President Obama has signed H.R. 082 which includes the food safety bill. However, there has been no move to approve funding to support it. Representative Jack Kingston, who hopes ot become chairman of the agriculture subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee feels our food supply is 99.99 percent safe and there's no need for full funding. Sometimes you really wonder how our elected representatives can be so far removed from reality.
December 24, 2010 Update-Food Safety Bill Passed:
The food safety bill was passed as part of H.R. 082 and is expected to be signed by the president early in 2011.
December 9, 2010 :
The food safety bill was passed by the House yesterday with the problematic fees portion edited. The Tester-Hagan Amendment which lightens some of the concerns for small farms is in it as well. The bill is now a part of a larger package to fund the federal government over the next few months, H.R.3082 and is therefore expected to go back to the Senate for a vote in the next few days. There are still significant concerns on the part of small farms and those that primarily serve local consumers. This Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund site has links for more information. If you share the concerns, they also have a petition to sign and send to your senator before the vote.
December 3, 2010 Update:
There's still a lot of debate over the potential effect of the bill on small farms. An amendment called the Tester-Hagan Amendment has been added to further define, and exempt, smaller farms from what looks to be a massive registration and regulatory process. Here's the latest in this Grist Article.
S.510 was passed by the the Senate Tuesday. Advocates said it's a good step forward, but lacking in several important areas regarding inspections on U.S. facilities and imported foods.
The problem is this bill is a double edged sword. It comes with a number of concerns. For example, while it gives the FDA power to mandate the recall of food suspected of contamination, it also undermines the ability of small farms and food producers because of the hight cost of compliance. Note also it can take action on "suspected" contamination. That could do a lot of damage to a food producer if the suspicions turn out to be erroneous. Focused on issues of industrial farming, there are concerns that S.510 could potentially make our food supply LESS safe by discouraging small local producers and increasing our reliance on distantly grown and imported foods.
There's another problem. The authors included a provision that would allow the FDA to impose fees on importers, and on companies whose food is recalled because of contamination. This is actually illegal since all revenue-raising measures must originate in the House. With the busy schedule for the remainder of this legislative year it may not get any further this session, which would mean starting over next year.
November 24, 2009:
Update from the Citizens for Health regarding a well-meaning but flawed bill .
"The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act" (S. 510) purported to address growing concerns over the state of food safety in the U.S. but, as written, would have actually strengthened the forces that for the past fifty years have led to unsafe, nutritionally compromised food by giving powerful incentives to large, concentrated food manufacturers (the sources of the most significant threats to our food so far) and undercutting producers of healthy foods and organics that are smaller, safer, and often local. It also would have threatened access to dietary supplements that are safe and protected under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) and paved the way for harmonizing our food policies with those of the international Codex Alimentarius.
Score Round 1 for Center for Health members and allies! We can be thankful this week that our voices were heard and that several positive changes were made to this 'turkey" of a bill."
