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People are worth more than peanuts!
By Lauren | February 12, 2009
When word got out last fall that babies were dying in China from consuming contaminated formula, the U.S. media were - quite rightly - all over China’s government for failing to establish and maintain appropriate quality controls on consumer goods. Kids are, after all, a nation’s future, and they’re especially vulnerable. What kind of people knowingly sell contaminated products to children, and what kind of regulators let them get away with it?
And just how awful is it that we now need to ask those same questions in the United States?
The story that’s emerging out of the “salmonella in the peanut butter” situation is horrifying on so many levels. We’ve learned that the Peanut Corp. of America, the company that seems to have been the source of a salmonella epidemic that sickened hundreds and may have killed up to eight people, had reason to believe as far back as 2006 that its products were contaminated, but continued to sell and ship them. We’ve seen the owner of the company, Stewart Parnell, hide behind the Fifth Amendment rather than testify that he would eat his company’s products in a Congressional hearing. It appears that Parnell may have knowingly sold contaminated peanut paste and butter to approximately fifty manufacturers of ice cream, cookies, and crackers, putting his company’s bottom line ahead of consumer safety. And it also appears that state and federal health authorities and the manufacturers who bought the tainted goods all failed to recognize that there was a problem until the salmonella outbreak had reached epidemic proportions. Shouldn’t they have been testing products, too?
This situation is particularly appalling because, as we all know, peanut butter is a favorite food of children, and, until recently, provides a reliable source of calories and protein to the elderly and infirm. Aren’t those the very people who most need to be protected? If Parnell and the Peanut Corp. of America knowingly risked poisoning vulnerable consumers, they deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the criminal law. The regulatory community has a lot to answer for as well, though. Sadly, there will probably always be unethical people who are willing to hurt almost anyone for money. Regulators are there to stop those people from injuring the public, but it appears that the regulators who were responsible here failed to fulfill their fundamental obligations.
This is America, folks. Our kids deserve better.
Topics: Business Ethics, Social Ethics, corporate responsibility, ethics |
February 16th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Lauren,
I have noticed a fair amount of commentary on this recently, and the anger evident within the general public within the states is more than justified.
It is difficult to criticize people for taking advantage of their legal rights. Nevertheless, if Peanut Corporation had done nothing wrong, you would have thought that Mr. Parnell would have been clamoring to defend his company during the Congressional process, and his reluctance to do so arouses suspicion of something to hide.
February 16th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Hi Lauren, I found your blog through Andrew’s post today. It’s excellent - I’ve already subscribed. How is it these ethical abominations keep happening and happening and happening? Ethics aside, between the threat of public backlash and an avalanche of legal action, one would think companies wouldn’t risk getting within 100 miles of cutting this kind of corner. Greed must be one powerful motivator.
February 16th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Hi Brad,
Thanks for writing in, and for the kind words. Obviously, you can’t say enough about just how wrong it is to sell tainted food to kids, seniors and invalids. I suspect we’ll learn over time that it wasn’t so much greed that motivated Peanut Corp. as short-sightedness and desperation to keep products moving out the door. When people lose sight of the big picture, they often make ethical mistakes that come back to haunt them.
Welcome to the blog!
Best,
Lauren