Tag Archives: Powell

Nosestretcher alert: Kansas State launches global campus

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People will say anything with a straight face to keep their jobs, I guess.

Cheerleader-in-chief Kirk Shultz gushed that Kansas State now has a 4th campus! The K-State Global Campus.

hockey.team.apr.14Instead of embracing massive open on-line courses (MOOCs), Kansas State rebranded distance education as the global campus.

It’s the rise of the PR flunkies, and the addiction to distance ed fees at $2,000 a course.

It’s a racket.

Church, mob, university, everyone pays a tax, but this is ridiculous.

Hilarious, except I still pay Kansas taxes that go to support this crap.

I offered to develop MOOCs for food safety, arguing that safety was global, not isolated to some town in Kansas.

I got fired for not being on campus; for being global.

I had a graduate student develop a restaurant inspection disclosure system for New Zealand. I had another graduate student evaluate food training systems in Winnipeg, Manitoba (that’s in Canada).

For now, this is my classroom; far more rewarding (upper right).

Universities can be silly places.

Food terrorism poses eminent danger to US

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Food terrorism poses an eminent danger to the United States, according to antiterrorism specialists. While the need for higher quantities of food is only increasing, the standards for food safety have been at a standstill or worse—nonexistent.

The Voice of Russia got to interview three antiterrorism food experts on the rising threats in American society. Not only did they mention the dairy sector of being in danger, but the US’ produce is also in a compromising position.

south.park.terrorist“Many foods can be potential contaminants, especially fresh produce,” Dr. Douglas Powell, a former professor of food safety and publisher of barfblog.com confessed to the Voice of Russia.

A terrorist attack geared toward the food industry is a very real threat to the US and devastating effects would be felt if the dairy section were tainted with an illicit chemical, as babies, children, teens, adults, and seniors all consume milk products on a day-to-day basis. “The entire food industry is vulnerable to the terrorist threat in equal measure to the dairy sector, ” Antiterrorism Consulting, an engineer company specializing in consultancy and assessment of terrorists threats for specific industries, told the Voice of Russia in its opinion.

“It is incumbent on the manufacturers to have validated processes in place; government is just there as an occasional check,” Dr. Powell stressed. Making the world an even more connected entity has more likely than not worsened the situation when it comes to food safety. Regulatory agencies exist however they are not omnipresent organizations, leaving crucial gaps within the system. Pitfalls of this magnitude just make it far easier for terrorists to taint the food supply.

No one wants their kid to get sick from animals: best practices paper published

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From North Carolina, U.S. to Brisbane, Australia, outbreaks of E. coli, Salmonella and other pathogens related to petting zoos or animal exhibits have been devastating to the families involved.

We wanted to provide a checklist for parents, and the teachers who book these events.

Two veterinarians from Kansas State University – Gonzalo Erdozain who completed his Masters of Public Heath with me and is about to graduate as a vet, and Kate KuKanich, an assistant prof with whom I’ve had the pleasure gonzalo.pic_.may13-300x300of writing several papers with – joined with me and my BFF Chapman (until we have a fight over hockey) and we tried to produce some guidelines.

The uniting factor was – we all have kids.

We’ve all seen microbiologically terrible practices, and read about them from around the world, and thought, maybe we should try and provide some guidance.

And now it’s been published.

Gonzalo did the bulk of the work for his MPH, but we all contributed our experiences.

For me, it was going to the Ekka in Brisbane, something like the Texas State Fair. The petting zoo was absolute madness, and after living in Brisbane and hanging out with micro-types who told me, don’t go to the Ekka, you’ll get sick, we didn’t go last year.

Fourty-nine people got sick from E. coli O157.

North Carolina has had repeated and terrible outbreaks.

As a father of five daughters, I’ve had many requests over 20 years to go on a school trip to see the animals. As a food safety type, I’ve been kate.jackroutinely concerned about best practices. The other parents may dislike microbiology, but I’m concerned with the health and safety of the children involved.

I am extremely proud of this paper, with the hope that maybe there will be fewer sick kids. I’m also extremely proud to be associated with my co-authors.

Best practices for planning events encouraging human-animal interactions

03.Apr.14

Zoonoses and Public Health DOI: 10.1111/zph.12117

doug.ben.familyG. Erdozain , K. KuKanich , B. Chapman  and D. Powell

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zph.12117/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

03.Apr.14

Zoonoses and Public Health

G. Erdozain , K. KuKanich , B. Chapman  and D. Powell

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zph.12117/abstract?deniedAccess

Educational events encouraging human–animal interaction include the risk of zoonotic disease transmission. ‘It is estimated that 14% of all disease in the USA caused by Campylobacter spp., Cryptosporidium spp., Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157, non-O157 STECs, Listeria monocytogenes, nontyphoidal Salmonella enterica and Yersinia enterocolitica were attributable to animal contact. This article reviews best practices for organizing events where human–animal interactions are encouraged, with the objective of lowering the risk of zoonotic disease transmission.

