybe, we could, oh, I don't know, ENFORCE THE RULES ALREADY IN PLACE.

This isn't de-regulation. This is the FDA not doing their job.

maybe they could actually do their job if they weren't constantly having the enforcement and inpection arm cut.

Max^108--

I asked my father (a physician) if cantaloupe was probably OK if I washed it well and bought it whole. He told me that was no guarantee because many fruits that are sold by weight are injected with fluids in order to increase the weight of the fruit.

If the fruit is injected with water at the time of packaging and shipping, the bacteria has been introduced to the flesh and any protection afforded by the rind is violated.

It's my understanding that this practice is both widespread and completely legal.

I love John Mellencamp.

I don't know. Suits? Fines? 25 people died, isn't that at least depraved indifference? Reckless engangerment? Negligent manslaughter? * 25?

I must be missing something here. If I failed to maintain my car, and it went out of control and killed someone, it would be vehicular homicide at the top, depraved indifference at the low end. Somehow I can't believe someone isn't in handcuffs here.

It is a mistake to think these people failed to do their best to run a farm and it's no easy job trying to live off the land. Suits are for people that are weak and can't stand on their own 2 feet. and I am sure this farmer didn't want to ruin his business since it is his livelihood.

Newsflash folks: washing produce with water does not get rid of listeria. That's why it's so important that these processing plants have adequate controls to ensure that bacteria does not make it into the chain.

Which is sad that it is a farm that has been in the family for generations. I hope they take out reorganization and get through this.

So they should be able to sicken people for generations to come? If they are able to declare bankruptcy, they will avoid paying damages for the illnesses and deaths related to their mistakes. They will be able to avoid paying their suppliers and workers, so there is the potential that other businesses who have been family run may go out of business to cover a farmer who used unsanitary practices. Maybe they should have thought about the product that they were foisting on an unsuspecting public first and cleaned the dirty equipment.

Well - yeah they should be able to reorganize. The only people who will get anything will be the Lawyers. They are working to get everything clean and to standard. They didn't knowingly put Listeria on their produce, or make anyone sick. But it happens, work on a farm and try to make a profit anymore. It's pretty hard work, not many want to pick fruit and get paid by the pound. Try it sometime.

25 deaths out of 300m people......Now that is frickin scary....What a huge epidemic >>>>>Lets move on...

For those of us that are familiar with farming work...It never is easy...Everything is always against you, -weather-pests-and sometimes the price of your crop can go staright to H*** overnight, thanks to those that push paper over in Wall Street.

Farmers are hardy, if ever, rich people. Some of them just do ok....

Remember that food does not grow in the aisles of supermarkets.

The middle man -bank- always is the winner. I do feel for the families of the dead people, but I also feel bad for the farmer, that probably will have to sell his farm to pay all the lawsuits.

How many people died in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya last week from lead poisoning? For that matter, how many have died in the USA last month from lead poisoning (copper jacketed or otherwise)? Let us see things in perspective before we go cursing the Jensens.

Could this have been prevented? Maybe. Do individual farms have the equipment to, or should they be required to, send samples to Government Labs for tests for Contaminants? Probably not. Should the FDA have inspected the used equipment for Jensen's Farm? Probably. Does the FDA need revamping and an increased number of inspectors? Very Definitely!

@jonjon:

That is an excellent argument to bring with those idiots from the tea party yelling that they want "less government intervention"and "less regulation"

You're right, dano, I should just be able to take my 9 out, and fire in a random direction, reload, keep firing. I might get 4 or 5 if I though about each shot, but it's just 4 or 5 out of 300M so lets move on.

Well, IRESPOND, did the farmer also own the plant? Was he responsible for getting that equipment clean? I mean, down to the metal? There are tools for removing corrosion, they work pretty good. Did he meet his obligations before selling to the public? See, that's the rub. It would be "sad" if it were a subsistence farm, and his family got sick and died, but over a hundred got sick, and 25 died, assured by the FDA that this person was operating within the law. If he's not responsible for the plant, just the farm, then I can't see how a suit could win. If he's responsible for both, I can't understand why criminal charges haven't been filed. Wrongful death suits are a start, but when he declares bankruptcy, they'll never even get paid, as if money can replace a loved one.

There is something very, very wrong here. Let's put this in real perspective. If the contamination came from a dirty piece of equipment, that is 100% fixable. You either sandblast it down to the metal and sterilize it, or get different equipment. Was there stagnant water in the processing plant? Do they not own a MOP? Clorine bleach is cheap, and guaranteed to kill any living thing in sufficient quantity.

