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The Growing Safe Food Act (S.2758)
The Growing Safe Food Act (S.2758)
gets support of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Food
What do you think about this proposed law?
Date: 4/28/2010 11:02:36 PM ( 14 y ) ... viewed 2341 times
JOIN THE DiALOGUE ON SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND FOOD HERE
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=348831351129
9:00 PM
April 28, 2010
GROWING SAFE FOOD BILL
http://www.integral-living.com/growing-safe-food-act-s-2758/
CODEX INTERVENTION IN
#s-510 The (FDA) FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT
I have been writing about this for six months or more!!!
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/label_gmo/?r=5489&id=8832-2369577-7Vrm76x
FOOD NOT BOMBS
The Growing Safe Food Act (S.2758) was introduced by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) in an effort to ammend the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510), which will soon be considered by the Senate. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) is designed to address the increasingly frequent outbreaks of food contamination by microbes, such as e coli and salmonella, many of which originate in large-scale industrial food processing facilities. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, if passed, would give the FDA greater regulatory authority over food processing facilities. While greater attention to food safety is welcome by most who have written about the bill, as Margaret Krone pointed out in this Capital Times article, there are two major problems with this bill. First, the FDA only has regulatory authority over facilities that process fruits, vegetables, grains and dairy. It does not have regulatory authority over meat, poultry, and egg products processing facilities, which are the source of most contaminations. Authority over these facilities lies with the USDA. The second is that the "facilities" targeted by the FDA include small and medium-sized farms that process some of their own agricultural products for distribution to the public. These small "facilities" have not been the major culprit in food contamination outbreaks, rather it is the large-scale industrial facilities. By subjecting small farmers to the same regulations, the bill threatens to impose a set of fees and administrative burdens that small farmers may not be able to subsume into the costs of their business operations. In other words, the bill does not account for scale-related risk factors, nor does it provide scale-related solutions. This could significantly affect many of the small and medium-sized farmers and food producers that distribute within our local food systems to farmers markets, local food coops, restaurants and schools.
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) has come up with a solution to this problem by introducing the Growing Safe Food Act (S. 2758). The act recognizes the need to hold all producers to the same food processing safety standards in order to protect public health, but also accounts for difference in production scale. Stabenow proposes the creation of a national food safety training and technical assistance program for small and medium-sized food processors as a way to both ensure safety and address the contamination risks connected with small-scale food processing without burdening small and medium-sized farmers and processors with the regulations developed for large-scale processors.
I taught this class at the
2010 CulTIVATION FOOD JUSTICE CONFERENCE
APRIL 24-25, 2010
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1606033
Update on #s-510
The (FDA) Food safety Modernization Act
to be presented
Sunday April 25 at 2010 Cultiating Food Justice Conference
TIme:
11:15 - 11:35 AM Workshop Session 4
(NOTE: twenty minutes only!!!! Other workshop
4 sessions are 45 minutes.
What:
Update on #s-510 The (FDA) Food Safety Moderization Act
to be presented 11:15 AM-11:35 AM April 25 press briefing,
Date: 4/14/2010 4:17:10 PM ( 14 d ) ... viewed 137 times
This in the info for the
Briefing I will discuss at
at the 2010 Cultivating Food Justice Conference
WORKSHOP OFFERING
PRESS BRIEFING
from the 2010 Cultivating Food Justice Conference
11:15 - 11:35 AM Workshop Session 4
(NOTE: twenty minutes only!!!! this session only.
Other Workshop 4 sessions are 45 minutes.
A 20 minute Briefing on the Food Safety Modernization Act #s-510
Organized by Leslie Goldman
Speakers: Leslie Goldman,
Description: The (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act was being discussed behind closed doors
in Washington around Apiil 10 and has been pending passage for months. This 20-minute briefing will
help you understand how the international Codex Alimentarius Commission has influenced this bill. This bill may have already passed by the time of our conference. Hear the positive side of the FDA now coming to our local farmers' markets. A brief intro to the FDA. What can we do not
to educate ourselves and others about real Food Safety based on supporting local organic farmers? Why do we have a pressing need to coalese all our local food groups so we can create the movement
President Obama has asked to see before he will take action.
WHERE:
San Diego State University
CLASSROOM
TBSA
QUESTIONS THE PRESS MIGHT WANT TO ASK
NOW about #s-510
QUESTIONS?
Is the system itself contaminated?
Can people be safe who eat factory farmed meat?
Can the workers who work with factory farmed meat
protected by anti-biotics be safe from immune system
breakdowns
"Food Inc." 2009 raises these questions.
QUESTION?
What is the role in protecting local organic farmers
in food security and Food Safety?
