One likely cause is overcrowded conditions in factory farms, where animals get sick and pass the disease on to other animals. Another factor is our wide distribution system, in which contaminated food is transported across the nation. Also, we are increasingly relying on imported foods with unknown safety standards. (For example, a full 60 percent of our seafood is imported.) Adding to this perfect storm is dangerous government deregulation and inadequate funding for inspections and oversight. Taken together, this is a recipe for food safety disaster.
The thousands of chemical additives Americans consume every day is yet one more reason we have a critical food safety problem. Thanks to industry influence over the approval process, the long-term safety risks for most of these substances are unknown. For example, science has pointed to chemical food dyes as a significant contributor to child behavioral problems for years. And yet the federal government still fails to recognize this connection. In addition, we’ve seen a huge increase in food allergies in children in recent years, but without much explanation of the causes. Clearly, more research is needed into how the industrialized food supply may be impacting our health in ways that are less obvious than the immediate, dramatic effects of foodborne illness.