Edible Chemicals

"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death." ~ Rachel Carson

https://news.yahoo.com/fast-food-items-contain-chemicals-104551921.html

Some infuriating lines from the article that taken together paint a damning picture of the FDA and our government in general.

1. "Currently, the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the safety of food (editor note: and the equipment that processes it), has no legal thresholds limiting phthalate concentrations in food." (Why not? Do you think for a minute that the FDA knows nothing about phthalates or their effects on the human body, especially fetuses?) 2. "The FDA said in a statement that it will review the George Washington study and consider it as part of the body of scientific evidence." (Our civil servants are prevented from innovating and are reduced to putting patches on things the private sector has broken.) This is an example of how capitalism is failing: corporations, governed by their financial overlords, focus obsessively over short-term profits, leading to broken situations like this. This behavior is permitted because our own financial overlords have convinced us and our politicians that big government is evil and must be reduced, throttled, even cut off at the knees. So Congress defunds our regulatory agencies in the name of...what? Efficiency, budget, cost, FREEDOM? We get the government that we deserve because we believed since 1986 Saint Ronald's 9 scariest words: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." As a result of Reagan’s public disparagement of his own government, we have been squandering its capacity to be an active value creator. Bottom line: we as individuals have no negotiating power to force corporations to consider the well being of us, the consumers. And we let it happen, drip by drip, over decades. Wow, I didn't start this post intending to write a critique of ruthless capitalism, but here we are.