Crossposted at my new blog, The Random Opinionator
This morning's Washington Post carries a report that the Peanut Corporation of America plant behind the salmonella outbreak had twelve positive internal tests for the disease over the past 18 months, yet failed to tell the state of Georgia, the CDC, the FDA, and to top it off, sold the tainted product anyways.
Excuse me while I go utter a stream of cursing....I'll return after the jump.
Okay, I'm done with that. Now, to be serious, the plant owner and its managers should be tried for the deaths of every single one of the people who died in this matter. I am not joking. These people knowingly sold a product tainted with a disease that kills people, and so far seven people have died and over 500 sickened by their products. That's seven counts of murder and over 500 counts of, what, reckless endangerment of human life? I'm not a lawyer, and the law I know is mainly of the consitutional variety, but I feel this is completely within the bounds of the law.
This is why government regulation is important. This is why business should be treated the way President Reagan treated the Soviets, "trust but verify." Our economic system demands that we trust business, but we must verify their adherence to basic standards. I'd start with requiring that any food-based business that comes up with a positive internal disease test be required to notify the state and federal authorities. Amazingly enough, this peanut plant was not required to do either.
Economically, when you don't regulate, you get our current economic mess. Now we've had huge E. coli and salmonella outbreaks over the past two years because of failure to adequately regulate the food industry. For every ten good business owners, you'll get the one who is unscrupulous, unsavory, and downright risky, and it is because of that one in ten that regulation is necessary, important, and must be a priority in the coming year for Congress. Even if only seven people die, that's seven people whose lives were lost unnecessarily.
In the meantime, before Congress acts, law enforcement should start charging these people. It's time we set an example for these people that we will not tolerate this sort of behavior from big business. We should not pay with our lives for somebody's profit margin.