We don't have enough e-coli, salmonella and other corporate produced food transmitted illness and death to suit republikkkans

Consumer groups such as the Food and Water Watch and the Consumer Federation of America are also not happy with the way the USDA is going about the initiative. Some say that the current inspection data does not give enough information for risk-based assessment to work properly, while others say that the move is reckless and probably just a way for the government to reduce spending.

The announcement has also ruffled some feathers on Capitol Hill. Representative Rosa DeLauro, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees USDA, said that she thinks it is a mistake for USDA to be moving forward on this at this time and she "will be monitoring what happens very closely."

The objections to the government's action boil down to two arguments. One is that by not involving all the stakeholders in the planning and design of the new system the government will not get the co-operation needed to make it work "transparently".

And the second argument that is being made by the objectors is that the data going into the risk assessment will be flawed.

This second point, if correct, is disturbing, for under the new system processing plants that are not deemed to be high risk will be inspected less often than those that are. The achilles heel of risk-based systems is the accuracy and reliability of the data. If you get the assessment wrong, then you could end up targetting the wrong plants and leaving higher risk plants out of the loop.

[...]