Who's more responsible - the porn industry or the food sector?

Thursday, May 2, 2013

When former University of Guelph professor and food safety expert Doug Powell launched Food Safety Net, a compilation of worldwide food safety issues in the late 1990s, it was widely followed, but one Ontario agriculture ministry veteran confessed to Better Farming that he unsubscribed because the litany of food safety disasters was "too depressing." He never mentioned "titillating."

Currently at Kansas State University, Powell confirms on his renamed barfbag.com list that he did say the pornography industry behaves more responsibly than the food industry.  The response to his remarks, reported on another venue, Food Production Daily, was resounding.

Powell writes: "To the food industry types who emailed me with outrage, here's what I did say, with surrounding context:

'Bacteria don't care; there are outbreaks at big places, there are outbreaks at small places, there are outbreaks in local food, there's outbreaks in food from around the globe. People either know about bacteria and take steps to reduce the risk, or they don't. In fact, I would argue the porn industry is more responsible than the food industry.'"

His thinking: If a pornography movie actor is found to be HIV-positive, the industry shuts down production while tracing to the source. In the food industry, when there is an outbreak, consumers are told to cook their food better. "That'd be like the porn industry saying, use a condom," Powell wrote. BF