This bill has passed cloture by a vote of 74 - 25. Passing out of cloture means it is now on the Senate floor. The senate now has 60 days to vote on this bill.
It is imperative that you call your US senators and tell them to oppsoe S. 510.
Why?
Here are some reasons:
Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio supports S 510, and called out the statistics by the Centers for Disease Control that report there are 76 million foodborne illnesses a year, with 5,000 resulting in death. What Brown did not say was that the FDA — the very agency further empowered by S 510 — is responsible for the approval of pharmaceutical drugs that result in 100,000 deaths a year.
None of the supporters of S 510 will acknowledge the corrupt nature of the Food and Drug Administration. Monsanto executives now work at the FDA or on President’s Obama’s Food Safety Task Force.
What legislators continue to ignore from the public is that we do not support giving federal agencies even more power — especially over something as inherently private as food choices.
None of the legislators will discuss the FDA raids on natural food operations which sickened no one, while it allowed Wright County Egg to sicken people for decades before finally taking action.
Blogger Steve Green http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/s-510-is-hissing-in-the-grass/ interprets the S 510 smuggling language to mean: “It would allow the government, under Maritime Law, to define the introduction of any food into commerce (even direct sales between individuals) as smuggling into “the United States.” Since under that law, the US is a corporate entity and not a location, “entry of food into the US” covers food produced anywhere within the land mass of this country and “entering into” it by virtue of being produced.”
§309 defines it as: “In this subsection, the term ‘smuggled food’ means any food that a person introduces into the United States through fraudulent means or with the intent to defraud or mislead.” Although only 150 new hires will be responsible for food smuggling under S 510, the total number of new hires sought is at least 18,000 employees.
IT IS TIME TO STOP BIG GOVERNMENT AND TAKE BACK OUR RIGHTS TO EAT WHAT WE CHOOSE!!!
Read the article in its entirety here:
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2010/11/17/breaking-senate-votes-cloture-on-s-510-m
Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121; ask to be connected to your Senator's office.
OR
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=wm5dahcab&et=1103938566581&s=10576&e=001H67hbuFKpMxfpILESs9ssIjNU7gcld4E6ZMSUMhSJoU9XVHrjbCbr7HjMe6OFqEm5GRLm1g0dH-ISq2ro1aQvF2JZgTwuxidQu_5peecn7HyZ0gz9bvCrQ==
and Enter your zip code on the right side under "Get Involved" and click "Go". Read the excerpt from Corrente: Write your senator and tell them to vote "no" on it when it comes up for a vote, or minimally, to vote yes on the Tester and Feinstein amendments.
Welcome to your new planet http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/seeds-how-to-criminalize-them/
From Food Freedom http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/
Now, watch how they will be able to easily criminalize seed banking and all holding of seeds. First, to follow how this will be done, you must understand that:
1. there is a small list inside the FDA called “sources of seed contamination” and
2. the FDA has now defined “seed” as food,
3. so seeds can now be controlled through “food safety.”
Those seeds (so far) include: “Contaminate” is their favorite word since the public fears the deadly contamination that industry itself – not farmers – has caused. That fear is valuable. Scare the public and it is easy to get “food safety standards” set without anyone reading them. 39 progressive co-sponsors leap on, thinking this is about “food safety.” But it is only about the use of “food safety,” not the reality of it
And to eliminate seed cleaning equipment, the FDA simple set minimum “food safety” standards for seed cleaning (the simple separation of seed from plant) such that a farmer would need a million to a million and a half dollar building and/or equipment to meet the new requirements … per line of seed.
On the ground, where reality lives, a farmer in the midwest who has been seed cleaning flax for 40 years with his hand made seed cleaner now can’t sell his flax on the market anymore. Never mind there are NO instances of anyone ever having gotten sick from seed cleaning equipment. And a farmer in another part of the midwest who has been cleaning wheat, corn and soy for years with one single perfectly fine piece of equipment would now need three to four and half million dollars for three separate pieces of equipment, in order to satisfy the “food safety” standards.
Read the entire article here:
http://correntewire.com/senate_bill_s510
When the Senate returns from the holiday on Nov. 29th, they will be voting on cloture of S.510.
Althought The tester amendment does assist small farmers to some degree, we would like for you to call the senators on the following list and ask them to vote "no" to cloture of S.510, and to consider the alternative food safety bill written by Senator Tom Coburn:
Senator Tom Coburn has written “The Ensuring Greater Food Safety Act of 2010″ as a replacement for S 510. Please call your Senators http://senate.gov/ and tell them about this alternative bill. The bill, a two-page
explanation of the bill, and a two-page section by section summary are posted on this site. Ensuring Greater Food Safety Act of 2010 http://nicfa.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/ensuring-greater-food-safety-act-of-2010.pdf
The Ensuring Greater Food Safety 2-page Description http://nicfa.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/the-ensuring-greater-food-safety-2-page-description2.pdf
Ensuring Greater Food Safety Act of 2010 Section by Section
http://nicfa.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/ensuring-greater-food-safety-act-of-2010-section-by-section2.pdf
The list of Senators to call is at this site:
http://nicfa.wordpress.com/
Talking points for opposition are included below, or you can visit this site:
http://nicfa.wordpress.com/
Talking Points
S 510 will eliminate the only productive sector of our economy - small farms and local food. The Tester amendment still puts additional paperwork, record keeping and scrutiny onto direct marketers.
The FDA fails to do the job it is charged with doing. Tell FDA to inspect the imports and the plants it has the authority to inspect and stay out of farming.
The rules and regulations the FDA will promulgate under S510 will harm our ability to get food that we want to eat. Tell FDA instead to require truthful labeling and disclose genetically modified products on labels. This would create a safer food supply and not harm the small family farmer.
S 510 will create even larger governmental bureaucracy, and the estimated costs don't include costs to individuals who actually produce food.
S 510 opens the door to violations of due process including illegal search and seizure and suspension of judicial review.
Fighting for your rights to choose,
Tricia
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
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