That's perspective. If he didn't have enough people, and couldn't hire more, then he should have been working on this equipment before harvest time. The plant should have been clean. That's his contract to operate under FDA regulations. If he can't meet them, he needs to work on his plan. In this case, the rest of his crop is gone, 25 people are dead, more may die, he's going to lose everything, at the least. Criminal charges should easily apply.

No one ever said owning and operating a business was easy, but some businesses have a special trust; an obligation to society, namely, don't sell us things that will kill us.

I know farmers have and still have it hard. It's not an easy life, which is why, when I harp about tax breaks for big oil, I don't harp about subsudies for farms (well, mega-farms are something else altogether), but in my time, I've worked food. We've used processing equipment. We were all very aware of who was resposible for making sure nothing that came out of that tool was contaminated, and what would happen if we screwed up.

I can't find much sympathy here for this man, any more then I could find sympathy for someone that went on a drunken shooting spree. The FDA is not to blame here; there is no way we can have enough FDA agents to check every place they need to everyday. The resposibility lies with the person in charge of the plant.

Cavelier: Both the Jensens and the FDA are at fault here. If the FDA equipped farmers and production systems with proper testing equipment and maintained EFFICIENT Testing Facilities readily available to these private vendors; if they required frequent testing with the above and penalized vendors that didn't comply, Then and Only then will the system work.

UDunnoBro....... Jensen Farms has used common sense- they have been farming in the area for 4 generations & are well respected in the community & surrounding areas. If you met this family or if you took a tour of the land they farm as well as their packing facility, you'd understand why they've earned this respect. To those of you who think this is about cutting corners in order to boost profits- you are wrong. They have been successful farmers for years. An interesting note is that NO ONE in that entire valley became sick after eating cantaloupe from Jensen Farms. I would not hesitate to purchase or eat anything from Jensen Farms.

So then, uh, Pro Jensen ( really? ), are you saying the FDA is lying when they found substandard conditions in the processing plant? In the processing equipment? Lysteria in the actual plants? This is just a set up? Why scapegoat them, particularly? Are they anti-government, host a militia, threaten the FDA?

I gotta say, from your name, and your singular faith in a product that seems to have carried the disease that killed 25 people and made more that a hundred more sick, that you smell a little fishy from this side of the screen.

Maybe you just love your stereo, but I find the conicidental post/screen name to be a little shady.

Ignorance in food production safety IS knowingly failing to take proper safety measures.

Basic food safety is common knowledge. NONE of what happened here is new to food safety or common sense AND common knowledge in the food production industry. The only way you can avoid doing the right thing is to do so intentionally.

This level of food safety is as common knowledge in the produce and food industry as stop signs are common knowledge to drivers. Saying that a corporations like these don't know this kind of stuff is like trying to convice the world that a truck driver who ran a stop sign and killed a pedestrian was unintentional in not knowing what a stop sign was for.

Marie, it does appear to be the case here. Jensen Farms bought used equipment and used it even though it still had rust spots on it. There was also a build-up of dirt and product on the equipment being used, according to this article. That means that the equipment was not being recleaned in a timely manner. There was also a truck used for bringing culled cantalopes to cattle operations near the storage facility. Listeria is spread from animal feces to food very easily. So it seems that basic food care was not being used at the farm.

Apparently Mercury & FrmrMarine Sgt have not been in a farm field. And Basic food safety - Wash your fruit and Vegies before you eat them. We have so much produce coming in from other countries anymore, you don't know what kind of processing is in Mexico, Chile, or California. And I think Jensen Farms is doing everything they can to fix the problem.

Money was the prime cause. Spend less than you have to and take as much as you can for yourself. All of the problems mentioned should have been resolved before the first fruit was shipped. Where was the FDA? Don't they have to inspect food producers before the product is sent to market? Someone needs jail time, big time. Negligent manslaughter.

You're all confused RJ. Are you really serious in believing that every load of produce shipped to the market is checked by the FDA? This farm apparently has been in business for years, but it appears it was trying to cut corners

Since this happened in the packing house rather than in the field, the infection was on the surface of the cantaloupe and could have been removed by washing it

The FDA city slickers hate to go to Eastern Colorado. Look where this farm is located. If they did make it out there I'm sure they didn't stay long. They never do.....

It's not the FDA's job to hold a farmer's hand during the process. The found stagnant water on the floor of the processing facility. A MOP with BLEACH could have elimated that posible cause.

They had used equipment. Apparently, they decided it was ok to run it with rust and dirt on it, instead of tearing it down and grinding off everything that wasn't metal tool. A belt sander probably would have done the trick, although not knowing the equipment, I can't say that for sure, but if the FDA could get a look at it, it was accessable enough to clean. Using dirty equipment has been a major no no in all of the food jobs I ever had. He had to know that too, and didn't take the time to prep his tools for processing.

