You wouldn't take food from any random stranger, would you? Of course not, that's what the grocery store is for. After all, the food there is regulated and checked ...right? Technically yes, but those systems are failing - you may as well be taking food from a random stranger.

On top of that, food is only regulated for safety. What about green and healthy practices? Technically it's the responsibility of the consumer to make choices that would benefit society, but that is awfully hard to do when the company producing the food doesn't offer itself to social justice through conspicuous full disclosure of its practices.

Who raised it? Where was it grown, and on what kind of land? Did the farmer use fertilizers and pesticides, or integrated pest management? Antibiotics or free-range grazing? Was the soil conserved, or is it eroding? How did it reach us, and how was the money we spent on it split up? - source: WorldChanging article on full disclosure.

That article in WorldChanging discusses a lot of the measures being made to offer full disclosure in the marketplace, but the fact of it is, we still have a major problem on our hands. They also mentioned the E. coli scare starting back in September, contesting that it is not the organic process, but neighboring cattle farms that are the problem.

...the FDA knew for years about contamination problems both at the plant that produced peanut butter adulterated with Salmonella and in the fields that produced the leafy green produce that caused hundreds of food-borne illness cases of E. coli O157:H7 late last year. - source: Senator Tom Harkin's bill proposal for FDA reform

The FDA claims they don't have the resources to keep on top of this. I say, if the FDA stopped wasting their time taking down companies offering natural remedies - that have never had a customer complaint - they would be able to serve the people better.

"The FDA would do anything to further protect the profits of Big Pharma," said consumer health advocate Mike Adams, who adds he was once pre-diabetic but managed to reverse his condition with foods and herbs. "This latest effort is an attempt to eliminate the availability of products that actually work better than diabetes drugs, leaving only high-profit pharmaceuticals that merely control symptoms and do nothing to help patients heal." - source: NewsTarget article

There's much more on the FDA's value rub problem on NewsTarget, including an insider interview exposing the FDA, and an in-depth look on the FDA's personal vendetta against natural remedies. Of course, they are the Food AND Drug Administration, after all. It's very interesting how they go hand in hand - but I'm starting to wonder whose best interests are being looked after.

Especially since we now have a big pet food scare. Actually, it's not just pet food, because it's wheat gluten that is being poisoned.

Wheat gluten is not an obscure feed stock, but rather a common ingredient widely used in a large number of processed foods and baked goods. And while federal regulations distinguish between "food grade" and "feed grade," the overwhelming majority of wheat gluten distributed in this country is sold as the former. - source: David Goldstein, via Crooks and Liars.

Scary, isn't it? So kids, please check the candy you get on Halloween.