(And it was Amy that noticed the thing had been published; always ahead by a century.)

petting.zoo.guidelines

Texas A & M Center for Food Safety announces new monthly column by Doug Powell of barfblog.com

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The Texas A&M Center for Food Safety is proud to announce a new monthly column by Doug Powell of barfblog.com, starting March 19. This new feature will be available on the Texas A&M Center for Food Safety’s website, CFS.TAMU.EDU, along with other original content currently in production.

“Dr. Powell offers a unique and sometimes irreverent view of food safety issues – he always ‘hits the nail on the head’ and will challenge your comfort zone,” said Texas A&M doug.goalie.feb.14Center for Food Safety director, Gary Acuff. “I am thrilled that we convinced him to write a monthly column for us and I know he will be a favorite feature on our website.”

This column kicks off a new initiative of original content designed for academics, industry members and consumers. Look for videos, infographics and additional columns coming very soon.

Join us Wednesday, March 19th as we launch the first piece in our special feature series and keep checking back for more fresh new content from the Texas A&M Center for Food Safety.

My food safety year

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The only job I ever wanted was to be a professor. I can do lots of things, but like my dad and uncle used to tell me, just make sure you’re really good at whatever you do.

I followed this girl to Australia, because she got a job at a uni that was much better for her.

Kansas State let me work remotely for about a year, since all my teaching and research were on-line, and then decided I had bad attendance at faculty meetings and didn’t hold aldi_surfing_santa_ham_1their hands during tea, and fired me.

When I received confirmation of the firing in April, I was in Kansas and thought a few bottles of bourbon would help me through. When I tried to clean up the next day, I had withdrawal issues and ended up in hospital followed by two weeks at the rehab resort.

It was rough on Amy, her being in Australia.

I worked in the kitchen, mainly cleaning dishes, but the woman who ran the kitchen had microbial food safety down; I couldn’t stump her and she had her thermometer on her uniform.

On the day I left, I told the 100 or so drunks, pill, meth, coke and glue addicts I would rather talk with them than any colleague I knew at my university (other than Dean Ralph).

Full professor, I got nothing. I didn’t even get paid for the last three weeks I worked, jon.stewart.competence.13because no one had bothered to tell me when I was fired. I chaired a MS student’s defense, and I wasn’t even employed.

Excellence in education.

I floated around for a few months, then got a gracious offer to join a private firm, but after three months, I resigned. It wasn’t me. I’m not a vice-president of anything.

When Kansas State president Kirk Shultz writes, as he did yesterday in response to a restrictive Kansas policy on social media use, “Disagreements are part of almost any family, but at the end of the day we always find ways to resolve our differences,” I just sigh, and don’t care anymore. People can believe what they like.

I’m back to my focus on food safety. The stuff that makes people barf. Happy surfing Santa.

Sparky Anderson, WKRP and stuff

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“When you tell them they can’t do it, they think you’re talking about life, when all you’re talking about is second base.”

That’s what baseball manager Sparky Anderson – after he was fired — told WKRP station manager Arthur Carlson in a favorite 1979 episode of the TV wkrp.sparkyshow which was way influential on me.

I’ve had to cut, or let go, little girls from a travel hockey team, I’ve had to deal with disappointment, but it doesn’t mean I failed at life. Maybe I just sucked at skating.

And maybe I just sucked at being a vice-president.

As Sparky says, “When you run a team you have to make decisions … I got my team and you got your team … if there’s anything I can ever do for you, just let me know.” (the relevant bit is about 20:30).

My new job

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Amy says I haven’t looked happier.

She hadn’t really seen what it was like when me, Chapman, Wilson and others would swoop in on a food safety crisis and focus our abilities and solutions.

sorenne.doug.usa.today.jun.11We always got a bit of a thrill out of that.

But now, I get the chance again in my new role as vice-president of communication for IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group.

I was attracted to Mansour’s message and offer because of his willingness to combine food safety risk assessment, management and communication – the version of risk analysis I’ve been promoting for 20 years; failure at one means failure at all.

And food safety is global; so is IEH.

I will be based in Brisbane but on call 24-7, just like the good old days.

Bye-bye bites-l, hello dailybarf

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The barfblog.com brain trust decided a few months ago to get rid of bites-l and centralize around barfblog.com.
American Independence Day seems apt, so welcome to dailybarf-O-Brother-Where-Art-Thoul.

Although it probably won’t be daily; the brain trust will figure it out as it goes.

Any immediate stuff will be on barfblog.com, twitter and facebook. When there’s enough stuff, a dailybarf will be distributed, along with additional items that were not blogged – dailybarf is like the daily digest with bonus tracks.

For those of you who signed-on-or-off for bites-l in the past month, sorry, you’ll probably have to do it again.

To sign up, go to barfblog.com and enter your e-mail in the receive newsletter box visible after scrolling down on the right side.

To unsubscribe, click the button at the bottom of dailybarf.

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