Over these past few years, America has experienced critical shortages of basic household items for the first time since rationing during World War II. These shortages in food supplies are common in socialist-style managed economies like in Venezuela and Cuba.
Yet consumers in a prosperous superpower such as the United States have had the “Havana Experience” in their groceries.
That was expected to some degree during the COVID lockdowns in early 2020. But we are over two years removed from that time. The difference has more to do with the administration in Washington than the global pandemic. The Food and Drug Administration closed Abbott Laboratories’ Powdered Infant Formula (PIF) factory to investigate for Cronobacter.
Cronobacter is a naturally occurring bacteria that affects newborns from birth to six months and can pose a danger to babies under one year old. It is rare and difficult to detect with current approved methods. The FDA found no Cronobacter at the PIF facility but found other minor violations.
Until recently, that facility had been closed without regard for the significant supply chain effect.
Liberal policies and bureaucracy have essentially shut down 40 percent of PIF manufacturing and sent parents scrambling to acquire formula off the internet and from foreign suppliers. Far too much of our national supply of PIF was being produced at one singular facility. For national security reasons alone, there is no reason our federal government should have entered into such a flawed contract.
As someone with an extensive background in the pharmaceutical and food-production industries with experience with overseas supply chain management, I understand the unique obstacles that have created this latest unacceptable crisis. It has created anxiety for America’s mothers trying to care for their babies.
Over my 25 years specializing in quality control and equipment, I have dealt firsthand with FDA inspectors who spend more time creating bureaucracy than finding actual solutions to problems. Government meddling by unelected federal bureaucrats pushing an ideological agenda has caused these hardships that are unthinkable for generations of Americans.
As a nation and in communities across New Hampshire, we are feeling the consequences of elections driven by partisanship and not real life and business experience. This election for Congress will either normalize these new hardships or return our nation to abundance.
