The free market speaks! FDA-AVOIDED Dustberries!

[altuin]

What what hidden agendas? WTF? If you are worried, just ask the dustberries guy to put a dust filter in between the rigs and berries. Problem solved

[1714799123]

1714799123

[boonies4u]

What what hidden agendas? WTF? If you are worried, just ask the dustberries guy to put a dust filter in between the rigs and berries. Problem solved

Then he would just take a picture with a dust filter installed. I doubt he would buy and install any more since there is no one to ensure that he continues to do so.

[bb113]

I didn't read the thread...so let me know if this has been covered.

Has anyone with access to a geiger counter (not that expensive) tested these berries? Over time wouldn't a trusted group of experts come into being that people would pay to make recommendations equivalent to the FDA. People selling foods, etc would get inspected and certified by this group. Is a there reason to think this would a be more or less corrupt system than the FDA?

[boonies4u]

I didn't read the thread...so let me know if this has been covered.

No, read the thread. <3

[bb113]

There is something pretty close to a real life case of this.

A homeopathic cold/allergy drug that was being sold outside the purview of the FDA for over 20 years (although the FDA advised against its use).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zicam

When the company got sued for making people lose their sense of smell, investors sued the company for not doing the science right and being transparent with the results (and thus losing the investors money). It went all the way to the supreme court (January 2011) where they argued about "what if satanists started liking a drug and it became associated with the devil, could the company get sued for that" and other crazy stuff (barking lunatics, etc) about what constitutes "reliable information":

http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/09-1156.pdf

[bb113]

Other interesting info:

FY 2012 FDA budget= $4,360,281,000

It is also noted that this is used in

"overseeing more than $2 trillion worth of foods, drugs, biologics, medical devices, cosmetics, dietary supplements, tobacco products, and consumer goods."

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/ReportsManualsForms/Reports/BudgetReports/UCM243370.pdf

Total # of taxable income tax returns (FY 2005)=  90,593,000

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/05inrate.pdf

So that's (on average) $48.13 per income taxpayer per year. Actually, that does not sound like a bad deal for this service. And there are probably more taxpayers now so it is an overestimate.

This is just a quick estimation. I realize the government has other sources of revenue that US citizens all pay for indirectly. I am also not taking into account all the money that is spent in meeting FDA standards, which are probably the strictest in the world (at least for drugs, ever since thalidomide). You eventually pay this in the form of higher drug cost, as well as money going to medicare, medicaid, social security, etc. I haven't bothered to add this up but it is most likely much higher than that $48.13 per year. Maybe someone else would like to.

If you have enough money and/or clout you can get out of:

1) paying taxes (see Scientology)
2) FDA bans (see Tobacco Products)

So, how much better is the FDA, really, than a private "certification firm" without teeth? I couldn't easily find a primary source for what percentage of drugs, etc need to be eventually recalled even after FDA approval (as a kind of measure of effectiveness). But that info would also be useful to this analysis.

I don't have an opinion on this yet. I am just trying to frame the discussion so that it becomes more possible for rational decisions to be made rather than endlessly arguing back and forth.