"inspections" news and stories

In an investigation done by the Dallas Morning News (DMN), it was discovered that the USDA does not always enforce its organic standards, or at least, they have taken no action against people who violate the standards except to ask a few products to remove the label. There have been no fines or legal action taken against scofflaws, which ultimately hurts the many organic farmers who passionately support their choice to produce organic goods and often go far above and beyond the industry standards.

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Dateline NBC, after interviewing health inspectors and touring dozens of supermarkets all over the country, compiled a list of the 10 least hygienic supermarkets in the country. From expired milk and deli meats to lack of hot water in employee bathrooms, there were many violations that were not immediately obvious to the customer's eyes, but the hidden cameras caught blatantly unhygienic practices and major health and sanitation violations, like dead insects in food products. After analyzing the data from inspections in 2005 of 1,000 stores in 27 states from the each of the top ten grocery chains, the list was final. From fewest violations to most, the least sanitary supermarket chains are:

• Food Lion
• Wal-Mart
• Save-a-Lot
• Costco
• Sam's Club
• Wynn-Dixie
• Kroger
• Publix
• Albertsons
• Safeway

According to the company responses received by Dateline, all the companies are vowing to improve in every area where a critical violation was received. They emphasize that customers who see a violation should report it to the store manager immediately so the problem can be dealt with.

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A report was issued this week by the auditor of the US Department of Agriculture revealing the department's failure to properly control and regulate the trials of genetically modified crops. "In many cases, the report said, regulators didn't even know where the field trials were." Numerous violations were noted, such as not inspecting sites and failing to ensure that the trial crops with genetically modified genes were destroyed after the test was complete. This increases the risk that these genes may have been released into the environment. 

The release of the report followed the announcement that two of Monsanto Company's engineered corn traits had received final clearance from the USDA. One of the corn traits protects from a pest know as rootworm, as well as providing weed control around the crops, while the other trait combines the first with protection against a corn borer pest. Receiving final clearance for deregulation means that Monsanto can now market its products at state level and in foreign markets

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