That's the Topp's Chuckles

"The better we inspect and protect our food supply, the safer we are against bacteria that can come both from unsafe plants and from people looking to cause harm and wreak havoc by tainting our food supply," Schumer said. "We need to be more vigilant than ever, and that applies to everything from airline security to food safety." - Senator Charles Schumer

If Chuck Schumer ever worked as more than a mimeograph boy for Stanley Kaplan in the private sector, he might realize that Joe and Eileen Bailey can fend for themselves in the open marketplace. The recent shutdown of the Topp's Meat Co. is evidence of a market mechanism succeeding. If companies fail because of poor performance or negligence to their customer's, that failure is a success in terms of a mechanism which does not reward failure. One could conceive of an FDA scheme which might let offending companies off the hook if regular inspections failed to catch the problem, limiting liability based on the negligence of inspectors. Perhaps that company might even be eligible for emergency relief funds under the guise of a special fund or grant with lofty aspirations and ideals. After all, companies have an incentive to keep customer's safe and happy, it's simply not the world one hundred years ago when Upton Sinclair was exposing the nightmare world of meat production.