In the past three years, the government has provided the nation's schools with millions of pounds of beef and chicken that wouldn't meet the quality or safety standards of many fast-food restaurants, from Jack in the Box and other burger places to chicken chains such as KFC, a USA TODAY investigation found.The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the meat it buys for the National School Lunch Program "meets or exceeds standards in commercial products."
That isn't always the case. McDonald's, Burger King and Costco, for instance, are far more rigorous in checking for bacteria and dangerous pathogens. They test the ground beef they buy five to 10 times more often than the USDA tests beef made for schools during a typical production day.
Yet people want government-run health care/public options etc, but I'm far from convinced that government officials have the knowledge and incentives present in the competitive market place.
In addition, companies that sell bottled water get the business from critics because they pull water from municipal water supplies. But the companies further filter that water to get rid of medicines and other nasties in the water supplies. After all, there's nothing like the discipline of a competitive marketplace to get you on the straight and narrow.