Proposed food safety bill good for 'everyone who eats'

[struggle4progress]

By John Fritze and Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — ... "This is just the kind of bill that should be able to move in this lame-duck session," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Everyone who eats will benefit from passing this legislation."

Senators voted 74-25 to begin debate, surpassing the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome opposition from some Republicans, including Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who are concerned about cost. Sixteen Republicans voted with most Democrats to support the bill.

A key provision that would have restricted an estrogen-like chemical used to harden plastics died. The proposal would have banned bisphenol A, or BPA, in baby bottles and cups for children. The FDA has expressed "some concern" about the health effects of BPA on fetuses, infants and young children, but hasn't taken action to reduce exposure ...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-11-18-foodsafety18_ST_N.htm?csp=34news

[Walk dont run]

1. The FDA food police now work for Monsanto.

Guess who is behind this bill? Big Agra Business. It is written to freeze out small producers, create so much paperwork and cost that the local farmers roadside stand has to close. Creates 16,000 jobs at the FDA and gives the law making/rule making authority on almost every aspect of food produced, transported, processed and sold.

The organic farmers and family farms are against this big business bill. The House of Representatives passed it and now The senate looks like it will pass it also.

http://www.treeoflife.nu/gabriel-cousens-m-d/activism-outreach/bill-510/

It's for our own protection that we need to create a much stonger, larger, powerful food police. Millions of Americans are dying because we don't have enough laws and regulations on the food we eat.

[struggle4progress]

2. I don't suppose you could actually post the bill language that you claim

(say) "creates 16,000 jobs at the FDA"

[emcguffie]

3. This bill is not about food safety.

It is about food control. And that is indeed for Monsanto, who very clearly wants to control all the seeds in the world. And it is obvious the FDA is no longer working in our best interests. They do work for Monsanto and Big Pharma.

[Recursion]

4. Every single small organic farmer I know is opposed to this bill

Every. Single. One.

This may have some food safety elements but it's mostly about doing to farming what the FDA and USDA already did to meat packing: absolutely eliminate all small competitors to the big companies.

[Grinchie]

5. More Costs for the Small Farmer from this.

Nobody considers the fact that a 1,000 dollar fee for a mega-agri-corporation is trivial campared to the same $1,000 fee for a small family farm. It is this disparity that is a hidden knife into the ribs of small farmers all over the country, and mark my words, it will serve to persuade more farmers to throw in the towel and perhaps stop producing.

While the CEO of Monsanto and Cargill normally wipe their asses with $1,000 dollar bills, the small family farmer actually would use the same $1,000 dollar bill to pay off their debts.

People need to take into account the ridiculous amounts of money that the Agri businesses make due to unsustainable, cruel, filthy and toxic economies of scale, while the small farmer can actually take the time to allow the crops the time to become nutritious, or in the case of animals, allow them at least a taste of a healthy lifestyle before they are consumed for food.

Of course, the BPA thing is just another giveaway for the Corporations, because it would actually mean some sort of testing and quality control on the part of the Plastic industry, which we know would probably raise the cost of production about 0.005 cents per bottle! They would have to hire people to actually do the test! God forbid!