Food Safety Insufficient Service (FSIS)

A partial thought tangent...

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) came up today in my public policy class. As with many things I encounter, I have a bone to pick; this time concerning the merit of this department.

FSIS regulates the treatment of "chicken", the food. It does not concern the treatment of "chickens", the animal. For me as a consumer, the difference between these two types of protection are marginal. Although "poultry" is inspected, living chickens (and turkeys and ducks) generally aren't. Though living animals may not waiver in the same fragile state of sanitation that meat endures, my argument is that their health while alive is nonetheless pivotal to the health of those who consume them as meat.

This FSIS inspection short-coming is significant when it comes to my own dollar which, as a result, is not spent on chicken. I must ask whether or not consumer safety is not equally at stake in the treatment and health of living animals as well. Think of the moral issues brought up with the recent approval of cloned-animal meats. Though this arguably has little effect on the sanitation, packaging, preparation of meat (as addressed by FSIS),isn't the matter of public health, for some, substantial nonetheless? Shouldn't consumers be protected through the health of animals, before they are regarded only as "meat" and intended for consumption?