is the ONLY thing keeping the US food & farm sectors on the up & up. It's definitely not regulations. Those just aren't enforced enough to keep food businesses honest. Haven't been for years or decades, unfortunately.
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Bill Marler has been low-key keeping the US food system functional more or less by himself since the 1990s
aug 23, 2025, 3:28 pm • 50 1 • view
He’s basically a saint at this point
aug 23, 2025, 3:47 pm • 2 0 • view
F'real. I wonder if he's hiring
aug 23, 2025, 4:00 pm • 2 0 • view
Absolutely 💯 on the US food safety system. USDA and FDA authorities were previously underfunded; I expect DOGE has made it worse. If you think the US govt is inspecting ALL the food that you are eating, you are horribly wrong (except meat, but even that's been undermined by faster processing lines).
aug 23, 2025, 3:44 pm • 6 0 • view
The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr has a great chapter on Marler and the failures of food safety regulation
aug 23, 2025, 4:14 pm • 2 0 • view
My MiL worked for USDA and was probably one of the biggest hardasses they had for regs. She once shut down a place for having lead paint on the pipes over food production, IIRC. Owners were *shocked* that she did this, so that kinda tells you how rare it was even then.
aug 23, 2025, 4:40 pm • 6 0 • view
People don't like being told they're cheating and breaking the law, and making them crawl through broken glass until they un-fuck their shit is an absolutely fabulous approach.
aug 23, 2025, 6:19 pm • 1 0 • view
I’ve thought for years that USA universal health care (MCA?) would help close this loop. If all taxpayers were more directly on the hook for damage from toxic foods/products, & environmental damage, we might get more interested in enforcing regulations. Maybe. We’re a long way from that now tho’.
aug 23, 2025, 4:12 pm • 1 0 • view
Won't work quite that way, for a few reasons. 1. M4A is less expensive than private or work-provided insurance 2. The *government* will be motivated to crack down on bad actors who waste M4A money, not individual voters (by and large). Both of which are anathema to the capitalist/republican ethic.
aug 23, 2025, 6:17 pm • 1 0 • view
You’re saying the US will never have equity in health care & will always poison its residents, at least until all the [fill in the blank - lawsuits against poisoners] are settled, because Milton Friedman lied about what economics and capitalism are, yes? Friedman was wrong. Spread the word.
aug 24, 2025, 12:58 am • 0 0 • view
Also, I expressed myself unclearly, the "bad actors" i failed to specify are the companies causing harm to people, not hypothetical individuals.
aug 24, 2025, 2:28 am • 1 0 • view
"[company], you are responsible for [product], which is making people sick. You are being fined the cost of their health care multiplied by how many people die because of your negligence. Have a nice weekend."
aug 24, 2025, 2:34 am • 0 0 • view
you sound *much* more informed on the subject than i am, and i appreciate the pointers on where to begin to educate myself. *fistbump
aug 24, 2025, 2:24 am • 1 0 • view
I recommend this book. I borrowed the audiobook from my library via the Libby app. www.alibris.com/The-Big-Myth...
aug 25, 2025, 4:58 am • 0 0 • view