Netzingers -- Explicit coquina que est optima medicina.

It is time to worry about the collapse of the American food industry when you hear about private food inspectors reporting a sausage maker refusing to fix tainted sausages - and then shipping the product anyway!  In my opinion, this is a threat to the public that cries out for a grand jury investigation, or Congressional hearings.  The inspector refuses to name names, so maybe a subpoena will make him talk.

The EU waves in the face of Big Bio and it's own staff of highly paid consultants, and lets two member nations ban GMO crops and critters.  There might just be some caution left in the this crazy world, but you might have to go to Austria or Hungary to find it.

Food magazines change their menu for hard times.  Out are the fancy, high-margin ingredients, and in with the bulk bins and leftovers.  Ruth Reichl of Gourmet Magazine states that people need to learn to cook again.  A lot of the folks I know haven't ever cooked at all, let alone come up with a food budget. The new economy is making us confront home economics as a national emergency for the first time this century.

I hereby nominate the phrase 'Global Recession' as the successor to the Great Depression.  The economic and moral firewalls that separated traditional markets have been erased, removing the barriers to the spread of economic problems.  The U.S. cannot occupy Europe and and Asia to recover, and neither can Japan leverage itself up out of a downturn by turning to the American consumer.

Now there's just one big boat.  It's just that we've used leveraged securities to drill a hole in the bottom.

Add to the ranks of mad cowboys and anti-vivisectionists the likes of the Peanut Corporation of America.  Apparently the government had to use parts of the Patriot Act to squeeze out of them test results that showed flunked salmonella tests.  So, once the fans of de-regulation get out of the hospital, we can clear all this up and get back to business.

There is a study that finds multivitamins to be ineffective in preventing cancer and heart disease, in contrast to the many studies that find fruits and vegetables fight disease.  Once again, we are faced with a choice between the drug companies and whole foods. 

It comes as no surprise that there is no magic bullet, and no way to simply medicate yourself rather than eat naturally.  For in the end, there is never any argument with God or nature.

America's Biggest Loser, the latest fad-diet craze, is symptomatic of the epidemic of obesitysweeping America.  Sure, everyone wants fatty, cheap, salty, sweet, pre-packaged snacks available next to their recliners- but it is crippling and killing the population.  So we go on crash diets, learn that eating healthy is an ordeal, and feel happy to go back to a 'normal diet'.  Disabled by disease and crippled by an inability to feed ourselves, we are relieved to be exploited by the food industry whose highest priority is maximizing income.  When health comes last, we are all losers.

Irradiation flogs come out every food scare.  On closer examination, the PCA plant that produced the salmonella peanut butter did in fact include a sterilization step - simply using a different form of sterilization would not fix the fundamental problems.  Until we get rid of the emphasis on profit in the food chain, corrupt practices, filthy conditions and improper storage will continue to the advantage of the producer and the detriment of the consumer.

The folks at PCA set a new low in morality, trying to clean metal fragments from "peanut products" and restesting peanut butter until salmonella tests came back negative.  These revelations, including the truly hair-raising plant inspection report, have lead Federal prosecutors to pursue criminal indictments in the salmonella peanut butter scandal.

More motivation to lose weight is the news that overweight increases the occurance of urinary incontinence in women.  Considering how weight is distributed in the abdomen, it comes as no surprise that belly fat apparently increases the pressure within the bladder that leads to loss of control.