A manager once said to me, "clean is no accident, but dirty is an accident waiting to happen." Made sense then, makes sense now.

Spin this anyway you want, it's negligence, and people are dead as a result.

Fresh Water

What are you thinking you are saying? Anything relative to this issue or just an Obama "volunteer"poster going from article to article repeating the party line, Bush did it or the Banks did it or Wall Street Did It. I bet your mom could catch you with one hand full of cookies and the other in the cookie jar and you'd still be saying "I didn't do it, someone else did".

fresh_water you have turned this sad chain of events to politics? Come on wake up.... Since you are foolish enough to do so apparently you forget so quickly that the senate and house have been ran by the Deomocratic party for over 5 years now............And by the way it was not the Senate or House that grew the fruit. And this could have been avoided if the fruit was washed?

Once again the blame has to be with some one else rather than our selves

From my experiences, "illegals" have a high work ethic. I wonder if the "legals" in management instruct to cut corners to save money and increase Earnings Per Share for the Wall Streeters?

You hit the nail on the head! Illegals do have a high work ethic...only do what the boss tells you to do unless you can get by with not doing it.

I worked on farms all my youth..with illegals..they work hard when they HAVE to and like most of us they are lazy when no one pushes them.

Dirty equipment in food service is due to lazyness plain and simple!

GTR5

What does the number of illegals have to do with this? It is the job of management to ensure that equipment is clean and that the product shipped is safe to eat. People like you would blame illegals for dandruff if you thought you could get away with it. Your input does nothing except reveal the kind of person you are.

Fresh Water,

Have you ever worked with illegals? Have you been around to see that cleanliness to them is something completely different from cleanliness to most Americans. Have you ever been to one of the houses they rent and fill with 40 people and leave a trashed filthy mess? Until you done so you should shut up about what your experience is.

I've worked with illegals too. In a semiconductor fab. They cleaned the place. It was spotless. The only problem they posed was that you could slip on their floors, they were so waxed. They were all very nice, and could make themselves understood in a halting sort of way. They were not all good, but people are people. There lazy _____, and hard working ______. The lazy ones didn't last; the job was tough. We had to keep the place free of particles to avoid contaminating the die on the wafers. If there was an alarm, and the fab seals were broken, a full wipe down ensued. My fellow Americans would wipe from as high as our arm would reach, to the lowest counter. The cleaning staff had the same job, but actually cleaned the walls to the ceiling, the laminar vents, and the floors too.

Don't tell me about their work ethic. They embarrassed me as much as I embarrassed most of my lazy collegues. The only people I've seen work even harder were the Vietnamese that were on the line. 5/24 was the record of one of those guys, util the bosses noticed and forced him to leave.

racists.

Because the majority of farms have not have outbreaks traced back to them.

I doubt it.

your ignorant.

Trent, the irony of your statement is astounding.

Or wash your raw produce - take responsibility for yourself. We can't just keep growing Government, because eventually we won't be able to buy produce - taxes will eat it up for us.

You could have washed those cantalopes in the washing machine and it would not have helped.

The bacteria was inside. Read the article.

It gets there when you cut the cantelope and it spreads into the fruit it on the knife.

Go to the CDC web site for listeria prevention and the correct info on this outbreak. Listeria is on the outside of the fruit. If you don't wash the fruit properly, you run the risk of getting the bacteria. The official warning from the CDC is for WHOLE fruit. If the buyer be it individual, grocery or restaurant does not wash the fruit according to guidelines, how do we know? Does anyone remember the public information spots several years ago about washing your fruits and vegetables to remove pesticides, etc? I remember Meryl Streep washing the broccoli in soapy water in the kitchen sink. I think it is time to bring these back. However, the farm was negligent in not cleaning the equipment properly. We do need USDA oversight.

This happened on Obama's watch.

Good idea, but most of the fruit in question was processed, cut and prepackaged for restaurants.

Max, I am not sure, nor has it been stated that washing the fruit just prior to eating it would have saved any of these people. If you are from that farm, don't try putting it up here that these poor people who died were dirty and didn't handle their own food properly. I use fruit and vegetable wash, but there is no proof that would have killed the listeria that has been on there since packaging. The point is that the plant was filthy and has pools of filthy water on the floor, etc. Don't blame the consumer! Don't blame the people who died for rotting peanuts, or ecoli on spinach, or for any of these other problems that result in their deaths. Our food is supposed to be safe, and if it isn't, then maybe the farmers ought to put up signs that say "EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK! because we don't wash our floor or our machines!"

