I wanted to get people's thoughts and input on the FDA (Food & Drug Administration. I have seen recent posts that talk about dismantling the government and scrapping all the agencies that make little sense. I am a full on proponent of that and feel that our country would do well getting back to the basics and "brass tacks" of government input. The FDA is a part of the Health & Human Services (HHS) sector of government, which I am totally willing to watch go by the wayside. Granted, the FDA was put into place in 1907 and HHS was put into place in the 50's.

When I was in High School, as a part of our government class, we had to read Upton Sinclair's book "The Jungle" which was mostly about how food companies back in the day were not keeping any standard of cleanliness, and meat packing companies were allowing mice and feces and all sorts of things into the items they were selling. Hence, the government put into place the FDA to allow standards to be met (or at least that was the way it was presented to me in high school).

I guess what I am getting at is whether or not we need something in place where we don't allow food and drug companies to try and poison us with their food, and how the FDA has completely failed in this task over the last several decades. Our country needs to stop allowing seed oils to be a part of our diet somehow. Any other country in the world uses normal ingredients in their processed foods, but we are allowing poisons and toxins to be doled out to us.

How do we fix that?

I know the simple answer is to eat real foods, which I do. I am thinking more for the average citizen than myself. I also know that the best solution would be to allow free trade to weed out the crappy food, but I don't think that is a reality in today's society for the average consumer.

Do we need something in place to monitor (and do a much better job than is currently being done) the foods supply and items used in those foods? Or are we truly better off with nothing in place and let the chips fall where they may?

The only thing that I truly know would be in our best interest is to stop allowing Pharmaceutical companies to stop advertising to the public. We are one of two countries in the world that allow this (Australia being the other one). It is very apparent that this allows for those companies to dictate the words that are relayed to the people and at the same time, creates a false sense of fix for the american people.

I am hoping to hear peoples thoughts on this and how things should play out if/when we truly get to a point of this great awakening and change that is so desperately needed in our country.

thanks for your input in advance, ~inidaho.