Last night, I first got wind of the news that the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) is conducting just half the food safety inspections in the US that it did three years ago. (To be precise, their inspections have dropped by 47 percent, according to the federal records analyzed by the Associated Press. Go AP!)

The local TV news was reporting this with some glee, hot on the heels of the Rats in KFC-Taco Bell story. How anyone in New York could still dare to eat at Taco Bell after their December E.Coli outbreak, or even before that, I have no idea. Taco Bell has not denied that they use genetically-modified corn in their food (even after the Starlink scandal), has been found underpaying their farm workers, and should arouse suspicion all around as to the environmental cost – and hygiene – of their low-priced food. E.Coli-tainted spinach in the American farming system can in fact be blamed on cheap beef.

Food gets little, or very superficial coverage in the mainstream news media that most Americans have no idea of how pervasive genetically-modified food is in the country, or that GM food is not labeled, or required to be labeled, in the US.

It is for this reason “FDA-approved” brings up mixed feelings for me. That the FDA is lagging in its food safety tests was almost no surprise, it’s easy to find news stories between 2004-2006 to see that the FDA was slashing the funding for food safety testing: Budget Slashes Enforcement at FDA, EPA and Budget cuts FDA safety checks. And in the realm of artificial sweeteners and new artificial foods (including GM foods) I have no confidence in the FDA.

Dr. Marion Nestle, who used to work in the FDA, revealed in her book, Food Politics, that many new artificial foods and drugs in the US are approved on the basis of the tests they submit (not carried out by the FDA, if I recall correctly) and that “long-term” tests are usually just on small animals for a period of 90 days. How’s that for inspiring confidence?

The USDA, with their conflicting duties of ensuring meat and produce safety, and pushing the sale of US agriculture products, is not much better, especially regarding safe meat and dairy. After a cow in Alabama was found with BSE last year (the third case in the US), it only took a few months for the USDA to scale down its BSE testing by 90 percent starting August 2006 (see Testing for Mad Cow Disease to Be Cut). Effectively, only 110 cows are now tested every day. Twenty-five million cows are slaughtered in a year, which makes roughly 70,000 per day, and 110 out of 70,000 is 0.16 of a percent. Less than 1 percent! It makes stories like this: Meatpacker sues for right to test meat absolutely confounding.

I’m sticking to my vegetarian whole foods (and organic) diet.