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Those darned protectionists are incredibly sensitive about stuff
they put in their mouth, or their pets' mouths. Shoddy steel
comes from China, and can break when we drive over bridges built with
it. That is a bad thing.
But food is extremely personal. We put it in our mouths
and reduce the large sizes to small bits with repetitive chewing.
Our stomachs digest it with acids. Our small intestine breaks
food down with enzymes. Our large intestine goes further with
billions of symbiotic bacteria.
Ultimately the food becomes
individual molecules, absorbed into our bloodstream through intestinal
walls. The molecules travel to our cells, and are
metabolized. This gives us the energy to do things like write
blogs and mock wacko free traders.
Very little imported food is inspected.
Nancy
Nord is the "acting" chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety
Commission (CSPC). That commission has no jurisdiction over food
items, but does regulate nonfood items produced domestically and
internationally. Lead paint in toys does strike a nerve (pun
intended) in the public mind because the lead causes nerve
damage. It, like food, can also be injested, enter the blood
stream, and permanently harm the brain. Lead cannot be excreted,
but builds up as a heavy metal, for as long as a child lives.
Nord just announced expanded inspections of imports.
Full-time employees of the agency will be permanently assigned to
the biggest American seaports to work with the Customs Service to stop
and inspect suspect shipments, Ms. Nord said in a speech at the
National Press Club in Washington.
I'm not commenting on the efficacy of the new employee deployments,
but Nord has been resistant to safety despite the existence of the
third word in the title of her Commission.
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