The mandate of the FDA

I got to thinking about that the other day and started to try and find out.  And I spent hours, I mean literally, hours here, looking.  I didn't find out much.  This is what the FDA website gives me when asked.....

What does FDA do

FDA is responsible for

• Protecting the public health by assuring that foods are safe, wholesome, sanitary and properly labeled; human and veterinary drugs, and vaccines and other biological products and medical devices intended for human use are safe and effective
• Protecting the public from electronic product radiation
• Assuring cosmetics and dietary supplements are safe and properly labeled
• Regulating tobacco products
• Advancing the public health by helping to speed product innovations
• Helping the public get the accurate science-based information they need to use medicines, devices, and foods to improve their health

FDA’s responsibilities extend to the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and other U.S. territories and possessions.

All that sounds rather noble, doesn't it.  So what happened?  The GRAS list contains over 700 chemicals that are listed as Class 2 Carcinogens and are cumulative toxins.  (EAFUS)  And the FDA allows food processors to use as ingredients in the food you eat.  Let's go back a few decades, and see what the FDA itself says about how it got its power.....
1938

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FDC) Act of 1938 is passed by Congress, containing new provisions:

• Extending control to cosmetics and therapeutic devices.
• Requiring new drugs to be shown safe before marketing-starting a new system of drug regulation.
• Eliminating the Sherley Amendment requirement to prove intent to defraud in drug misbranding cases.
• Providing that safe tolerances be set for unavoidable poisonous substances.
• Authorizing standards of identity, quality, and fill-of-container for foods.
• Authorizing factory inspections.
• Adding the remedy of court injunctions to the previous penalties of seizures and prosecutions.

See the red line, this is what they say NOW!  "unavoidable"?  Where does that come in to play.  I understand arsenic in apple juice, if you grind up apples, it releases arsenic into the juice as it occurs naturally in apple seeds.  Put unavoidable has nothing to do with purposely ADDING toxic chemicals to processed foods.  I sort of remember it a whole lot differently.  Well, I wasn't there for the passage of that act, but I went to school in the sixties.  We all had those wonderful Civics, American History, Health and other classes that most of us were bored to death taking.  I read those books, and remember specifically Health, and my fourth grade textbook telling me the wonders of the FDA and how their mandate was to protect Americans from poisons and toxins in our food supply and the spread of disease from unsanitary food processors.  All complete with yucky pictures.  The GRAS list was new, having just been implemented so that the then director could get cyclamates added to it, thus insuring a high paying job with Searle when he retired.  Right afterwards.  Then there are the textbooks from the seventies, of which my sister has still, and they tell us that the mandate of the FDA was to monitor the safety of food additives.  That was right after cyclamates were removed from the GRAS list and banned from being used in food here.  Oh, and let's not forget, cyclamates are the only food additive to ever be removed.  Even though most of the big 700 are far far far worse for the human body than cyclamates ever were found to be. 

Oh - MY - GOD--- look at the last two slides of this pdf of the FDA view of itself (FDA)

I thought that my ex has a very high view of herself, you know, blaming me for rain and all, but the FDA, wow, they are the MORAL keepers of the welfare of our actual lives.

Now, this is what the FDA wants Congress to give them money for (113th Congress)  this 34 page document details how the FDA defines their need for funding so that they can protect Americans.  Protection for Americans means to the FDA .....

• Harassing supplement manufacturers that label ANY supplement as having health benefits.  
• These actions are designed to protected big pharma

• Allow the use of over 700 chemical additives to foods, even though each of those chemicals are listed by the Federal Government in toxicology tables as Class II Carcinogens and each and every one has alternatives that are safer, just slightly more expensive
• These actions are designed to save big processors money

• Even though labeling of ingredients and claims for a specific product are controlled by the FDA, they have refused to make ANY rules for the use of the term "NATURAL" and instead allow manufacturers of a whole host of chemical laced toxic products to sell them as Natural.
• Case in point is Truvia and Nectresse (The Real Story)     

• Criminy, who am I kidding, what have they done right lately to protect Americans
• GMO foods are PROVEN to cause sterility in mammals after 2nd generation
• GMO foods are PROVEN to allow the mutated genes to transfer to gut bacteria
• GMO foods are PROVEN to have higher residual levels of glyphosate and pesticides
• GMO foods comprising just 11% of diet in rats caused tumor growth in ALL (that is every single one) of the test subjects after a one year feeding trial
• The Eurycic Acid content of CANOLA oil is a cummulative toxin and destroys your Central Nervous System, pancreas and Heart tissue.  It is not a HEALTHY fat in any world.
• Allows huge amounts of antibiotics in animal feed to combat infections caused by overcrowding ans unsanitary conditions in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) which is the primary cause of antibiotic resistant bacteria
• Allows American manufacturers of Beef, Turkey and Sheep to inject Ractopamine into animals up to THE DAY BEFORE THEY ARE SLAUGHTERED as a cheap way for the animals to put on weight.  Ractopamne is BANNED in every country in the world except the US,
• Ractopamine causes Central Nervous System disruption and animals given the chemical generally are unable to walk on their own, thus mimicking such serious diseases as MAD COW DISEASE, never the less, those animals are allowed to be slaughtered and the carcasses used for human consumption.
• Sheesh, I couldn't sleep, it's early Sunday morning and I have a terrible headache, my sinus infection with MRSA (thank you FDA) is back with a vengeance after a brief reprieve and i couldn't sleep.  But now am tired so will print this and nap

I think most readers get the picture, the FDA is looking after the needs of big business, all to the expense of American consumers.  Their mandate has changed, they no longer care about the use of chronic toxins in our food, and barely look toward the acute ones, instead focusing on things like the producers of salad greens.

 In America the old adage of "Buyer Beware" certainly means more today than ever before.  Educate yourself, be cautious when buying ANY processed foods.   You carry the ultimate responsibility for the food you choose to eat, and pay the ultimate price for those choices.