The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Congress with Egg on Its Face

Nov 22, 2010

Salmonella in eggs has been responsible for nine deaths, hundreds of illnesses and the recall of five hundred million eggs in recent months.

The salmonella bacteria has been known to cause deaths for decades. In fact, one of the companies involved in this wave of deaths, DeCoster’s egg business, was blamed in a 1982 salmonella- related death in Maine. State of Maine inspecting and testing has continued to show the presence of salmonella at DeCoster’s farms. Recent tests in Iowa showed salmonella in DeCoster eggs at least 73 times in the last two years.

DeCoster has paid many fines over the years for health violations. Yet DeCoster continues to be allowed to kill and sicken with salmonella.

“When infected eggs still make it from the farm to the table, we know we have more work to do. That’s why today I am taking new action on food safety to cut in half, over the next five years, the number of salmonella cases attributed to eggs,” said the President of the United States. Sounds good, right? But that was President Clinton!

Eleven years later, the FDA has still not established rules to regulate egg cleanliness. Congress has done nothing. And people continue to die.