The US food system is widely recognized as one of the safest in the world. Nevertheless, about one in every six American is sick every year from eating a contaminated food product. Food safety incidents often make the news and many perceive the US food system as vulnerable.

In late May, a deadly mutant strain of E. coli broke out in Germany and spread across at least 12 countries. The bacterium, which is more toxic and infectious than any other known strain of E coli, left 1,800 infected and 18 dead by early June.

Cutting funding to organizations that oversee food safety and drug approval would have a counterproductive impact.

The costs to society - economically and socially - from setting policies based on fear rather than science are significant. The fear of synthetic chemicals diverts our focus and drains public funds from addressing documented dangers.

Mindless cuts that are utterly penny-wise and pound-foolish show how distorted our deliberative process has become. In the headlong rush to provide a better fiscal future for our children, we should not be providing a less safe present for all of us.

Tom Friedman wishes America could be more like China. Specifically, he wishes we could adopt their authoritarian style in pursuit of the so-called green revolution and clean energy.

The ultimate losers as the Chevron and Ecuador case drags on will be the locals in the villages originally polluted.

President Obama seems to believes that experts have all the answers and therefore automatically assumes that his preferred policies are so obviously right that there is no need to debate them, but there is always going to be a downside to even the best policies because the experts do not know as much as they think they do.