The recent FDA announcement of the tomato salmonella outbreak leads me to wonder about how we got here. Announcements like this give the media great material to play with the fear process. I call it the “don’t eat that,” or scare-of-the-moment journalism. The danger is real, of course, as salmonella can pose a serious health hazard for children, elderly, and people with compromised immune systems.

The real problem is a lax food safety system. This is not something that’s simply limited to tomatoes.  The reality is that deregulation–the heralded salvation and light of the American economy–has a very nasty underside.

Food safety is one of those classic government functions. If we want a safe food system, we have to pay for it and know that sometimes regulations are a pain in the neck. Oh, and it costs money, as in higher taxes.  Of course, that pain in the neck is part of how we protect our toddlers and aging parents who can be felled by a manufacturer’s failure to maintain food safety standards.

The alternatives give us two things. One is this scare-of-the-moment journalism. Annoying. But here’s the bigger one. The other consequence of deregulation is that people like me–trial lawyers–have more and more work.  My job starts when injured people call about calamities that have befallen them.  I am like “All the Kings’ horses and all the Kings men” as I go about trying to re-assemble lives and families broken by unsafe practices.

Our food supply system needs to be regulated properly, and we need to dedicate the resources to it so that regular inspections and enforcement processes prevent these outbreaks.

David Sugerman