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| On December 8, the House of Representatives passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) H.R.3082. A CR is supposed to provide temporary, stopgap funding for the government while budget bills are worked out. But this CR included the language of the Senate food safety bill—language that will still affect small food producers (organic farms, small farms, mom-and-pop roadside stands, etc.) most of all. It will completely transform the food and farming industries—for the worse. (It “could” be used against individuals raising their own food or wanting to share it with friends, family or neighbors.) Putting the text of another bill into a CR is a prime example of the way Congress operates. It is ethically wrong; indeed it is an example of corruption. We saw this kind of slight of hand in the passage of the health reform legislation, and the American public should be fed up with it. Now this House CR goes back to the Senate, which is expected to pick it up by the middle of next week. The rumor is that instead of dealing with the CR directly, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) will introduce the Senate’s own omnibus bill (even larger than the CR) that will also contain the food safety language along and who knows what else. This is a bad bill, on its own or attached to another piece of legislation. We are grateful that the changes we lobbied for have stayed in the bill, including the exemption for supplements from Codex language and the Tester amendment that protects small farms from some of the bill’s provisions. But the bill still gives the FDA much too much control over farming in general and small producers in particular. Three specific concerns remain, all major: 1. The bill mandates that every registered facility must be inspected by the FDA: high-risk facilities will be inspected initially within the first five years and then every three years thereafter; low-risk facilities, initially within seven years, and then every five. The FDA will need to hire an additional 5,000 employees to do all the inspections. Big companies love this, because the FDA will be so bogged down inspecting all the smaller operations that they won’t have time to focus on the big guys—where the actual food safety problems arise. Food safety legislation should be targeted at the large industrial farms, but, no surprise, this bill does just the opposite. 2. Language in the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act currently reads: An officer or qualified employee of the Food and Drug Administration may order the detention, in accordance with this subsection, of any article of food that is found during an inspection, examination, or investigation under this chapter conducted by such officer or qualified employee, if the officer or qualified employee has credible evidence or information indicating that such article presents a threat of serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals. Under this bill, the boldfaced text above would be changed to: if the officer or qualified employee has reason to believe that such article is adulterated or misbranded. And remember, as interpreted by the FDA, a food or supplement may be deemed “adulterated” if there have been any record-keeping violations. “Misbranded” can mean that the producer makes a completely true statement about the product but without FDA permission. So when the FDA is inspecting a facility, if they merely believe an item is misbranded or adulterated — no concrete evidence is required—they can confiscate all of that product. If there is a suspected record-keeping error for a supplement, the entire stock can be taken by the FDA. 3. A company has to be registered to operate. Under this bill, if the FDA finds there to be a reasonable probability that a product may cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals, the FDA may suspend that facility’s registration, effectively shutting it down. This seems reasonable, but there is only one informal opportunity for companies to reinstate registration, with no opportunity whatsoever to appeal—they are at the mercy of an FDA inspector’s whim. This should not be allowed in America. Why does all of this matter? Keep in mind the FDA has consistently done Big Pharma’s bidding and has attacked supplement companies and small food producers (such as the cherry and walnut growers). The bill gives the FDA unbridled authority to ratchet things up even further. The FDA needs to focus on large producers, not get its tentacles onto small producers. Please contact your senators TODAY and ask them to oppose the food safety bill language that is currently in the CR (though it might be found in the omnibus bill next week). This may be our last chance to defeat this bill—please take action immediately!
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S.510 “Hitched” A Ride On Massive Budget Bill, 1984 Is Here
S.510 “Hitched” A Ride On Massive Budget Bill, 1984 Is Here
http://theintelhub.com/2010/12/09/s-510-hitched-a-ride-on-massive-budget-bill-1984-is-here/
Democrats passed a massive budget bill late Wednesday night. The bill narrowly passed by a 212-206 vote.
“A widely backed food safety bill is hitching a ride on the legislation. The measure passed the Senate by a 73-25 vote last week but got caught in a snag because it contained revenue provisions that, under the Constitution, must originate in the House.” Yahoo News
That’s right, S.510 has apparently HITCHED a ride on the budget bill that was passed during a late night session. Our food freedom has possibly been destroyed by the lame duck congress and their big agriculture masters. (This is huge… and not in a good way!!)
Our government is attempting to steal away our food freedom!
Natural Solutions Foundation Was There: We Saw The House Vote 212 to 205 (WITH NOT A SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTING FOR THE BILL) When the House Shamefully Attached S510′s language to HR 3082.
Why is their act shameful? Two reasons. First, the contents of S. 510 is anti-health, anti-supplements, anti-freedom, anti-small business and anti-clean food to say nothing of anti-sense. Second, the regulatory language of S. 510 should never have been attached to a Continuing Resolution, which is an administrative bill allowing the government of the United States to continue its activities by funding it.
This tactic shows how desperate the Uber Cartel is to have this measure pass. Think about that for a moment: apparently it is vitally important to the Uber Cartel, which makes, among other things, drugs, vaccines, agro-chemicals, GMOs and which grows food, to make sure that you do not have the choice to grow or eat clean food. The reasons for that present themselves quite rapidly, don’t they? Clean food = bad customers for Big Pharma. Poisoned food = great customers. And then there is the subtext of genocide.
But we are far from finished here.
Here’s what Ralph Fucetola,JD, our Counsel and Trustee, wrote from Washington, where he spent the day, meeting with Ron Paul while he was there, by the way:
Our Next Step is to Continue Inundating the Senate -
1. We agree with Ron Paul (with whom we visited today, that [S510] is very bad legislative practice to combine a controversial regulatory bill with the Continuing Resolution needed to fund government activities. This bill will impact dietary supplements. That is clear from the way the FDA used section 301(11) of the 2007 FDA “enabling act” to outlaw a form of Vitamin B-6, although Congress put a clause in that bill “exempting” DSHEA products.
FDA will use any new food authority to attack supplements and natural remedies.
2. It is unprincipled to push this bill against the clear will of the voters that the Federal govt (and this bill is) too big and must stop over-regulating.
3. A clean Continuing Resolution is needed so that Congress can decide to continue funding at a certain level without muddying the process with extraneous matters.
4. The vote was nearly a pure partisan vote, with no Republicans in favor of this maneuver, and only a few Democrats standing against the lame-duck “leadership.” We will remember!
5. The People will keep a close eye on all GOP Senators and expect them to act from principle and not add this budget-busting bill, with its 4,000 new FDA agents to harass local food production and distribution.
For those of you who didn’t follow the events on Twitter or C-Span, the House lame-duck “leadership” pushed the “Food Safety” Bill, formerly known as S.510 into the “Continuing Resolution” Funding Bill to keep the Federal Govt running for another year, passes this Hot Potato to Senate again. That body could act Thursday, December 9th.
The House vote appears to have been 212 to 205, with no Republicans voting for the bill. The next step is to continue inundating the Senate with voter outrage.
Related:
Food police target organic foods in California!
Police raided the Rawsome Foods organic grocery store with guns drawn in search of "raw-foods". George Hemminger (George4Title) said the battle over organic foods is heating up because large agricultural businesses and corporations feel threatened by local co-ops and have hijacked the FDA and other government regulatory agencies.
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