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Illegal to grow your own food? Senate Bill S510
I just saw this -- http://theintelhub.com/2010/05/21/senate-bill-s510-makes-it-illegal... -- but hopefully this is not accurate. They couldn't do that, could they?
Half the article appears to be missing. I'm going to do some research into this bill after dinner.
Yikes!
..c..
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JoyfulC on -
UPDATE: I found and read (as well as I could) the bill, but unfortunately without being better educated on the issues, I can't really see anything dangerous in it. It's at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-510
What does concern me is that opponents of the bill have quoted Dr. Shiv Chopra as saying: “If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes. It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God.” If Dr. Chopra really did make such a statement, then I'd be worried. He was responsible for preventing bovine growth hormone use in Canadian dairy cattle. He's well-known here in Canada for being a health whistleblower.
Trouble is, I found a similar quote apparently by him made in objection to the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRIA). I continue to search for something tying the quote above directly to S 510.
Corporate lobbying, to date, has already corrupted food and farming regulation to a great degree. I would suspect any new bill coming out to have corporate fingerprints all over it.
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Permalink Reply by Carrie Seal-Stahl on -
That's the day I will be leaving this country and not turning back... It's like they are little by little intentionally training people to be totally dependent upon the government. No doubt the Monsanto turds are behind this...
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Permalink Reply by Patti Wigington on -
There's a lot of misinformation out there being spread about this bill, partly because it keeps getting changed and rewritten, in addition to being renumbered with every new incarnation. Fortunately, the good folks at Snopes have debunked it as a Mostly False urban legend, and broken it down so the rest of us don't have to: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/organic.asp
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Permalink Reply by JoyfulC on
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Thanks for that! I'm a bit relieved... although really, when you see some of the stuff going on, the stuff with Monsanto, and how secretive and litigious some of the big food producers are getting, it makes it easy to be paranoid.
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Permalink Reply by Cornelia on -
Here's the latest from Farm Aid about S. 510, the Tester-Hagan and Manager's Amendments:
http://farmaid.blogspot.com/2010/11/call-your-senators-today-ask-th...
Debate and voting on The Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) is set to begin on the Senate floor tomorrow, November 17th. The bill takes important steps to improve corporate food safety rules but it is not appropriate for small farms and processors that sell to restaurants, food coops, groceries, schools, wholesalers and at farm stands and farmers markets.
These family farms should have food safety plans appropriate to their size and processing practices. It is critical that as we ramp up food safety protections we don’t inadvertently do harm to family farm value-added processing and the growing investments in local and regional food systems by imposing expensive, one-size-fits-all rules catered to the biggest and most industrial farms.
Two amendments will be offered when S. 510 comes to the floor and both are essential to protecting family farmers of all sizes and the local and regional food systems they serve.
Please call your Senators and ask them to:
• Vote for the Manager’s Amendment
• Vote for the Tester-Hagan Amendment
It’s easy to call: Go to Congress.org and type in your zip code. Click on your Senator’s name, and then on the contact tab for their phone number.
You can also call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Senator’s office: 202-224-3121.
The message is simple: “I am a constituent of Senator___________ and I am calling to ask him/her to vote for the Manager’s Amendment and the Tester–Hagan Amendment to the Food Safety Modernization Act. We need a food safety bill that cracks down on corporate bad actors without erecting new barriers to more local and regional food sourcing. Size and practice appropriate food safety regulation for small and mid-sized farms and processors is vital to economic recovery, public health, and nutritional well-being.”
Please make your calls today in order to ensure that our family farmers can continue to bring us the good food we all want!
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Permalink Reply by Cornelia on
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From The Washington Post
Senate advances bill to overhaul food safety
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Senate moved forward Wednesday on long-awaited legislation that would overhaul the nation's food safety system, grant new powers to the Food and Drug Administration and make farmers and processors responsible for preventing food-borne illness.
The legislation follows a spate of national outbreaks of food poisoning linked to items as varied as eggs, peanuts and spinach, in which thousands of people were sickened and more than a dozen died.
The Senate voted 74 to 25 to begin debate on the bill, suggesting the measure has strong bipartisan support and good prospects for passage. The House approved its version more than a year ago, and food safety advocates have been pushing the Senate to act so differences between the two measures can be reconciled and the legislation signed into law by President Obama by the end of the lame-duck session.
Debate on the bill is expected to begin Thursday and could last up to 30 hours.
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Permalink Reply by Cornelia on
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Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser on S 510 "A Stale Food Fight"
THE best opportunity in a generation to improve the safety of the American food supply will come as early as Monday night, when the Senate is scheduled to vote on the F.D.A. Food Safety Modernization bill. This legislation is by no means perfect. But it promises to achieve several important food safety objectives, greatly benefiting consumers without harming small farmers or local food producers.
Continues here
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Permalink Reply by Jim Jones on -
Cornelia, what other country has better, purer, more efficient food growth than than the USA? Why should we cede more control to a government that is obviously trying to move our economy toward a more socialist approach thru more government control?
Cornelia said:From The Washington Post
Senate advances bill to overhaul food safety
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Senate moved forward Wednesday on long-awaited legislation that would overhaul the nation's food safety system, grant new powers to the Food and Drug Administration and make farmers and processors responsible for preventing food-borne illness.
The legislation follows a spate of national outbreaks of food poisoning linked to items as varied as eggs, peanuts and spinach, in which thousands of people were sickened and more than a dozen died.
The Senate voted 74 to 25 to begin debate on the bill, suggesting the measure has strong bipartisan support and good prospects for passage. The House approved its version more than a year ago, and food safety advocates have been pushing the Senate to act so differences between the two measures can be reconciled and the legislation signed into law by President Obama by the end of the lame-duck session.
Debate on the bill is expected to begin Thursday and could last up to 30 hours.
Continued
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