Gotta Eat, Drink, and Breathe

I'm always a bit puzzled that rich people don't care much about the food supply (or air or water). I don't care how much you only eat at the fanciest restaurants or get your ribs from artisanal pork resorts, unless you put yourself in a bubble, money doesn't really let you escape contamination. Sure rich people tend not to live next to superfund sites, but they do eat, drink, and breathe.

There are two big changes at the heart of the new regulations.

One is the increasing delegation of inspection responsibilities to local plant employees, who are not obligated to have undergone any particular training in food safety or regulatory compliance.

The other is an increase in “line speeds.” Faster line speeds mean that more pigs can be killed each minute, which increases capacity for the slaughterhouses but also makes some inspection tasks much harder to carry out. In September, the Trump administration approved faster line speeds for poultry. The administration is also looking into reforming the regulations for beef.