U.S. Issues Warning on Salmonella Believed to Be Linked to a Poultry Farm
The Agriculture Department issued a public health alert this week, saying that a strain of?salmonella?may have sickened 278 people who reported becoming ill after they ate poultry produced by Foster Farms.?The?Food Safety?Inspection Service, which issued the?alert?on Monday, said it could not 
link the illnesses to a specific product or an exact production time, but it stated that the raw meats ?in question? were being sold in packages bearing the codes P6137, P6137A and P7632, which are the listings for the?Foster Farms?plants in which the products were processed.?Although the service said people in 18 states had become ill after eating Foster Farms poultry, almost 80 percent of those affected were in California, said Dr. David P. Goldman, assistant administrator of the Office of Public Health Science at the service.This is not the first time the government has linked Foster Farms poultry to salmonella poisoning. In July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported tying 134 cases of it dating back to June 2012, including 33 that required hospitalization, to Foster Farms products.
Public Interest Groups Sue FDA Demanding Records on Controversial Animal Growth Drugs Under Freedom of Information Act
Today, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for withholding records related to the federal agency?s approval of the controversial animal feed additive ractopamine. Widely used in industrial U.S. factory farms, ractopamine is banned in over 100 countries and raises significant animal welfare and food safety concerns. In August 2012, ALDF submitted a public records request to the FDA, seeking records on physiological, psychological, and behavioral effects of the ractopamine. Six months later, in February 2013, Center for Food Safety submitted an additional request. Despite serious public concerns about FDA?s approval of the drug, in the more than one year that has lapsed since ALDF?s initial records request, the FDA has produced only outdated data and unreasonably delayed the release of comprehensive records, in violation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A second suit was filed by CFS related to the animal drug zilpaterol, a similarly harmful feed additive.?Ractopamine and Zilpaterol accelerate weight gain in animals.? Yet ractopamine has also has resulted in more reports of sick or dead pigs than any other livestock drug on the market and the European Union, China, Taiwan, and Russia ban or restrict the drug . Ractopamine effects may include toxicity; behavioral changes; and cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, reproductive, and endocrine problems.? It is also associated with high stress levels in animals, ?downer? or lame animals, hyperactivity, broken limbs, hoof lesions, and death.? Zilpaterol has been linked to animals becoming reluctant to move, walking gingerly, and showing signs of lameness.? On August 7, 2013, Tyson Foods, Inc. announced that as of September 6, 2013, it would no longer accept cattle fed the animal drug Zilmax, the trade name for Zilpaterol. ??Massive numbers of pigs, turkeys, and cows have suffered?and continue to suffer?needlessly from these dangerous drugs,? says Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund.? ?The FDA has an obligation to provide access to records which likely have dire animal welfare and public health implications.?
Food Day, celebrated on October 24th, is nationwide grassroots campaign that puts the spotlight on healthy, affordable and?sustainably produced?food.?On Oct 24, thousands of events will be held in all 50 states and involve some of the country?s most well-known food activists. The events support the production and consumption of??food that is healthy, affordable, and produced with care for the environment, farm animals, and the people who grow, harvest, and serve it.?Organizers hope to encourage people to cut back on consuming sugary drinks, overly salted packaged foods and fat-laden, factory-farmed meats and eat more vegetables, fruits, whole grains and sustainably raised protein.?In 2012, people celebrated Food Day at community festivals in Denver, New York City and Savannah; at a national conference on the future of food in Washington, D.C.; at thousands of schools and universities in Boston, Portland, Minneapolis and other places. Click here to learn how you can participate.?
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