Food Safety Bill s510: Good or Bad News?
The Food Safety Bill s510, considered both influential and controversial, was just passed in the Senate. This comes almost a year and a half after the House passed a bill calling to tighten the nation’s food safety rules. It will be the first time in 70 years that the FDA’s food safety system will be modernized. The bill will permit the FDA to increase inspections of food producers, track fruit and vegetable shipments and place stricter manufacturing standards to attempt to avoid outbreaks of contamination.
Some highly respected health experts are in fact on both sides of the debate—Michael Pollan (Omnivores Dilemma and Food Rules) publicly urged people to call their Senators to prevent the bill from passing, whereas Marion Nestle (Food Politics and What to Eat) thinks it’s about time for updated food safety regulations.
Little is known about the possible unintended consequences of the tighter restrictions that will come with the updated food safety bill. Many individuals and citizen’s groups are concerned that the bill was passed without time for discussions and refinement of the details. In the days leading up to the vote, groups encouraged the public to contact Senators for fear of the immediate passing of the bill without amendments.
Opponents of the bill were concerned that the cost of compliance and large amount of paperwork required would inevitably put small businesses, smaller suppliers, and those who sell directly to consumers, like small family-owned farms, vendors at farmer’s markets, out of business. This has the potential to significantly interfere with organic and small scale food manufacturers as well as various natural supplements.
It seems that only time will tell if Food Safety Bill s510 will actually make our food safer, or if it will lead to a host of other unintended problems.
Considering the safety of our food supply is timely. Increased cases of food borne illness have put consumers on alert. However, are increased government regulations and more red tape the answer? Or is getting back to basics and encouraging more local sustainable agriculture an obvious missing piece to this puzzle?
For more information about Food Safety Bill s510 see this Huffington Post article or ABCnews.com.
Comments
It's all in the details... I fear the worst, given the way past government intervention into our food has gone. How devastating if my farmers market couldn't continue to exist or the producers who sell there went out of business.
The bill has not yet passed. The vote taken was to end cloture and begin debate. One amendment has been proposed by Rep Tester that would exempt small farms. It's not too late to call your congressmen and tell them how you feel. You can find your senators and representatives by zip code at www.congress.org.
If this is the "Monsanto Food Safety Bill," (aka the "Monsanto Dream Bill") I want to find out what is in it. I would not blame the government too much, yet. Monsanto by itself is the devil spawn. Apparently, there was someone in Congress whose husband worked for Monsanto and that is how this bill began - with Monsanto's stipulations. Never underestimate the power of huge corporate donations to lobby the most influential Congress members. And canny salespeople and lobbyists can make false promises and claims that fool a lot of people, even legislators.
From what I heard when the bill was being lobbied for, the big industrial "food" companies would be the beneficiaries, and the small and organic farmers would be pushed out of the business. Not only would farmers be required to pay for testing to meet the regulations, but companies like Monsanto are also pushing to have THEIR (GM) seed, THEIR chemical fertilizer and THEIR anti-pest or anti-disease sprays made STANDARD, all of which will improve their bottom line. They lobby against organic farms because they don't use these "safety products" and they don't use "high-quality" seeds. The whole purpose of "terminator seeds" was about forcing farmers to come back each year and pay a premium for these "high yield" seeds. "Heirloom seeds" are anathema to these people. For these industries, there is no focus on safety, really. It is about cornering more of the market. They are worried that organic foods will cut into their products because people will switch to them for healthy food, cutting into their profits.
You should look into what Monsanto is doing in India, forcing poor farmers into deep debt to buy their (extremely costly) "miracle seeds," only to lose their crops to one of the pests the GM seeds are NOT made immune to. The fertilizers and sprays are a required part of the package. After losing everything, and seeing no way out, many of these farmers are committing suicide - by drinking the toxic spray liquids.