Comment by throwway120385
2 years ago
What about the actual packer? Why do we not hold them responsible here too? It's all well and good to blame the USDA but they're a check on the packer. It seems like Boar's Head has a cavalier attitude toward product safety that was bound to get a bunch of people killed sooner or later. I realize that this is the norm in these facilities so why do we do nothing to actually regulate them? And why is the focus on how the USDA isn't doing it's job? Clearly the problems are being identified but the actual regulations have no teeth.
> What about the actual packer? Why do we not hold them responsible here too?
exactly. i find it incredibly troubling how often people are willing to blame it on only one party—the reality is, it’s both.
both.
we need to hold these greedy people responsible for cutting costs to the point that they are absolutely responsible for people falling sick and dying. and we need to figure out how we get to a point where the regulators a) are adversarial, and b) have teeth, c) have funding and d) use those teeth.
the tendency towards letting greedy people off the hook is troublesome.
I'm not sure about these slightly down stream, but for actual meat packers they cannot legally operate without UDSA on site moment to moment. USDA should have been responsible for fining and corrective actions long before they started killing people. The stupid thing is that the regulations do have teeth. They can shut you down quite easily.