Stupid FDA Bureacrats Burn Tons of British Food

[Paul Beach]

Dear friends,

This story has Mrs. Gray quite upset and demonstrates the need for more people to be fired in the wake of Katrina. This is unconscionable.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid...-name_page.html

[cricket]

Unconscionable? Maybe. I do believe that the FDA has these regulations in place for a reason. That reason? To protect our country from undesirable disease.

It is a shame, however, that we cannot seem to feed our own in a reasonable manner.

It is unconscionable to throw any food away that is "leftover" from our meals as well.

Does the conscience speak to your heart when even so much as one ounce of mayonaise goes uneaten at the church potluck?

[Paul Beach]

Dear person,

Mrs. Gray anticipates that the primary reason for many of these regulations is to protect domestic food companies from overseas competition. Unfortunately, people are going hungry while millions of dollars worth of food from our friends in the U.K. is going to be destroyed for no reason.

So, no, you are in correct in assuming the FDA has pure motives here.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Gray

[cricket]

I have learned that even in settings as seemingly Christian (and therefore, seemingly apt to bear true witness) as Club Adventist, things (even persons, or "personas") aren't always as pure as they appear.

I will not, however, stand by idly watching others condemn United States bureaucrats when it is evident that there is much to be gained in reviewing and analyzing personal choices.

That is why I ask again, does conscience affect your own action when even as much as an ounce of mayonaise goes unused and discarded at a local church potluck?

Sinner, remove the mote from your eye before pointing out the motes in others'.

[Paul Beach]

Dear person,

Mrs. Gray will start worrying about motes when people aren't starving. And she is not interested in whether or not there is a mote in your eye. And Mrs. Gray isn't going to sit idly by while you rant and rave.

For the benefit of people who care about this topic, here is the article itself from Mirror.co.uk http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid...-name_page.html

----------------------------

19 September 2005

EXCLUSIVE: UP IN FLAMES

Tons of British aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be BURNED by Americans

From Ryan Parry, US Correspondent in New York

HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.

US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.

Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.

Katrina crisis victim

NEEDY: Evacuees from New Orleans

And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.

One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".

The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.

Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant.

The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been shipped to the US.

But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which impounded the shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.

The aid worker, who would not be named, said: "This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.

"The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned as unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved rations of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq.

"Under Nato, American soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations, yet the starving of the American South will see them go up in smoke because of FDA red tape madness."

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PAIN: Child survivor cries

The worker added: "There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock soon - of burned food, of anger and of shame that the world's richest nation couldn't organise a p**s up in a brewery and lets Americans starve while they arrogantly observe petty regulations.

"Everyone is revolted by the chaotic shambles the US is making of this crisis. Guys from Unicef are walking around spitting blood.

"This is utter madness. People have worked their socks off to get food into the region.

"It is perfectly good Nato approved food of the type British servicemen have. Yet the FDA are saying that because there is a meat content and it has come from Britain it must be destroyed.

"If they are trying to argue there is a BSE reason then that is ludicrously out of date. There is more BSE in the States than there ever was in Britain and UK meat has been safe for years."

The Ministry of Defence said: "We understand there was a glitch and these packs have been impounded by the US Department of Agriculture under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.

"The situation is changing all the time and at our last meeting on Friday we were told progress was being made in relation to the release of these packs. The Americans certainly haven't indicated to us that there are any more problems and they haven't asked us to take them back."

Food from Spain and Italy is also being held because it fails to meet US standards and has been judged unfit for human consumption.

And Israeli relief agencies are furious that thousands of gallons of pear juice are to be destroyed because it has been judged unfit.

The FDA said: "We did inspect some MREs (meals ready to eat) on September 13. They are the only MREs we looked at. There were 70 huge pallets of vegetarian MREs.

"They were from a foreign nation. We inspected them and then released them for distribution."

#####

[Derrell M]

According to this article it has been cleared for distribution.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23889-1773364,00.html

"A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: “The United States Department of Agriculture has cleared ration packs for onward distribution. Meals from all EU member states have been cleared.”

However, British defence staff are furious that the delay prevented the rations from reaching the refugees for whom they were intended until this weekend.

One member of the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Logistics Organisation, which helped to organise the airlift, said: “Can you imagine how this is going down at our end? People were working their butts off on Sunday and Monday to make this happen. This aid wasn’t volunteered. The US asked for it."

[cricket]

Quote:

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Mrs. Gray will start worrying about motes when people aren't starving. And she is not interested in whether or not there is a mote in your eye. And Mrs. Gray isn't going to sit idly by while you rant and rave.

---

Is it true, then, that you will actually be doing something about this? Or, is it that you will simply continue to point fingers while remaining behind the persona and the keyboard?

[Paul Beach]

Dear friends,

Mrs. Gray probably shouldn't be feeding the trolls. Getting back to the topic of bureaucracy, here is what Newt Gingrich had to say:

“What you just saw was the absolute failure of the city, state and government,” Gingrich said in a speech at a Michigan Chamber Foundation-sponsored conference in Traverse City. “You can’t get a more vivid example of all three layers of government failing.

“The system is a paper-based … bureaucracy. It just can’t possibly move unless it’s changed dramatically.”

Gingrich made the remarks on Katrina as part of a broader speech espousing change and innovation to business leaders, legislators and government officials at the Future Forum conference at Grand Traverse Resort.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?postDate=2005-09-16&newsId=6885

"It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area."

-- Jefferson Parish, president Aaron Broussard

As bureaucracy got in the way, an untold number of people died waiting to be rescued. Many more fell ill or perished because they lacked basic necessities such as food, water and medicine. Hoodlums ran lawless in the streets, wielding their own justice.

http://www.kystandard.com/articles/2005/09/20/news/columns/editorial08.txt

Sincerely,

Mrs. Gray