Self Regulation and Chicken!

On By southwerkIn business ethics
Can't claim credit for this cooking, my friend...
Can’t claim credit for this cooking, my friend Paul was responsible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Self Regulation and Chicken!

 

Here Milton Friedman explains that business will self regulate without government regulation.

 

How do you feel about that? Ever had food poisoning? Fun?

 

I don’t get the impression that businesses aren’t willing to lose a few customers (and I mean permanent losses) if it means more profits.

 

Maybe I’m cynical or maybe I just read the news?

 

Or how about this?

 

How many people have to be killed or injured by supposedly self regulating businesses before you realize that Milton Friedman was a much better television celebrity than an economist?

 

James Pilant

 

Is our chicken safe to eat? | Business Watch | McClatchy DC

 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/17/205695/us-urged-to-do-more-to-protect.html

 

After 317 people in 20 states got sick from eating contaminated chicken, consumer groups today urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to do a better job of inspecting poultry.

 

via Is our chicken safe to eat? | Business Watch | McClatchy DC.

 

From around the web.

 

From the web site, Eslkevin’s Blog.

 

http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/government-washes-its-hands-of-meat-and-poultry-safety-inspections/

 

In 1998, USDA rolled out its pilot HACCP system. The acronym stood

 

for “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points” but federal meat

 

inspectors, industry watchers and food advocates quickly dubbed it “Have

 

a Cup of Coffee and Pray” because it transferred oversight from the

 

government to the plant, in shocking, industry-friendly de-regulation.

 

HACCP was supposed to replace meat inspectors’ old-fashioned “poke and

 

sniff” method of visually examining carcasses by instituting advanced

 

microbiology techniques. But it is also an “honors system” in which

 

federal inspectors simply ratify that companies arefollowing their own

 

self-created system. As in “Trust us.”

 

Last week,   a coalition of food and worker safety advocates and

 

allies gathered outside the White House to protest USDA’s imminent plan

 

to implement HACCP system-wide now that it has been used at pilot

 

locations. “Instead of trained USDA inspectors, companies will police

 

themselves,” says the site of the group that organized the protest, sumofus.org.

 

“Plants will be allowed to speed up production dramatically. Chickens

 

will spend more time soaking in contaminants (including pus and feces!),

 

and poultry plants are compensating by washing them in with chlorine.”