You can eat it...NO YOU CAN'T....Sheesh!

From TomPaine.com :

Faith-Based Food Fumbles

Don't eat pork: First it was supposed to be just 6,000 hogs who'd eaten melamine-contaminated salvaged pet food. Now 50,000 have been quarantined in Illinois.

Don't eat chicken: First it was three million chicken contaminated with melamine - as the FDA's new food safety "czar" reassured reporters. Then that estimate was revised upward to 20 million.

Don't eat fish: Canadian fish meal manufactured from poisoned Chinese flour fed fish now in stores across the U.S.

The links above come from David Goldstein, one of our most heroic bloggers, who has pursued the story with the zeal of an old-school investigative reporter. (Remember when we used to have those?)

Check out the "faith-based" statements he's been collecting from the public relations agencies for U.S. agribusiness funded by your very own tax dollars, the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture:

FDA and USDA believe the likelihood of illness after eating such pork is extremely low.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“We have no reason to believe that any of those are currently in the human food supply as a direct ingredient.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“We have no reason to believe that anything other than the rice protein concentrate or the wheat gluten have been a problem in the United States recently.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“But overall, we believe the risk to be extremely low to humans.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“We believe that the likelihood of illness from such exposure is extremely low.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“One of the reasons we believe that this is very low in humans is due to the dilution effect.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“We believe the situation in the poultry is very much like that for the swine.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“We do not believe that there is any significant threat of human illness from consuming poultry.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“We believe the likelihood of illness to humans, including infants, is extremely small.” – USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007

“We believe the likelihood of a human illness is very remote.” – USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007

“We have no reason to believe those animals are any risk to the public.” – USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007

Now note the statement he's collected that cancels out all of the above:

"There’s no tolerance for any of these compounds, either melamine or cyanuric acid. […] We just don’t know when we get these mixtures together. So there is no, really no acceptable level.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

Maybe we just shouldn't eat.--Rick Goldstein Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:12 AM

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