The story adds that to boost the industry's lobbying efforts, scientists from the National Food Processors Association's research lab frequently visit Capitol Hill to hold classroom-style briefings for lawmakers and their aides. Food processors also invite congressional staff to tour their facilities. Consumer groups and other food safety lobbyists counter these efforts by trying to generate grassroots support in the form of letters, phone calls and e-mails. Members of the New York City-based STOP, or Safe Tables Our Priority, have visited congressional offices to tell their stories of loved ones who died after eating contaminated food. It is an issue which affects every single voter in a way that even the highway transportation bill doesn't.
Some voters drive but everyone eats.
In Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, kebabs have temporarily been banned after several people developed anthrax from eating infected meat. Anthrax is usually transmitted by handling infected carcasses or inhaling spores. Peter Turnbull, an anthrax specialist at Britain's chemical and biological defence laboratory at Porton Down in Wiltshire was cited as saying that anthrax spores are not destroyed by cooking and infected meat can be hard to recognise. The story adds that the Kazakh victims were treated with antibiotics. The daughter of a resident of the Daughters of Miriam Center, who died after testing positive for salmonella, was cited as hiring a lawyer to investigate the death.