House Passes Food Safety Bill, Raising Powers of F.D.A.

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

This time it is for real. After running a tortured and zig-zag course through Congress, a long-awaited food safety bill passed a final, clinching vote on Tuesday in the House of Representatives.

President Obama had backed the legislation and was expected to sign it into law.

Supporters, including Democrats and Republicans, hailed the measure as a landmark modernization of the nation’s food safety system, one that gives the Food and Drug Administration greater authority over food products, whether they come from this country or are imported from abroad. The bill passed by a vote of 215 to 144.

The bill is meant to change the mission of the F.D.A., allowing it to focus on preventing food-borne outbreaks rather than reacting after an outbreak occurs.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/business/22food.html

[texastoast]

1. ...

:popcorn:

[savalez]

2. lol!

[texastoast]

3. I wonder if this means that I can't raise chickens in my back yard

And eat my eggs. Or give my eggs to my neighbors like I've been doing for years.

Or grow my own phood and share it (I use cow poo for fertilizer, ya know).

Whatever.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. If anyone read the bill you'd know that....

Yes, yes you can still raise your own chickens, give eggs to your neighbors, etc.

[Scottybeamer70]

5. WOW

...as if the FDA needs any more power..........they don't exactly have a
stellar record in the "drug" arena! There seems to be a new drug(s) on
the market everyday, and even more lawsuits against the old ones. Now
they will have power over the food as well??? We are in big trouble!!

[Odin2005]

6. Big Ag applauds, small producers morn.

[L0oniX]

7. Great. Now all they have to do is actually fund it.

[Elmore Furth]

8. well yippi kiyeay buckeroos!!!! NT

[ProfessionalLeftist]

9. So. Now they'll toss us in the clink if we dare grow a garden in our backyard?

What about local growers and small farmers? Isn't this a welfare bill for Monsanto and the like?

After all they own and run the FDA don't they? (along with Pfizer, Glaxo SmithKline, et al)?

And Comcast, AT & T, Time Warner at al, own and run the FCC.

Exxon-Mobil, BP, et al own and run the EPA. (along with various other oil, coal, and gas companies).

And Wall Street owns and runs the Fed.

You know...we all work for the big corprats and the rich folks and when we can't survive anymore because they leeched every freaking drop of blood and money out of us they could get (and after they get done using us for their chemical and drug experiments)- we can just drop dead.

[Maat]

10. This is an appalling sellout by the current administration and Congress.

The ignorance about the bill is astounding. This amounts to federalization of our food supply, and it's disgusting. My state and local authorities did a good job, and the last thing I need is some ex-Monsanto-exec, now a government official (a la Michael Taylor, who allowed GMO food on the market in the 90s WITHOUT adequate testing), to harass my local food producers/farmers. Yes, the Tester amendment is, hopefully, still in there; HOWEVER, the exemption is only for certain small farmers selling food within a certain radius. This limits what local organic farmers can do, otherwise they face backbreaking regulations.

The feds should have stayed OUT of our food supplies. They need to know that, whatever they do, I will not be eating GMO crap.

People need to go over and review this assessment by an attorney who IS a small farmer:
http://farmandranchfreedom.org

I suggest that supporters of this odious act go to YouTube, and watch a talk by Jeffrey Smith (and the Michael-Taylor-Monsanto-FDA-Revolving-Door). That way, the viewer can learn how the majority of their food was replaced with genetically-modified ingredients without adequate study.

This is yet another betrayal. If the House passes the current version, and Obama signs it, then we'll know everyone's true colors; there's no doubt about it. We will know, without question, who the Corporatocracy's tools are.