In our fridge, we've got the meat shelf, the dairy shelf, the human body parts shelf... The Des Moines Register has a lengthy (for the Des Moines Register) piece on the long history of safety violations at Agriprocessors, Inc,, Iowa's home-grown illegal immigration scandal. The sheer panty-waistedness of the governmental inspectors assigned to oversee the company is astonishing:
Unsigned workplace-safety complaints are typically investigated by the state via telephone or fax, rather than by visiting the plant. In one case, inspectors drove to the Postville plant and were denied entry. After realizing the complaint was unsigned, the inspectors drove back to Des Moines without entering the plant.
(Emphasis mine.) So somebody putting products into the public food supply can just tell inspectors to buzz off? Fascinating. Of course, that sort of dereliction pales in comparison to the apparent utter disregard of the plant operators for worker safety. Kinda makes me wonder if their meatballs were really kosher after all.

(N.B.: you probably don't want to read the Register article immediately before eating.)


Posted by David Fleck at 06 July 2008 07:27 PM
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