This investigation has found the farm at fault not the lack of washing the fruit at the end consumer.

Why do so many people lately want to blame the victims?

Look, the article is talking about dirty floor inside whole fruit storage. It was not a processing station. Hence the produce was dirty on the outside. Very elementary logic. Those who say: "our food is supposed to be safe" should not take food safety for granted and WASH THE PRODUCE THEY BUY!

In this article 'processing' means sorting, washing, and container packing of WHOLE melons. It was not a 'cut and package' operation. The failure of equipment was a failure to properly WASH the outside of the melons. Listeria got there either from the field (manure fertilizer) or from truck tires taking bad melons to the cattle feeding lot. You need to understand the operation in question before you jump to conclusions.

I'm sure de-regulation will fix this.

The funny thing, Paintedlady, is that the toys that are now being made in China sell for the same, if not more than when they were made in the U.S.A. (I am talking about toys such as the Fisher-Price products.) The quality is not there anymore. Same thing with clothes from these countries that pay their employees only a couple of dollars per day. When was the last time you looked at where your designer clothing was made? You pay a premium to get the designer's name, but s/he pays pennies to the employees at these sweatshops.

Everyone else, pardon me for going off topic.

Chuck W

I'm sure de-regulation will fix this.

We have plenty of regulation, problem is the FDA is too busy doing big pharma's bidding. Oh what am I talking about, big government is completely uncorruptable and can't be bought.

MOmaid- Why does it matter if they employed illegals or not? The workers were not responsible for buying old corroded equipment or for the design of the plant allowing water to pool.

Do cantaloupe's have porous skin? I thought it happened when they cut through the skin with a knife and it took the bacteria through the entire piece of fruit.

Cantaloupe does not have a porus skin. The Listeria was passed into the flesh of the fruit via the knife when it was cut by the consumer.

Where's the evidence that washing the melon prior to cutting it will remove 100% of listeria? Where's the evidence that none of the victims ate the melon at a restaurant or event and were all responsible for washing and cutting their own melon? Where's the evidence that none of them washed the melons? You are making assumptions. Please stop blaming the victims and pretending like you could never get food poisoning just because you wash your fruit.

Well washing the fruit would have prevented almost all of the Listeria from being entered into the fruit. And who cares how many illegals, do you want to pick cantelope?

The victims should be reimbursed only medical expenses - wouldn't that put a spin on lawyers taking their cut. I am sick of this sue happy society. If the farm is working to fix problems - let them. Usually farms have to get used equipment because they can't afford the new stuff. We are our own worst enemy, - Take money they could have upgraded the farm and hand it out to people who can get a lawyer.

I agree we should stop blaming the victims. Several factors as pointed out by Redmoth are valid and his/her comments should be considered before going off on unsubstantiated rants.

It has also been shown that Listeria in some vegetables can bind to the surface of vegetables making it difficult to remove.

Will they reimburse those that died for the funeral expenses. We need regulations for proper handling of food products and anyone who says differently does not understand how bad it can get. Look at the peanut factory in the south a couple of years ago. And for all of you who want to deregulate everything, I sure hope you know how to check out the 727 the next time you fly. Of course if we lose a few thousand passengers the airlines might do a better job then again there would have to be a cost analysis to determine if keeping planes safe was cheaper than paying death awards. It is bottom line folks, that is what it is all about.

I have yet to see any reports of illegals being employed by the farm. Moreover, this contamination was a systemic failure.

Systemic. I think it was in the soil but was on the outside of the fruit. But I will look. Seems like if you wash your produce you reduce the chances of this happening.

We don't need illegals, we have plenty of welfare check collectors who need to get off their lazy asses and start contributing to society.

there is an idea to have convicts in prison tend to the produce fields. besides, with so many illegals in the prison system, it would be the same difference as having immigrants tend to them.

I'm not sure I would want convicts handling my food. I worked for Missouri Dept. of Corrections for a few years, and saw inmated doing really nasty things to food, then putting it out to serve. Using bread dough, or liver, or MELONS as surrogate vaginas (or what ever other orfice they were fantasizing about), spitting (or worse) in food...no thanks. Meals for staff from the facility kitchen were free, but seeing what I saw got me bringing my own.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Nicely put.

A lot of farmers DO get rich.

I've lived in two retirement communities here is AZ and in both the biggest and nicest homes were owned by one of two groups of people:

Farmers

Preachers

Preachers usually have the biggest homes. And two Caddies in the driveway.

Farmers seem to be big on motorhomes too. I think just about every $300K plus motorhome owner I've met has been a farmer.

They ( farmers ) have the second largest homes next to preachers but considering the motorhomes a lot of them have, it's hard to tell who is actually richest.

