May272012
The discovery of Salmonella in bagged organic baby spinach that led to a
nationwide recall Tuesday has been attributed to a small government testing program that, ironically, is set to be eliminated in the 2013 federal budget plan.
The Microbiological Data Program, a network of 11 labs that screen fresh produce for pathogens, discovered the contamination during routine testing, according to a program employee. The program, also known as MDP, has been fighting to survive for years as the
produce industry has lobbied to have it eliminated.
So, we have a pretty cheap program which employs people throughout the country and it actually improves quality of life for Americans. Sounds like the perfect thing to destroy. Fuck this bullshit and fuck the produce industry. I’ve worked in produce quality control and it’s pretty awful. There simply is not enough regulation to ensure it really is safe to consume.
May262012
stfuconservatives:
Hint: believe it.
He is, and it’s terrible. We desperately need more spending to get people re-employed. This isn’t strictly Obama’s fault and it is a good thing to refute right wing lies, but the premise behind this kind of argument is that government spending is a bad thing. It isn’t, government spending means roads, schools, clean water, safe food, municipal parks, national parks, and scientific research.
Money is not a real resource, it doesn’t truly exist, but labor is and we are underutilizing it. We need to expand the monetary supply (or greatly restructure it) so we can get the country working again.
As an aside, I never really could understand why it’s a good idea for a business to invest in its infrastructure and employees, but it’s a bad idea for a government to do the exact same thing.
May162012
Okay, I am currently working in food safety and have done so in the past so I like to tell myself I am qualified to talk about it. In this case, I’m going to talk about some things that people really need to do when eating out or preparing their meals at home so they can avoid getting sick.
In semi-random order:
- Wash your hands. This one is not in random order, this is the absolute most important thing. Wash them with soap and lather your hands together for at least 20 seconds before rinsing off the soap. When you are going to eat your meal, wash your hands or at least sanitize them with alcohol. Other important times to wash them are before touching ready to eat (RTE) food or after touching raw meat. Raw does not mean dripping wet, it means uncooked, the ground beef in your freezer still counts as raw and you can get just as sick from it frozen as you can from the juices it will eventually drip.
- Very much related to washing your hands is cleaning food contact surfaces. For instance, use clean silverware and plates or bowls or whatever is appropriate. Do not touch them with dirty hands, especially if you are touching a part of it which will come in contact with any food. Other surfaces may include a counter top or a cutting board. If anything which touches RTE food comes in contact with a non-sanitized surface, wash it.
- Allergens may be important if you are preparing something for somebody with a food allergy. If you lice with this person, it’s easiest to just keep the food out of the house. If this person is a guest, clean your kitchen well and if you make food containing the allergen, make it after you made everything else and keep it separated. Personally, I wouldn’t use the allergen at all, too great of a risk of contamination.
- Cook all meat to its recommended temperature. Do it. Cooking is a kill step, which destroys harmful microorganisms, but it only works if it is cooked long enough
- Unless you have bought pre-washed produce (the bag will tell you) rinse it with water. It doesn’t matter if it is conventionally farmed or organically farmed either.
10AM
This looks really cool.
Lumora’s bioluminescence technology, known as BART, uses luciferase, the same enzyme that lights up fireflies As part of the detection procedure, the luciferase is coupled to DNA detection so as to light up when it detects specific DNA and RNA sequences. By using DNA signals that are specific to genetically modified crops, the system can detect even low levels of contamination.
This would be a really simple assay to use and can be useful outside of detecting GMOs. One example listed in the article was pathogen testing. It would be fantastic to just be able to swab some food item and see if it has something like O157:H7. I could see this technology having clinical benefits as well, wanna see if something is antibiotic resistant? Just check for the appropriate plasmid. Back to food, it could be used to easily test if you’re really buying the fish you think you are, odds are good you’re not. I just personally would want to know who sensitive and accurate this method is, but I think it has promise.
(Source: foodsafetynews.com)
May122012
That was supposed to help disabled people in the work place. 51 percent of the disabled were employed when they passed the rule. Now it’s down to 32 percent
Let’s look for confounding factors. Right now, the unemployment rate is 8.1% and in June of 1990 (one month before the ADA went into effect) it was at 5.4%. The numbers are from Google. Now, is it maybe possible that the ~3% difference in unemployment makes it more difficult for people with disabilities to find a job than it does for somebody able-bodied? Oh sure, the discrimination is supposedly illegal, but that’s not going to stop all of it and I’m sure the employment rate of disabled people would be worse without the ADA.
What Jon Stossel is doing here is lying, he is using poor methodology in order to promote his twisted libertarian view of the world. That is why he is a terrible human being.
(Source: mediaite.com)
