FDA Unable To Keep Food Safe

As a matter of national security our food supply must be monitored and protected but it is not due to dangerously low staffing at the Food and Drug Administration

Last year, inspectors sampled just 20,662 shipments out of more than 8.9 million that arrived at American ports. China, which in one decade has become the third-largest exporter of food, by value, to the United States, sent 199,000 shipments, of which less than 2 percent were sampled, said former officials with the agency.

"The public thinks the food supply is much more protected than it is," said William Hubbard, a former associate commissioner who left in 2005. "If people really knew how weak the FDA program is, they would be shocked."

With inspection rates this low it would be nearly certain that a terrorist attack aimed at our food supply would be successful. This time it was your pets that died. Unfortunately the next time it could be your children. How safe do you feel now? Actions have consequences and the War in Iraq has left us more vulnerable at home.