A: ??? research is needed
QUESTION FOR PRESS to ASK
about #s-510 The (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act
What is the cost of local organic ag on big ag?
How does big Ag feel about "little Ag?"
What are the profit statement potential losses
do to the success and proliferation of farmers' Markets?
What the the dangers of possible economic burden
placed on Big Ag now through the increasing sales
at Farmers Markets?
How does # the impending passage of 3s-510
The (FDA) Food Safety Modernization act,
help make the world Food Safe for Big Ag by
controlling the proliferation of small farmers?
Is there a intentional built in undersight
in #s-510 to keep this these issues out of public
view?
Why is #s-510 behind talked about behind closed doors.
Is this true of false?
What is the influence of the Codex Alimentarius Commission
goals on #s-510?
When the Codex asks for public feedback on its rules,
to what degree is the public informed that it is seeking
public testimony?
To what degree is Codex covered by the press?
Is there a lack of coverage? Why is there a lack of
coverage?
NO EMBARGO..
release now.
ON THE FDA, AND THE
#s-510, THE (FDA) FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT
if Hippocrates, the father of western medicine were in business
today, he would be arrested for practicing medicine
without a license. Hippocrates taught,
"Let Food Be Thy Medicine." What we serve
our kids today at nutrition break in our schools fosters
a breakdown in health. Our investments
in Food Safety legislation, #s-510,
The (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act,
dictates a food policy that is out of order
and harmony with authentic earth-based
homeland food security.
We support selling
commodities that do not deserve FDA or
USDA approval, and that are unhealthy
from a health reform perspective.
Food Safety is gearing up to bring us
into harmony with international Food Safety
laws that aim to make Food Safe for international
trade more than insure the safety of small
farmers, the backbone of our nation,
or consumers who seek safe food when
they shop.
Current food legislation, #US BIll 2749
that passed the House in July, and #s-510, the (FDA) Food
Safety Modernization Act, soon to go through the Senate
some time in April, (or perhaps May) will extend
FDA control to the farmers' Market level.
I clearly understand the need for increased
Food Safety, yet in our currently established Agricultural
system, contamination may go with the territory of taking
food production farther and farther from the local level.
When we have local organic farmers eating their own
foods and knowing their customers by name, we have less
poisoning of our food supply.
As our nation, and nations increase support
for more farmers and more gardeners,
we health will be reformed, and our health costs will lessen.
This can begin with a program of
each being Beet Keepers in an age of
Beet Keepers, Return!
___
One pot+ one person= You are a Gardener.
One Pot + one person= A Nation of Gardeners.
One Pot + one person= A world of Food Safety
and Food Security.
The FDA has a clear bias in favor of a drug approach to health
as well as centralized farming practices that they imagine
will more easily control food safety and ensure food security.
___
Our senate eyes, as of April 10, unknowing or unknowinging,
out of the view of the consumer,
are aimed at harmonizing US law
with the international Codex Food Rules and Laws that
see pharmaceutical drugs as the primary
way to mitigate disease. The FDA definition of Food Safety
backs Risk Assessment approaches whose
purpose is to make Food Safe for trade more than
individual human health.
__
The new Food Safety laws, #s-510,
The (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act,
if not carefully
designed to support local farming, takes us farther
from Food Safety and True homeland Food Security.
I am not opposed to Biotechnology and its applications
where appropriate. Dialogue is needed now between
GMO and Organic Lovers and all Voices in between.
Together, Policy Makers in Washington and in every
local community, can plan and develop an agricultural
model, and a health model that will return
true health to America and restore us
our beat with nature. Much education once
commonly known, needs to be remembered.
LESLIE GOLDMAN @ 2010 FOOD JUSTICE CONFERENCE
PRESS KIT
BIO NOTE
PRESS RELEASE
QUOTES
PHOTO
SPONSORS
TESTIMONIALS
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1598722
SUPPORTIVE INFO ON #s-510,
The (FDA) FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT
THE FDA works HAND IN HAND WITH THE
CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION and
aims to harmonize more with it through the passage
of s-510, The (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act.
https://www.westonaprice.org/Codex-Alert-on-Dietary-Supplements.html
Please be clear about this.
Codex misapplies a toxic chemicals risk assessment model to regulate helpful nutrients. Vitamin and mineral guidelines should evaluate nutrients with nutrition science rather than with the toxicological science used to evaluate toxins. Codex fails in this fundamental requirement by erroneously applying toxic chemical risk assessment principles, such as: nutrients should be treated as toxins; foods and nutrients are not useful in treating disease; supplements have little value because people can get the limited amounts they need from food; known reference values are more important than unique individual nutrient needs; and Western science is preferred to individual choice as the best control on access to dietary supplements.
