Problems with a clinical trial of the drug's safety were outlined in a May article in The Wall Street Journal.

A Sanofi official told the Journal this week that "the medical benefits outweigh the risk" of Ketek, even as the FDA said, "We clearly now understand that there is a risk of serious liver injury with Ketek."

The risk from Gardasil, according to some critics, is a moral hazard -- it might tend to encourage premarital, and possibly dangerous, sexual activity. The advisory committee's recommendation means that at least some -- and, plausibly, most -- states will make it mandatory for school attendance and pay for those who can't afford it.

Colorado-based Focus on the Family told United Press International's Mara Gordon it is not opposed to the HPV vaccine for individuals, but state mandates prevent families from making the choice themselves.

"This is not a disease that you're going to communicate, transmit or contract sitting in a classroom," said Linda Klepacki, a sexual-health analyst for Focus on the Family, a culturally conservative organization. "You really have to go out and get it."

While the FDA says the vaccine is very safe, others are raising questions about that as well. The National Vaccine Information Center, a group that favors choice and greater informed consent in U.S. immunization policy, issued a statement earlier in the week calling on the CDC committee to reject mandating the vaccine.

NVIC said clinical trials by manufacturer Merck were inadequate.

"Merck and the FDA have not been completely honest with the people about the pre-licensure clinical trials," said NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher. "Merck's pre- and post-licensure marketing strategy has positioned mass use of this vaccine by pre-teens as a morality play in order to avoid talking about the flawed science they used to get it licensed. This is not just about teenagers having sex, it is also about whether Gardasil has been proven safe and effective for little girls."

Merck, on the contrary, said the trials -- and the FDA approval followed by the CDC recommendation -- show its safety has been established.

On the menu of the Rose & Crown, an 18th-century coaching inn in Romaldkirk in England's Yorkshire Dales, is Mr. Woodall's mature Cumberland ham with fresh figs.

There's also Loch Fyne smoked salmon, cheeses from neighboring farms and a host of other local possibilities which, while not bearing anyone's name in particular, have been sourced from an area within easy driving distance of the pub.

Apart from the delight of eating stuff that comes from somewhere you can picture in your mind as you stare out of the ancient windows beyond the old stocks (in which minor offenders were clamped to face public scorn) and up to hills spotted with free-grazing sheep rising into the distance, should you have any complaint (unlikely) with what you've consumed, you know where to go with it.

Sourcing food locally not only means supporting local growers, it also means that they have to maintain a standard both in taste and safety that guarantees they won't be deluged by diners waving fists and cudgels in response to some food drama that may have overwhelmed their stomachs or their taste buds.

But because so little food is locally sourced, we should be glad of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

This is one of the better achievements of the World Trade Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The Codex forms the basis of food legislation in many of the countries that are signatories to it -- some 173 member states plus the European Community.

It is meeting again next week to look at new proposals that should protect us further from disease caused by food contamination.

It will be discussing, among many subjects, the maximum acceptable level for lead in fish; the maximum limit for cadmium (which can give you kidney damage) in rice, mollusks and more; ways to prevent contamination of Brazil nuts by carcinogenic aflatoxin, and the means to prevent and reduce toxic and carcinogenic dioxin and other PCB contaminants in food and feed.

But of real interest is that the members will tackle the issue of antibiotics in animal feed. Should everyone agree, a Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance will be established.

At last we could see something done about the established fact that antibiotics in animals can produce bacteria that become resistant to drugs in animals and humans. These bacteria can appear in our food through the slaughtering process. Once we consume disease-resistant bacteria, it is possible they could cause diseases in us for which we have no known treatment.

If it goes through, the Codex Task Force would be free to develop a risk assessment policy to lower the food safety hazards associated with the use of antimicrobials, as these are called.

Let's hope there's no resistance from the delegates.

But our best protection from unsafe food is to buy, as best we can, food that has traceability. Suppliers who are proud enough of their foods to reveal who they are, and where they are operating, are unlikely to be tampering with their produce. If we look after their livelihoods by supporting them, they will look after the quality of what we eat.

You many not be able to buy Mr. Woodall's ham unless you travel to the north of England. But what the Rose & Crown did with it can be emulated by anyone with a local supply of good Parma or Serano ham, which his Cumberland ham is not unlike.

Just ask your supplier to cut two slices per person as thinly as possible. Pleat it loosely on a plate and set beside it a couple of really ripe figs you have cut through only up to their stems in four. Then glug over the ham a little really good olive oil and a grinding of black pepper.

It's important with Parma ham not to buy it too far ahead. Like other products of quality, the fresher it is, the better it tastes. And anyone who takes the fat off the ham should be put into the stocks at Romaldkirk: The proportion of fat to lean is a vital part of Parma ham's appeal.