The farmers I have no objection to. Most of them got it the hard way.

Preachers though are another story. I was surprised when I saw how many preachers there were here and that they had the biggest nicest homes.

Jesus not only saves he PAYS.

"No business would allow this to happen" - Um, I know it seems like a long time ago, but in 2008 the Peanut Corporation of America knowingly shipped salmonella contaminated peanuts resulting in the deaths of 9 people.

Yes Arizona Willie, a few farmers are able to retire rich... & worked their damn asses off for decades to do so. Now I ain't no farmer... I'm way too lazy to break my back all day, every day from sun up to long after sunset & I'll bet dollars to donuts you are to! You want to complain about the rich, fine... bitch about all the no nothing idiots with some fancy economics degree paid extremly well to run a company into the ground only to receive their "golden parachute" just so the board can dispose of them (Karen Hendricks, former CEO of Baldwin Piano) or the lawyer turned politician duly elected by the people on a pack of lies & promises only to arrive in Washington & try to sell us some half-baked National Health Plan that provides less coverage yet costs 100 times more than what's already in place & bailing out the banks & Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, both of which exist due to Democratic legislation, to the tune of billions all the while knowing he'll retire next year to $100,000 speaking engagements while this nation SUFFERS thanks to the DNC. Now that's something to bitch about folks!

Arizon Willie sounds jealous.

Shhh, you're raining on the socialist parade! What a bunch of mindless sheep.

So do you think a government "so small you could drown it in a bathtub" could do an acceptable job controlling food safety? (or anything else)

This "thing" in itself is not political, but it can be used to point out the ignorance of a certain political parties position.

(notice I didn't even have to call you names and insult you)

I hope you do not see any documentaries about meat or poultry production !

You would have to start living on twinkies. (And then you would discover the rules about acceptable levels of insect content per volume).

Because of a shortage of resources and restrictions on regulations inspectors may only visit a food facility every five to ten years at most. This was the first inspection of this farm.

Larry, think you are a little off base here. It's not just about the money, but if a producer is not held accountable to ant meaningful degree, then what is the incentive to keep greedy manufacturers, and producers form cutting even more corners to increase thier profits? And i honestly believe that if something like this has not happened to your family, then you are speaking out of church about what is or is not acceptable to the ones left behind. Further, i believe that criminal charges should be filed for negligent homicide, and the ones responsible for the business decisions leading to the conditions of this outbreak face some serious prison time

You are the prime example of what I am talking about. Homicide? Is that not a stretch? Now if the farmer knew there was Listeria in the cantaloupe and shipped it any way them you might get a case of manslaughter. The award could be $100,000 per person considering the average median age was 87 and being honest is way more monetary value than they could have earned. Now you may think it is cruel to or impossible to place a dollar value on a life but it is indeed very possible. You have to leave the emotion out of it because the death cannot be reversed and is what it is. We only had one lawsuit in our family and my late father had completely destroyed his back because of employer negligence. He accepted $50,000 which was the calculated wages until he reached retirement. He thought it was fair and so did the family. So much for your out of church comment. Now once people hire a greedy lawyer and smell the money they want millions for great grandpa who they never saw except at Christmas. That is what is wrong with these cases. Just using the figure I gave would create a hardship on this farm. The only hope is if the people get too greedy the farm goes bankrupt and leaves them empty handed. How can this be any different than losing a family member in an auto accident? You have still lost someone because of an others negligence. You do not see the multi-millions handed out for auto accident deaths (at least usually). My bottom line is we need limits on awards because it is the rest of us including you and I who end up paying indirectly so they can all move to Beverly Hills.

Not sure how the FDA is covering itself. This is the first inspection ever done at this facility due to a shortage of resources and restrictions on regulations.

Youre on to something there comrade....the FDA, EPA, they should all be gone. Things should be done like they are in the glorious motherland of China. Your comrades there have the right idea....no enviornmental rules, so no expensive waste treatment or landfills...garbage gets dumped by the side of the road on the edge of town. No expensive rules on food safety....if say, diluting baby forumula with plastic improves profits, a few maimed or dead babies is a small price to pay. And the tort reform in China is a utopian model...those parents with the maimed and dead babies? a couple of years in prison shut them up.

@cascientist

Those damn right wing communists!

Modern neocon, tea party ideals are imported directly from communist China....ironic isnt it?

Well they have all our jobs, we owe them trillions of dollars, and we still don't get it. and tort reform is necessary to get lawyers hands out of your pockets. You should be awarded your out of pocket bills, not what the insurance or medicare paid for. I'm not a teaparty person just sick of the same stuff.