Update on S510–Food safety bill
Click on this link for an update. http://www.naturalnews.com/030789_Food_Safety_small_farmers.html
I’m afraid the horse is out of the barn and we are trying to close the door a little late. Will this lame duck congress never end?
The New Food Safety Bill
I have been urged to make some comments regarding Senate bill 510 which last week was passed in the senate with some republican support. Turns out it was an illegal bill because it called for some new revenue to be raised. Revenue bills can ONLY originate in the House. This week the house passed a version of the bill and sent it back to the senate, so the senate can vote on it again.
You can reference this bill numerous places, but here are 2 recent articles: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/12/food-safety-bill-clears-house/
http://www.naturalnews.com/030672_Food_Safety_bill_FDA.html
I have a few comments as follows:
1. Instead of being a nice clean food safety bill, it has now been attached to a spending bill…pork, pork, pork ( and not the edible kind)
2. How is the FDA going to police food that originates outside the U.S.? We are already only inspecting 5% or less of the food shipments coming into this country after the shipment is already here. How is the FDA going to inspect all the commercial packing houses, farms, and processing facilities in the whole world? The very idea that the FDA can protect us from food contamination from all sources is beyond imagination. (Stupid?)
3. Who wrote this bill? Who is in favor of it? Follow the money and power. The government supporters are those who were voted out in November. The industry supporters are the very large food processors and corporations. Why would they favor a mountain of new paperwork? Because they already have the lawyers in place to deal with it and they can spread the cost over millions of dollars of product. The smaller competition will be dealt a lethal economic blow. They are livid about the so called “Tester” amendment that exempts small producers from the paperwork burden of the bill. If we at Brady’s Beef and Brady’s Plant Ranch have to meet all of the requirements suggested by the bill it will probably force us out of business because our costs will go so high that you folks won’t be able to afford our food anymore.
4. We are concerned about food safety. We are concerned about our customers being healthy and wanting to come back to us for more food. Believe me, we want safe food too, because we eat it as well. A massive government bureacracy us not the solution. Cheaters and short cutters will always find a way to get around the inspectors. Integrity, hard work, knowlege, and transparency (customer farm visits) are the real solutions to having safe food.
If you see this in time, please urge your congressional delegation to vote no!
Challenge to your thinking about eating
One of our chioropractic Doctor customers has published a number of interesting articles that will challenge the way you think about how your eating habits affect your health directly. It is worth a read and some consideration. Here’s a link http://www.drkratka.com/Your_Health.php
He also gives us a mention by name in his blog at http://www.drkratka.com/blog/?cat=8 . I thought that was pretty cool.