Food safety bill moves forward in Senate

[struggle4progress]

The legislation had been languishing, but food contaminations, including summer's massive egg recall, have pushed the issue to the forefront. The bill faces challenges, including opposition from leading Republicans.
By Lisa Mascaro, Los Angeles Times
November 18, 2010

Reporting from Washington — A long-stalled food safety bill advanced in the Senate on Wednesday, drawing unusual bipartisan support at a time when food-borne illnesses, including last summer's largest recall of eggs in U.S. history, have sickened thousands.

The Food Safety Modernization Act would increase agricultural inspections and require enhanced industry recordkeeping. The vote was 74-25, with all Democrats and more than a dozen Republicans in support. A final vote is expected later this week.

"Let's not go another day without providing the protection that families across America expect and deserve when they buy food," said Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Il.), a chief sponsor of the legislation. "Help ensure that the food on America's tables is safe."

The White House issued a statement of support ...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/la-fi-food-safety-20101118,0,3744594.story

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Does this Bill have an amendment concerning nutritional supplements (Codex Alimentarius)?

[struggle4progress]

2. Here, knock yourself out:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.875:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.510:

Let us know what you learn

[emcguffie]

3. It's a nightmare bill --

-- if one quarter of what I've read about it is true. Personally, I am very alarmed. Someone's been trying to get Codex Alimentarius through in the US for a very long time. And yes, it pretends to be promoting food safety, but would actually will access to vitamins and supplements.

From Natural News (http://www.naturalnews.com /030418_Food_Safety_Modernization_Act_seeds.html)
(See third paragraph for Codex Alimentarius reference.)

This tyrannical law puts all food production (yes, even food produced in your own garden) under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security. Yep -- the very same people running the TSA and its naked body scanner / passenger groping programs.

This law would also give the U.S. government the power to arrest any backyard food producer as a felon (a "smuggler") for merely growing lettuce and selling it at a local farmer's market.

It also sells out U.S. sovereignty over our own food supply by ceding to the authority of both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Codex Alimentarius.

It would criminalize seed saving (http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/20...), turning backyard gardeners who save heirloom seeds into common criminals. This is obviously designed to give corporations like Monsanto a monopoly over seeds.

It would create an unreasonable paperwork burden that would put small food producers out of business, resulting in more power over the food supply shifting to large multinational corporations.

From Food Freedom (http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/seeds-how-to-criminalize-them/):

March 19, 2009
By Linn Cohen-Cole

Wisdom says stop a bill that is broad as everything yet more vague even than it is broad.

Wisdom says stop a bill that comes with massive penalties but allows no judicial review.

Wisdom says stop a bill with everything unspecified and actually waits til next year for an unspecified “Administrator” to decide what’s what.

Where we come from, that’s called a blank check. Who writes laws like that? ”Here, do what you want about whatever you want and here’s some deadly punishments to make it stick.”

Wisdom says know who wrote that bill and be forewarned.

Wisdom says wake up.

[Earth_First]

4. +1

I am placing a much larger than usual order for my seeds this winter from seedsavers.org in response to what might happen to heirloom varieties and seed catalogs.

[struggle4progress]

5. I looked through S510. The word "smuggler" does not even occur in the text. Neither does "seed."

The sole reference to "World Trade Organization" is this boilerplate:

SEC. 404. COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL AGREE5MENTS.
Nothing in this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) shall be construed in a manner inconsistent with the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization or any other treaty or international agreement to which the United States is a party.

The intent of that boilerplate is that the legislation not be claimed as amending any treaty the US has signed

The sole reference to "Codex Alimentarius" is this:

SEC. 306. BUILDING CAPACITY OF FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS WITH RESPECT TO FOOD.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, not later than 2 years of the date of enactment of this Act, develop a comprehensive plan to expand the technical, scientific, and regulatory capacity of foreign governments, and their respective food industries, from which foods are exported to the United States ...
(c) PLAN.—The plan developed under subsection (a) shall include, as appropriate, the following: ...
(5) Recommendations on whether and how to harmonize requirements under the Codex Alimentarius ...

Who came up with the ridiculous bullshizz you posted?

[superduperfarleft]

6. "if one quarter of what I've read about it is true"

Luckily for you, considering your sources, far more than one quarter of what you've been reading is untrue.

The regulation of supplements is long overdue.


http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/organic.asp

http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/vitamins.asp