Murder by peanut butter

If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government. - Abraham Lincoln

They knew.

The company that distributed the contaminated peanut butter knew it had tested positive for salmonella... and sent it out anyway.

Eight people have now died, over 500 are sick, and the FDA is still trying to track down every resulting food that contains the contaminated peanut butter.

I call that murder. The owners of this peanut company should be tried for negligent homicide (at the very least.)

Peanut Corporation of America, in Blakely, Georgia. Murderers.

Perhaps things will be different under Mr. Obama's Administration. Perhaps now there will be CONSEQUENCES for knowingly killing American citizens and pets.

FDA Alleges Company Knowingly Sold Peanut Products Containing Salmonella

KRIS-TV
updated 18 minutes ago

GEORGIA - There is new information available about the recent salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter from a plant in Georgia.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said at least 12 times over the past two years the Peanut Corporation of America has knowingly sold products that had tested positive for salmonella.

The FDA also claimed the company did nothing to improve its manufacturing and sanitation practices after salmonella was found in its plant, and that is a clear violation of the law.

Consumer advocates are outraged at the new revelations.

"This kind of lab-shopping is absolutely shocking, and it really shows that the FDA's program is inadequate to protect American consumers," Sarah Klein said, who works for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Oh, and we need a new FDA. The old one is broken.

The FDA admits that this same company shipped out salmonella-contaminated peanut butter in 2007 and 2008. Apparently - having gotten away with it, with no repercussions from the FDA - they decided to continue. With deadly results.

This is why we need consequences; oversight with consequences.

I still cannot fathom how the ruling GOP believed that their watered down FDA could simply tell these greedy corporations "now be good boys - don't do that again" and the corporations would immediately and willingly comply.

Of course they didn't comply! Why would they comply when they could easily get away with it? We aren't dealing with Mother Teresa here. This is why our Federal Government is forced to exercise oversight of corporations that produce the food we eat -- because they won't willingly do it themselves if they can avoid the cost. And once caught, they will simply do the same thing again... unless they are fined, thrown in jail or closed down.

Consequences.

Somehow the GOP recognizes that regular citizens should go to jail for committing crimes, and especially murder (and they believe staunchly in the death penalty for crimes committed by the great unwashed.) If crime isn't punished, society breaks down. But when a corporation commits a crime, or kills American people with their poisoned products, they look the other way.

And because they looked the other way for eight long years, today hundreds of children are sick - and more will undoubtedly die - because their peanut butter was distributed by a company that knew it was poisoned, but didn't bother making a new batch.

That should tell us all we need to know about the GOP. They don't represent us; they represent the wealthy elite and the corporations that donate to their campaigns. Different standards apply (in this case, no standards at all.)

The government Tuesday accused the peanut butter manufacturer tied to a nationwide salmonella outbreak of shipping products in 2007 and 2008 after internal tests found bacterial contamination, violating food safety regulations.

Peanut butter and peanut paste manufactured by the Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) has been tied to the salmonella outbreak that has sickened 501 people in 43 states and is believed to have contributed to eight deaths.

The Food and Drug Administration said that its inspection of the PCA plant in Blakely, Ga., found records of 12 instances in which plant officials identified salmonella in ingredients or finished products. The products should not have been shipped, the FDA says. PCA took no steps to address cleaning after finding the salmonella, says Michael Rogers, director of the FDA's division of field investigations.

(Hint to the FDA: This is where you force them to clean up their act, or close them down.)

"It's incredibly negligent," says William Hubbard, a former FDA associate commissioner. Hubbard questions why the FDA didn't act sooner, given the sanitation violations found by state inspectors.

Previous inspection reports by the Georgia Department of Agriculture found deficiencies in how well the plant was cleaned.