WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is backing off a plan to ban raw oysters from the Gulf of Mexico during warm weather. The FDA acted after meeting with fierce resistance from the oyster industry and Gulf Coast lawmakers. Instead, the agency told lawmakers Friday it will put the proposal on hold while it studies ways to make consumption of raw oysters more safe, according to several lawmakers. Critics said the plan could have killed a $500 million industry and thousands of jobs. The ban would have prohibited sales of raw oysters from the Gulf for much of the year unless the shellfish were treated to destroy bacteria that kills about 15 people per year.
kittenfish said on November 13, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Sure, let's place money above health and lives! Just GOTTA love that greedy consumer mentality!
bgstrong said on November 14, 2009 at 3:47 PM
The Gulf Coast Oyster industry and the politicians they support do not care about the health of the public , they care only about their own profits...Shame on the politically correct cowardly bureaucrats at the FDA for bowing to pressure from the profit / politically motivated Oyster industry. Of course the FDA has been worthless for many years so it comes as no surprise. The ATF, FDA, DEA and a bunch of other state & federal bureaucracies should be disbanded.
houstonhog said on November 14, 2009 at 8:30 PM
Obaministration does not care about your health,safety,etc, they only care about getting more of your money, and not paying your social security benefits.the special interests they sleep with will not pay-out your death benefits to your loved ones if you die from poisened/infected oysters--because they will claim that you knowingly consumed bacteria infested shellfish. wake-up citizens, the muslim you elected president, and his clinton era staff, are gonna finish-off the middle-class of this country, and put the remainder in the caste system of servitude to the ultra-rich, it's already begun...