- By Matthew P. Binkewicz
- Opinions
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I love peanut butter. Our nation loves peanut butter. The world loves peanut butter. What is more American than peanut butter? Apple pie, you may answer. No, that came over with the European Settlers. Perhaps you might respond, hot dogs. Again that is a European product just as the automobile is. Peanut butter is pure, 100%, red-white-and blue American. So what happened to one of our greatest cultural and culinary icons? How did tainted peanut butter make it to store shelves and eventually into our homes? The story is quite unbelievable. Federal investigators report that a Georgia food plant, which is owned by the Peanut Corporation of America, knowingly shipped contaminated peanut butter. To make matters worse, the investigation discovered 12 instances in 2007 and 2008 in which the company’s own tests of its product found contamination by salmonella. Yet they continued to ship out their product to companies across the United States.
In addition, the plant had mold growing on its ceilings and walls and has foot-long gaps around ductwork and ventilation grates, all health code violations. Having been summoned before a Congressional Committee investigating the tainted peanut butter crisis, the representative from the Peanut Corporation of America refused to answer any of the questions. He pleaded the 5th Amendment-the right against self-incrimination.
An American, a home-grown, red, white, and blue citizen of the United States committed this act. How, you might ask, with all the concern over contaminated food products from China, could this have gone undetected? This is as serious an attack upon this country as any potential terrorist plot. More than 500 people in 43 states have been sickened, and 8 have died after eating crackers and other products made with peanut butter from the plant. More than 100 children under the age of 5 are among those who have been sickened.
We are not merely talking about an afternoon snack food or treat for toddlers at daycare. Americans eat 700 million pounds of peanut butter each year. Sales revenue reached an all time record of $800 million dollars. Peanut butter is found in 90% of all American households. Sales have now taken a nosedive since salmonella was traced back to at least two peanut plants this year. When we think of attacks against America, we rarely look at incidents like this, but how else can we see this lack of oversight and deliberate act of negligence.
The potential harm goes well beyond the economic loss to the food industry. The overall safety of our population is at risk. News reports about tainted products from China have caused some concern, but the fact that this happened in our own back yard, in Georgia no less, is an outrage. A few weeks ago, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, blasted the company that let tainted peanuts into the food supply. He said, "What's more sacred than peanut butter?"
Indeed, what else is still sacred? How will we ever safely order Tag-a-longs from our local Girl Scout cookie sales? Who of us health conscious dieters will dare place a hearty helping of peanut butter on a piece of celery without wondering about the jar in question? And most sacred of all, how will any of us find that instant gratification in the simple act of eating peanut butter directly out of the jar with a spoon. Whether we choose creamy or chunky, we all have been robbed of one of life’s most enjoyable pleasures.
Yes, a sacred trust has been broken, and we all now suffer. This company deliberately ignored their own findings as well as warnings voiced by employees at the plant about contaminated peanut butter. Perhaps those in charge of the Congressional Investigation should have offered the guilty parties a choice: either testify before this committee or eat a cracker with a dollop of tainted peanut butter on it. No option to plead the 5th! The truth would have left a really bitter taste in the guilty party’s mouth. Now that would have been to the point.
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