Codex reinforces, in its vitamin and mineral guidelines, its existing prohibition on preventing truthful information about the ability of foods and nutrients to treat, diagnose, prevent, mitigate and cure disease. World hunger experts recognize that nutrient supplementation can be extraordinarily useful in improving world health and eliminating disease (vitamin A supplements in developing countries can offer 30 times as much social improvement as one dollar of development aid), a fact which the Codex vitamin and mineral guideline ignores.
The US Codex official website is
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations_&_policies/Codex_News_&_Comments_Request...
MICHAEL TAYLOR
BEFORE the DENNIS KUCINICH
Hearing JULY 29:
"In addition, FDA is leading an effort
through the Codex Alimentarius Commission,
the international food safety standards body,
with support of the Food and Agriculture
Organization/World Health Organization,
to develop commodity-
specific annexes to the Codex hygienic code
for fresh fruit and vegetable production,
starting with an annex for fresh leafy
vegetables and herbs."
--Mr MICHAEL TAYLOR
Our Food Czar for the FDA
Senior Adviser to the Commissioner on food issues
The above quote is from the written testimony
of MICHAEL TAYLOR July 29 at the
REP DENNIS KUCINICH
SUBCOMMITTEE ON DOMESTIC POLICY
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
The Subcommittee Hearing was Titled:
"Ready to Eat or Not? It Examined
the Impact of Leafy Green Marketing Agreements.
You can read Michael Taylor's complete
testimony at this link
http://groc.edgeboss.net/download/groc/domesticpolicy/testimony.of.mr.michael...
uploaded
7:59 PM
July 31, 09
FYI
" national food safety systems based on those standards, are essential to protect public health and support the continued expansion of global food trade.
NOTE: THIS IS ABOUT GLOBAL FOOD TRADE as well as public health.
"foodborne disease is a significant public health problem worldwide, with enormous human and economic costs. "
NOTE: THIS IS ABOUT ECONOMIC COSTS DUE to humans getting sick
from contamination.
Volume 23, Number 1, Winter-Spring 2003
E-ISSN: 1088-3142 Print ISSN: 0036-0775
DOI: 10.1353/sais.2003.0012
Glavin, Margaret O'K.
A Single Microbial Sea: Food Safety as a Global Concern
SAIS Review - Volume 23, Number 1, Winter-Spring 2003, pp. 203-220
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Foodborne disease is a significant public health problem worldwide, with enormous human and economic costs. Food safety systems designed to protect consumers face several challenges: the emergence of new pathogens and other hazards, the reemergence of pathogens and other hazards thought to be controlled, and the heightened threat of food as a vehicle for bioterrorism. Global food trade contributes to and magnifies these challenges through the introduction of contamination from one country to another; the multiplication of opportunities for contamination as food travels longer distances and over longer periods of time; the magnified impact of contamination as products reach more people over a wider area; and the difficulty of knowing the origin or history of a food that has been shipped through multiple countries. In responding to these threats, national governments and international bodies must answer a number of key questions. What are the gaps in existing food safety systems? What responsibility do developed countries have to improve systems in less developed countries? What is the role of international bodies? This article argues that global standards focused on public health outcomes, and national food safety systems based on those standards, are essential to protect public health and support the continued expansion of global food trade.
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/sais_review/v023/23.1glavin.html
Uploaded:
April 14. 2010
QUESTIONS?
Is the system itself contaminated?
Can people be safe who eat factory farmed meat?
Can the workers who work with factory farmed meat
protected by anti-biotics be safe from immune system
breakdowns
"Food Inc." 2009 raises these questions.
QUESTION?
What is the role in protecting local organic farmers
in food security and Food Safety?
A: ??? research is needed
QUESTION FOR PRESS to ASK
about #s-510 The (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act
What is the cost of local organic ag on big ag?
How does big Ag feel about "little Ag?"
What are the profit statement potential losses
do to the success and proliferation of farmers' Markets?
What the the dangers of possible economic burden
placed on Big Ag now through the increasing sales
at Farmers Markets?
How does # the impending passage of 3s-510
The (FDA) Food Safety Modernization act,
help make the world Food Safe for Big Ag by
controlling the proliferation of small farmers?
Is there a intentional built in undersight
in #s-510 to keep this these issues out of public
view?
Why is #s-510 behind talked about behind closed doors.
Is this true of false?
What is the influence of the Codex Alimentarius Commission
goals on #s-510?
LATEST INFO
I think this came from March 07, 2010
http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Politics/32/food_safety_bill_s_510_is_abo...
