Your _)*!@&# tax dollars at work, folks!
Sep. 19th, 2005 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
docwebsterHUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.
US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.
Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.
And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.
One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".
The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.
Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant.
The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been shipped to the US.
But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which impounded the shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.
The aid worker, who would not be named, said: "This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.
"The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned as unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved rations of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq.
"Under Nato, American soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations, yet the starving of the American South will see them go up in smoke because of FDA red tape madness."
The worker added: "There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock soon - of burned food, of anger and of shame that the world's richest nation couldn't organise a p**s up in a brewery and lets Americans starve while they arrogantly observe petty regulations.
"Everyone is revolted by the chaotic shambles the US is making of this crisis. Guys from Unicef are walking around spitting blood.
"This is utter madness. People have worked their socks off to get food into the region.
"It is perfectly good Nato approved food of the type British servicemen have. Yet the FDA are saying that because there is a meat content and it has come from Britain it must be destroyed.
"If they are trying to argue there is a BSE reason then that is ludicrously out of date. There is more BSE in the States than there ever was in Britain and UK meat has been safe for years."
The Ministry of Defence said: "We understand there was a glitch and these packs have been impounded by the US Department of Agriculture under regulations relating to the import and export of meat."
-----
I just emailed the FDA at this link as it was the only one I could find, but the main comments page has other options for contacting them to ask questions. Let me make this very clear, people: I want you to help me ask questions. Be polite as you can make yourself be, but ask them why.
So as not to make this post any longer than it has to be, I'll put the email I sent them on that contact form behind the impending cut:
I'm emailing in regards to a news story in Britain's Daily Mirror about Nato ration packs that were destined for the starving victims of Hurricane Katrina.
A brief quote from the beginning of the story is here:
"HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.
US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.
Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.
And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration."
The link to the story is here:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16147117&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=exclusive--58--up-in-flames-name_page.html
Please, for the love of God tell me this isn't true. Please tell me that red tape isn't holding up critically needed food for starving people and may end up tossing it all on the fire as a result. Please tell me that the same food eaten by Nato forces in Iraq is being denied to people who are very literally starving to death because of some penny ante regulation.
Please, please tell me that the government of the people, by the people and for the people isn't letting these people die of hunger because a few i's weren't dotted and a few t's weren't crossed.
Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
siliconshaman for the story and link. I think I'm going to be sick.
US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.
Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.
And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.
One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".
The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.
Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant.
The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been shipped to the US.
But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which impounded the shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.
The aid worker, who would not be named, said: "This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.
"The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned as unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved rations of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq.
"Under Nato, American soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations, yet the starving of the American South will see them go up in smoke because of FDA red tape madness."
The worker added: "There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock soon - of burned food, of anger and of shame that the world's richest nation couldn't organise a p**s up in a brewery and lets Americans starve while they arrogantly observe petty regulations.
"Everyone is revolted by the chaotic shambles the US is making of this crisis. Guys from Unicef are walking around spitting blood.
"This is utter madness. People have worked their socks off to get food into the region.
"It is perfectly good Nato approved food of the type British servicemen have. Yet the FDA are saying that because there is a meat content and it has come from Britain it must be destroyed.
"If they are trying to argue there is a BSE reason then that is ludicrously out of date. There is more BSE in the States than there ever was in Britain and UK meat has been safe for years."
The Ministry of Defence said: "We understand there was a glitch and these packs have been impounded by the US Department of Agriculture under regulations relating to the import and export of meat."
-----
I just emailed the FDA at this link as it was the only one I could find, but the main comments page has other options for contacting them to ask questions. Let me make this very clear, people: I want you to help me ask questions. Be polite as you can make yourself be, but ask them why.
So as not to make this post any longer than it has to be, I'll put the email I sent them on that contact form behind the impending cut:
I'm emailing in regards to a news story in Britain's Daily Mirror about Nato ration packs that were destined for the starving victims of Hurricane Katrina.
A brief quote from the beginning of the story is here:
"HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.
US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.
Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.
And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration."
The link to the story is here:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16147117&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=exclusive--58--up-in-flames-name_page.html
Please, for the love of God tell me this isn't true. Please tell me that red tape isn't holding up critically needed food for starving people and may end up tossing it all on the fire as a result. Please tell me that the same food eaten by Nato forces in Iraq is being denied to people who are very literally starving to death because of some penny ante regulation.
Please, please tell me that the government of the people, by the people and for the people isn't letting these people die of hunger because a few i's weren't dotted and a few t's weren't crossed.
Thanks to
siliconshaman for the story and link. I think I'm going to be sick.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 01:35 am (UTC)It's not often news really grabs my attention, but this really is sickening.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 02:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 09:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 09:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 01:16 pm (UTC)I can't believe all the tripping over each other to place blame,
then to act all buddy buddy by these politicians.
Stopping any aid from getting there is just another nail in these peoples coffins. Happily though, that's going to apply to the careers of some of the people in charge too (and obviously already has).
no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 06:38 pm (UTC)I think they should put it back on the ship and send it right back where it came from.
I lived there in the UK 7 years. It's a real threat. You want your brain to look like Swiss cheese, you eat it.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 07:55 am (UTC)