Production conditions at two Iowa egg facilities owned and operated by DeCoster Farms have caused anationwide egg recall due to a salmonella outbreak. Unsurprisingly, these events have caused a national media feeding frenzy. A Google search a few minutes ago using the words “egg” and “recall” show 2,207 news stories. The TV talking heads can’t get enough either. The story is everywhere. But, what makes this interesting is what isn’t being said and who isn’t speaking.
When I inserted the word “Grassley” next to “egg” and “recall” the Google search comes up empty. The same when I substitute “Conlin,” “Culver,” and “Branstad.” “Harkin” results in 12 news stories. Senator Harkin has long been involved in food safety and agricultural issues and he is helping shepherd new regulations through Congress, an effort that began before the outbreak started in May. Harkin is quoted this morning by Politico about this bill, but like his colleagues above he says nothing about the apparently shameful practices by the two giant Iowa egg facilities at the center of the controversy.
Elected officials and candidates for those offices often chase stories like the one swirling around DeCoster farms. Iowa’s reputation as an agricultural leader is being sullied. One would think this would have these officials clamoring to comment, taking action and assuring the people of Iowa that they are on top of this to ensure bad things like this will never happen on their watch. Instead, we have silence.
I am sure the Grassley, Conlin, Culver, Branstad and Harkin teams will say they are not prepared to comment on an ongoing investigation, or something similarly side-steplike. Maybe, but I am hard-pressed to recall another time when they were able to muster such bipartisan and uniform restraint.
The egg facilities in question are big, no, giant operations. Here’s hoping the Grassley, Conlin, Culver, Branstad and Harkin silence is a result of prudence to uncover facts before speaking and not some sort of sensitivity because DeCoster is a political heavy weight. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of eggs have been recalled, people have gotten sick and Iowa’s reputation is being questioned by talking heads and newspaper columnists from Maine to California.
At some point Iowans deserve to hear what Grassley, Conlin, Culver, Branstad and Harkin think about the egg factories in question and what they plan to do to make sure another salmonella outbreak doesn’t happen again in the future.
Update to original post:
After I submitted this piece this morning, I was asked by a reader why I did not include comments by Bill Northey, Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture, and his Democrat challenger, Francis Thicke. This is a good point and I regret the oversight.
I clicked on the official Secretary of Agriculture website and went to the News and Events page. The left side has slew of press releases. None of them concern the egg recall. The right side of the page lists “Hot Topics.” Surely, I thought, something about the egg recall will be there. There are links to the following:
Goff Partnership Field Day Postponed
Emerald Ash Bore
Crop and Weather Report
Distillers Grains
Ethanol
E85
E85 Fueling Locations and More
Iowa Watershed Projects (New)
Iowa Agriculture Quick Facts
Publications
Request for Bids
Request for Applications
Wergin Good Farm Neighbor
Nothing about eggs. Odd, I would have thought the egg recall would have been the hottest of topics on Agiculture Secretary Bill Northey’s page.
His challenger Francis Thicke does pop up on Google news when you search on his name, “egg” and “recall.” He is going to be on Ed Fallon’s radio show to talk on the topic on Thursday. Maybe Fallon will be able to get a few of the others to call in and let us know what they are thinking.
If I stumble across anything else, I will post it.
Update 3:30 p.m., 08/25/2010:
In the last 24 hours many of those I listed above have spoken about this issue. Links to their comments can be found here.
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