Welcome to The Jungle!

photo: Farm Sanctuary

The USDA is moving towards a new policy on poultry manufacturing, although you wouldn't know it from reading the news. The change is based on the HIMP program, a Russian nesting doll of acronyms* that was started in the late '90s as a pilot program in a small number of factories. HIMP encourages the use of antimicrobial sprays to keep down the prevalence of harmful bacteria like Salmonella, because you aren't already eating enough poison, and some of the beneficial bacteria in your gut are probably still alive. The main idea, though, is to de-emphasize the role of USDA inspectors, instead relying on companies to regulate themselves by paying for their own inspections.

If there's anything we've learned from the last few years of world-class corporate citizenship, it's that companies are excellent at self-regulation, and will always put their long-term interests and those of others over short-

Kids these days have no work ethic!

term profits. If you aren't providing an honest, clean service or product, people won't buy it  and you'll go out of business: it's simple economics! That's why the previous Gilded Age was such a treat - clean working conditions, sanitary food, and social and economic justice, all enforced solely by market forces. No need for big government breathing down your neck.
Besides, as the hilariously-named National Chicken Council and the USDA both enthusiastically declare, this is about modernization! And global competition! In the global marketplace, there's really no choice but to cut regulation until we can compete with China in production of basic goods such as food and coal. They don't have these stifling regulations and things are fine over there, right?

probably not
photo: Atlantic Cities

Sometimes deregulation makes sense; having worked at a VA hospital for three years, I have seen regulation that is excessive and acknowledge that it exists. But asking factory farm owners to inspect their own factories is pretty clearly not a good idea. As someone who has personally slaughtered and gutted (and then eaten!) a chicken, I can attest that it is a very messy (though ultimately delicious) process. This regulation basically amounts to trusting factory farms, and a little antimicrobial spray is not going to make me feel any better about that. 

Disclaimer: I want to stress that this is not a scientific viewpoint, but a political one. The data currently out suggests that the pilot program (HACCP) that is the predecessor of HIMP improved Salmonella rates in meat. But there is good reason to be suspicious of these studies. If you were an executive at a corporation like Tyson that has a serious interest in getting this regulation changed, you just might make an extra effort to thoroughly inspect the few plants where the pilot program is running, while the government is watching closely. 

*The full name of HIMP is the "HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control-Points)-based Inspection Models Project", so you know they're hiding something juicy** behind all that obfuscation 

**Juice may be derived from chicken pus and innards, and natural or artificial flavors. Individual results may vary.