Fw: BBQ this weekend?

ALERT From: Sarah Alexander, Food & Water Watch <fwwatch@mail.democracyinaction.org> Subject: BBQ this weekend? To: RANDAL_MASSARO@YAHOO.COM Date: Friday, May 25, 2012, 5:54 PM Dear Randal, If you're considering BBQ chicken this weekend, you need to take action on this urgent alert. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack wants to take inspectors out of chicken and turkey processing plants and let the people who work there inspect the birds themselves (see below for full details). This could be disastrous for food safety. Can you help us submit over 50,000 comments to the USDA by Tuesday? We've been working to stop this disastrous food safety move since January, and I've included the full details of this issue below in case you missed it. So far, more than 40,000 of our supporters like you have joined the effort to keep inspection for chicken and turkey processing. Please take action today to keep your food safe. Sincerely, Sarah Alexander Outreach Director Food & Water Watch See Your Alert Online Secretary Vilsack Wants Less Meat Inspection Take Action to Keep Inspection for Chicken Don't let the fox guard the hen house when it comes to meat inspection. Take Action to Keep Strong Rules for Food Inspection January 23, 2012 Dear Randal, Warning: this email contains some information that could make you sick. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has just announced a plan to "privatize" meat inspection in poultry slaughter plants. This means that poultry processors will do their own inspection, leaving a lot of room for error, and a lot of potential to make us sick. Ask Secretary Vilsack to keep meat inspection strong to protect you and your family. The USDA has been running a pilot project in two-dozen slaughter facilities since 1998 where they remove USDA inspectors and allow employees to do the food safety inspections. In these plants, line speeds have been permitted to run as fast as 200 birds per minute, which is much faster than other poultry slaughter plants, and company employees who perform inspections are not properly trained to stop unsafe poultry products from leaving the plant. We reviewed more than 5,000 pages of documents that we obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, and found that current regulations are not being enforced by company inspectors. For example, the records show that bile, sores, scabs, feathers and digestive tract tissue are often not being properly removed from chicken carcasses. This is totally unacceptable. Our food safety should be the last thing that should be privatized. Take action to stop this privatized meat inspection plan: http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9268 Thanks for taking action, Sarah Alexander Education & Outreach Director Food & Water Watch goodfood(at)fwwatch(dot)org         Join, Renew, Give Contact Unsubscribe Visit us online     Sent by Food & Water Watch to RANDAL_MASSARO@YAHOO.COM Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.   Join, Renew, Give  |  Contact  |  Unsubscribe     Food & Water Watch, 1616 P Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036 • (202) 683-2500