▪️The average person seeing this meme would assume the Trump Administration is removing safety regulations at the behest of big chicken, but that’s not at all what happened.
▪️There is no change in any rule, the poultry industry is still under the same regulations as they’ve been for decades. This was a proposed rule that has been withdrawn. There were over 7,000 public comments on the proposal, and the agency said:
🔹“the comments have raised several important issues that warrant further consideration. Therefore, FSIS is withdrawing the “Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry Products” proposed rule and proposed determination to allow the Agency to further assess its approach for addressing Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products.”
▪️Indeed, Pilgrim’s Pride was among one of the comments, but they agreed with the rule proposal! They were a little more nuanced, saying certain aspects should be modified and the implementation dates changed. But they were overall in support.
https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FSIS-2023-0028-6982
▪️It was actually the small farm poultry producers that were most opposed to this change. As with most regulations, larger companies can more easily absorb the costs and are less affected.
▪️For example, one small (“women owned”) producer, called Towering Oaks Farms posted a comment opposed to the rule. She pointed out that this proposal would require small producers to test a much higher percentage of their chickens than large producers.
https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FSIS-2023-0028-7070
▪️She noted increased costs to comply could result in 40% of slaughter facilities closing, which would mean many small farms might not have access to compliant facilities. This would cause many small producers to discontinue poultry production, even make it so farmers can’t get their birds back for their own consumption!
▪️Other small producers posted similar comments. If anything, it appears this proposal was withdrawn more after listening to concerns of small farmers than large ones.
Here’s the Fox LA article referenced:
https://www.livenowfox.com/news/usda-salmonella-levels-raw-poultry-usda-withdraws-plan
So many of these right wing accounts are just whiners now, this is a diatribe about automatic sinks and towels, the horror! As I explained in a prior post, most of the newer terminals have great bathrooms, some now have completely private stalls and plenty of them. The worst and most crowded airport bathrooms are invariably found in aging terminals that are decades old. It’s a reminder that airports were usually drab and uncomfortable.
I think the heyday of the air hand-dryers was like 15-20 years ago, where often you couldn’t find real towels. Now you can at least usually get real paper towels in airport bathrooms. Remember those old cloth roller towels that would go in a loop and somehow “clean” themselves? Yuck! Public bathrooms have always been gross, it seems some are deliberately having selective memories.
Airport food and drinks were always expensive, but now practically everyone brings those huge cooler flasks with them and fills them up. So not sure what he means that ...
I first critiqued this terrible take by looking at how food has actually improved substantially. Even though I said the same could be done in every category, people said “you’re only doing food.” So let’s do air travel and see why it’s not gotten better, not worse.
▪️Aircraft have greatly improved. Just 15-20 years ago, many domestic routes (~15%) were flown by turboprops like the Brasilia, Dash 8 or Saab. Now, almost everything is in jets, and most aircraft have WiFi. Some even have Starlink, where you probably have faster WiFi than your home. Most major airlines offer dozens or hundreds of movies and shows to watch.
▪️Newer designs like the 787 have lower cabin altitudes and improved humidity, which make a huge difference in passenger comfort on long haul flights. The first/business class international market has gotten very competitive globally, with many carriers offering excellent service and amenities. Pods, suites, showers, etc. Coach still sucks but is dramatically cheaper ...
This is the complete opposite of an empirical fact. The right has now joined the left in being pessimistic about the modern world and completely unappreciative of the amazing abundance we now have. I’ll just focus on food here, but you could do it for almost every category.
▪️Fresh produce used to be available only in season. In the winter it was canned or frozen. People used to send fruit for Christmas gifts, it was that much of a luxury good. Now, you can get giant, sweet berries year around in every grocery store. Corn on the cob in February. Not to mention once rare items like dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes or baby bok choy.
▪️If you didn’t live on the coast, seafood was either not available, frozen, or extremely expensive. If you lived in the Midwest and traveled to coastal locales you would quite literally be able to eat food you had never seen. Salmon has become much more abundant and accessible. You can get fresh ahi at Walmart today. Sushi and oyster bars exist everywhere ...
