What is “less than 1%”? We keep hearing that number in reference to the amount of imports that get inspected by the FDA, but up until a few minutes ago, I didn’t know exactly how much less than 1% the actual number was. Do I dare tell you? Do you really want to know? Well, you should, so I am going to tell you anyway.

Whenever you read a news story about the FDA inspecting imports and you hear the now famous phrase “less then 1%” … you can substitute the actual number, which is 0.59%. Yes, I would say that is significantly less than 1%, wouldn’t you? In fact, I would describe that number as half of one percent. It’s a lot closer to 0.5% than it is to 1%.

I have the mind of a problem-solver and a puzzle-doer, and I often let it run free when I don’t need my mind for anything else, like while I am waiting for some bread dough to rise. I enjoy exploring possibilities, imagining potentialities, and putting together bits of information. The thing that keep running through my mind recently, and one of the foremost end results of my mind experiments (aside from the plain fact that the crap we eat will cause the downfall of civilization) is this: If so few inspections are happening, how do we know exactly what is coming into the country. Sure that big cargo box sitting on that ship says it contains fish from the sea, or plastic dolls, or diapers, but what if it doesn’t. Just sit for a moment and imagine with me the many things it could contain, and then join me for another moment in worry over the possibilities.

Sorry to be such a paranoid downer, but someone has to think about this stuff, and it doesn’t seem to me enough people are both thinking about it and talking about it. That needs to change.