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Corporate rotten eggs

What do a half-billion eggs have to do with democracy? The massive recall of salmonella-infected eggs, the largest egg recall in U.S. history, opens a window on the power of large corporations over not only our health, but over our government.

While scores of brands have been recalled, they all can be traced back to just two egg farms. Our food supply is increasingly in the hands of larger and larger companies, which wield enormous power in our political process. As with the food industry, so, too, is it with oil and with banks: Giant corporations, some with budgets larger than most nations, are controlling our health, our environment, our economy and increasingly, our elections.

E. coli is sign of a sick system: My days working at Alberta's XL meat-packing plant

The major recall of E. coli contaminated meat from XL doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

There may be some substance to calls for greater regulation and the resignation of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. But there is a deeper problem that no one in the elite media seems capable of addressing: the sweatshop working conditions at XL. I know it from personal experience.

Like many New Brunswick men, I went west at 19 to seek my fortune. One of my many jobs was in Alberta's now infamous XL Foods plant, which advertised "1,100 positions available." If you could wield a knife and obey basic commands, you started at $8.50 an hour for a 40-hour week.

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Columnists

California's proposed GMO labelling law and food safety

Yes on Prop 37 poster. Photo: Nuclear Winter/Flickr

"What is food to one, is to others bitter poison." -- Lucretius, Roman poet (95 B.C.-55 B.C.)

Budget cuts will exacerbate food safety issues

| October 5, 2012

Public Service Alliance of Canada and Council of Canadians granted intervener status in Canadian Wheat Board case

| November 29, 2011
October 19, 2011 |
For years, inspectors from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency checked provincial meat plants for E. coli, listeria and other dangerous bacteria But as of January 2014, that practice may be history,
August 17, 2011 |
Ottawa plans to dump inspection of dozens of meat plants on the British Columbia government in a move that will expose unwitting BC consumers to heightened risk of eating contaminated meat products.
March 18, 2011 |
The Harper government has quietly tabled a plan to cut spending on food safety, projecting a $30 million cut to the Food Safety and Nutrition Risks budget of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Columnists

Corporate interests undermining food safety in the U.S.

Remember "freedom fries"? That's what the House Republicans, when they were last in the majority, renamed french fries, after France refused to support the invasion of Iraq. It seems like renaming fries might be just about the extent of food regulation that some in Congress are willing to support.

The new Republican majority threatens a barrage of investigations. California Republican Darrell Issa is the new chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Issa has been tweeting about the subjects he intends to investigate: "CONTINUED INITIAL OVERSIGHT INVESTIGATIONS LINEUP: Wikileaks, the safety of American food/medicine and effectiveness of @FDArecalls ..."

Lindsay Beyerstein

Weekly Pulse: Egg salad surprise! Congress votes to clean up food supply

| December 23, 2010
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