WSJ: Government Knew About Bacteria in Turkey

8/10/2011 p. A3

"Federal officials said they turned up a dangerous form of salmonella at a Cargill Inc. turkey plant last year, and four times this year at stores selling the Cargill turkey, but didn't move for a recall until an outbreak killed one person and sickened 77 others....

"Food safety specialists said the delay reflected a gap in federal rules that don't treat salmonella as a poisonous contamination, even if inspectors find antibiotic-resistant forms such as the Heidelberg strain implicated in th latest oubreak....

WHY NOT?

"A federal appeals court ruled [previously] that salmonella was naturally occurring and didn't present a threat so long as people cooked their meat thoroughly..."

MAJIA HERE: Factory farming is responsible for the uptick in salmnonella outbreaks in meat. Although salmonella may in fact be "naturally occurring" the level and drug-resistant features of today's salmonella outbreak are NOT naturally occurring, but rather stem from factory farming conditions.

The decision by a federal appeals court to block government regulators from cracking down on contaminated meat clearly represents another corporate triumph over public health.