Abstract

THE BEAT

The article presents information related to several issues. The farm crisis ravaging rural America has sparked growing militancy: Several thousand dairy farmers dumped millions of gallons of milk in early-September protests over prices that pay farm families only half what they earned in 1980. Yet, for the most part, farm issues are accorded low-profile status in the presidential campaign. The U.S. Government Accountability Project has just completed a survey of more than 400 federal meat inspectors, suggesting that US. President Bill Clinton administration alterations of meat-inspection standards have decreased, rather than improved, protections for consumers and must be reexamined. Under the Administration's Hazardous Analysis and Critical Control Point system, which moves responsibility for insuring food safety from government inspectors to the meat industry, a majority of the inspectors surveyed said their ability to enforce laws designed to protect consumers has been reduced.