Having worked 15 years in farm labor organizing during my life, I’ve paid attention to the news of the cyclosporiasis epidemic and its sources in fresh produce. Part of that work was in the Yuma/San Luis area where I sometimes differed with the conservative Western Growers Association (WGA) around issues of worker and food safety.
The Trump administration has cut funding for food safety and entirely eliminated the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods. In rare concord with the WGA, I also read that they too objected, calling the committee a vital source of “objective and credible scientific recommendations for regulators and the food industry that ultimately impact consumer health.”
Nevertheless I wasn’t surprised to read Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins callously declare the Committee “no longer necessary.”
Is there nothing vital to the American people that Trump won’t destroy? I echo Joseph Welch at the McCarthy hearings: "Have you no sense of decency? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
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Chuck Barrett
Midtown
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
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