Food funding gets axed

The feds say nay to food safety and food security

By Culinate staff

June 20, 2011

What with the latest massive E. coli outbreak still killing people in Europe, not to mention the planet’s ever-increasing food prices, the latest budget cuts in Congress are a disappointment.

Funds for food stamps, impoverished American women and children, and starving folks overseas were reduced in the face of increasing demand for them. Funds necessary to implement recently passed food-safety laws were denied; the FDA and the USDA both had their budgets slashed, hindering their already weak ability to conduct food-safety inspections.

On the other hand, the corn-based ethanol biofuel industry, long supported by the feds, was essentially hung out to dry. We need biofuels, yes, but we also need to grow crops for food.