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/03/03/a-jumpstart-for-the-food-safety-bill/
A BIT OF HOW CODEX ALIMENTARIUS WORKS
http://www.anhcampaign.org/campaigns/codex#What_is_codex
"For example, the case for the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) appears to be disproportionately influenced by the US, EU and Canadian government delegations with the German-controlled Secretariat chaired by Dr Rolf Grossklaus exerting the primary influence. In these meetings, it is clear that these Government delegations have conferred deeply during the months preceding the annual CCNFSDU meeting, aided by particular trade associations in order to resolve decisions in their respective favours. "
While the bureaucrats in the country delegations of Codex are theoretically responsive to concerns of stakeholders and members of the public, often engaging with them via consultations, the practical reality is that the primary steer comes from major cooperations. Small businesses and individuals may even make representations in consultations to governments, but by and large their views are ignored. Decision-making at Codex occurs by consensus, each country carrying a single vote. This process is complicated by the fact that countries may assemble as trading blocks, given changes to Codex procedural rules in 2003. The European Union now acts as a trading block where a single unelected European Commission official typically represents Government representatives of the EU’s 27 Member States, alongside those Member States present .
Government delegations and the committee secretariat may be influenced by international non-governmental organisations (INGO’s) who participate in the Codex process where official observer status has been granted. While INGO’s purportedly reflect all interest relevant to a given committees activities (e.g. GMO’s, food additives, pesticide residues, food hygiene, etc.), the reality is that INGO influence is disproportionately in favour of trade associations representing the largest trans-national cooperations in the food sector. While excited debates during the course of Codex meetings may often occur between various INGO’s, governments and the Secretariat, it seems much of this is for show as a demonstration of Codex’s consensus process. The reality is somewhat more stark; in most situations, the primary decisions have already been made prior to the meeting and INGO’s voicing a contrary opinion will effectively find that its views have little or no traction.
Another interesting observation that can be drawn from Codex meetings is the extent of the influence of certain country delegations, and the lack of influence of others. For example, the case for the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) appears to be disproportionately influenced by the US, EU and Canadian government delegations with the German-controlled Secretariat chaired by Dr Rolf Grossklaus exerting the primary influence. In these meetings, it is clear that these Government delegations have conferred deeply during the months preceding the annual CCNFSDU meeting, aided by particular trade associations in order to resolve decisions in their respective favours.
OTHER LINKS
http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/news/news-11Nov2009.html
uploaded 9:16 PM
PR AGAINST LOCAL ORGANIC
MAY 13
http://beginningfarmers.org/
HARRISBURG, Pa., April 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Pennsylvania produce growers and food processors are invited to share their input on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new produce handling rule at a May 13 listening session in Harrisburg, Agriculture Secretary Russell C. Redding said today.
The session will be held from 9 a.m. – noon at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center.
“As leaders in producing a variety of agricultural products, Pennsylvania produce growers and food processors are in position to offer valuable insight in national food safety discussions,” said Redding. “It is important that our industry take advantage of the opportunity to help shape federal policy regarding production and processing activities.
“By hosting this listening session, Pennsylvania continues to be a leader in the production of a safe, abundant food supply.”
Redding, state Health Secretary Everette James and FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods Michael R. Taylor will attend to hear concerns and answer questions. The listening session will also feature presentations by produce industry professionals.
The listening session is intended to ensure Pennsylvania’s agriculture and food production sectors and public health partners keep pace with changing federal regulations.
“Locally grown produce is an essential component of a healthy diet, but outbreaks have shown it can also be a source for food borne illness,” said James. “It’s important for Pennsylvania farmers to provide the FDA with input to ensure that new food safety regulations protect their businesses and the public health.”
Redding and James co-chair the Governor’s Food Safety Council, a unique group of agriculture, health and emergency management professionals convened by Governor Rendell in 2009. The council advises the Governor on developing and implementing food safety, defense protocols and best practices in the state.
The listening session is open to the public and registration is requested. To register, contact Jared Grissinger at 717-705-9513 or jgrissinge@state.pa.us
Media contacts:
Nicole L. C. Bucher, Agriculture; 717-787-5085; Claudine Battisti, Health; 717-787-1783
http://www.agriculture.state.pa.us
LOCAL FOOD SAFER???
http://www.newmoonfarmorganic.com/whycsa.html
Because you care about the safety of your food.
You want to feed your family food from one of the safest sources possible. Local produce is minimally handled, usually going from the field almost directly to the consumer.This means that local food is exposed to fewer pathogens, therefore reducing the possibility of foodborne illness occurring.
GMO DIE OFF UNDER REPORTED?????
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/132388
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