A whole lot of pork...

With all of the jaw-jaw regarding earmarks these days, you would think that McCain was President. Obama signed a $410 billion spending bill yesterday, which, according to the linked article, was "jammed with pet spending projects." This is, of course leading to editorial outcry and near cataclysm among some GOP legislators. Not everyone in the universe, however, is as worked up as Op-ed boards and McCain. The Opinionator does a good job of amalgamating a number of solid blog posts on the topic. I tend to share many of the views from these posts, so I'll leave it to Ryan Avent at The Bellows and his post on earmarks:

Congress just passed a $410 billion spending bill necessary to maintain government operations, which was some six-months overdue. Of that $410 billion, about $7.7 billion worth of funding will be allocated by Congressional earmark, rather than through typical funding formulas. That’s less than 2% of the bill’s total size, and it’s not at all clear that the earmarks represent additional spending, rather than just redirected spending. And yet the coverage of the bill’s passage is entirely focused around the earmark battle.

In other - dare I say more important - pork issues, Kristof offers an interesting op-ed in today's New York Times (NYT). The focus of the column is the prevalence of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) strains in communities and areas with a high density of pig farms. A study from the University of Iowa recently found that 49% of hogs and 45% of farmers tested carried MRSA. The reason this is important is that MRSA is resistant to drug treatment (a la the name), and is, therefore, often referred to as a "superbug".

The larger question is whether we as a nation have moved to a model of agriculture that produces cheap bacon but risks the health of all of us. And the evidence, while far from conclusive, is growing that the answer is yes...

So what’s going on here, and where do these antibiotic-resistant infections come from? Probably from the routine use — make that the insane overuse — of antibiotics in livestock feed. This is a system that may help breed virulent “superbugs” that pose a public health threat to us all.

Related to food safety, Congress is working to pass a broad array of changes to our food safety scheme, with what appears to be bipartisan support:

The differences are not partisan. Republicans at the hearing said they, too, supported strong reforms.

“On food safety, there is no daylight between Henry Waxman and Joe Barton,” said Representative Joe L. Barton of Texas, the senior Republican on the commerce committee.

This could be great news, but given the lack of anyone complaining, I'm willing to bet that not much increased safety comes out of this process. Perhaps there are better ways to increase our food safety, rather than spend tons of cash on regulation. I would strongly urge America to rethink it's current food policy, starting with focusing on more local sustainable food production. Knowing where your bacon, eggs and spinach come from does not guarantee complete safety, but it sure doesn't hurt...