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Petition the Gov to Strip out #S510 from the Omnibus Bill
Petition the Gov to Strip out #S510 from the Omnibus Bill
Date: 12/16/2010 9:15:21 AM ( 14 y ) ... viewed 30823 times
MULTI VIDEO
on POLITICO
http://www.politico.com/multimedia/
great!
http://www.ftcldf.org/aa/aa-9dec2010-s510-in-hr3082-senate.htm
***ACTION ALERT***
S.510 now H.R. 3082
Tell Your SENATORS
to Vote "NO" on Cloture &
Oppose FDA Food Safety Modernization Act
December 9, 2010
Send FAX through petition to Reject S.510 now H.R. 3082
By a 212-206 vote on December 8, the House passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (formerly S.510) as an amendment to H.R. 3082 (the "Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011" to fund the government through September 2011). A food safety act should not be part of a spending bill.
House Democrats attached what was S.510 (as passed by the Senate on November 30) to H.R. 3082 because they were worried about Republican opposition to it as a stand alone bill. The next step for H.R. 3082 is to go to the Senate for a vote.
As this is the Senate, the first vote on H.R. 3082 will be on a cloture motion to limit debate before there is a vote on the bill itself.
TAKE ACTION
People need to contact their Senators now to tell them to Vote "NO" on Cloture for H.R. 3082 and Oppose the "FDA Food Safety Modernization Act" (Division D of H.R. 3082).
STEP 1 - Send a live fax message to your Senators through the online petition at http://www.ftcldf.org/stopS510
even if you've already used the petition this week.
STEP 2 - Call your Senators and be sure to give your zip code
Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121; ask to be connected to your Senator's office.
OR
Go to http://www.Congress.org;
enter your zip code on the right side under "Get Involved" and click "Go". Click on your Senators' names then click the "Contact" tab to get office phone number(s).
If you get voicemail, leave a brief message with your zip code. If the line is busy, keep calling until you get through.
TALKING POINTS
The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act is fundamentally flawed and is not in the best interest of small farmers, especially those who produce raw milk.
1. FDA does not respect individuals' rights to obtain healthy, quality foods of their choice. The agency has stated, as a matter of public record, that:
"There is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food."
"Plaintiffs' assertion of a 'fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes what foods they do and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families' is similarly unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish."
FDA has even participated in armed raids on small-scale co-ops and membership organizations. This agency should not be given any additional power.
2. FDA has adequate powers under existing law to ensure food safety and effectively deal with foodborne illness outbreaks. FDA has power to inspect, power to detain product and can readily obtain court orders to seize adulterated or misbranded food products or enjoin them from being sold. The problem isn't that FDA needs more power; it's that FDA does not effectively use the power it currently has. The agency has power to inspect imported food yet inspects only 1% of food coming into this country from outside our borders.
3. S.510 does nothing to address many significant food safety problems in this country, such as those resulting from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and various contaminants (e.g., BPA, pesticides, herbicides, etc.).
4. FDA has used its existing power to benefit the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries at the expense of public health (e.g., allowing the overuse of antibiotics in confined animal feeding operations and refusing to require labeling for genetically-modified foods). This bill does not address the fundamental problems at this agency in order to truly protect public health.
5. S.510 will expand FDA's involvement in regulating food in intra-state commerce, further interfering with local communities. State and local governments are more than capable of handling any problems related to food in intrastate commerce. All the major outbreaks of foodborne illness involve either imported food or food in inter-state commerce.
6. S.510 will hurt our ability as a nation to be self-sufficient in food production because it has more lenient inspection requirements for foreign than domestic producers creating an unfair advantage for food imports. Giving an advantage to foreign producers will only increase the amount of food imported into this country that does not meet our domestic standards. S.510 does not address food security--the ability of a country to produce enough food to meet its own needs.
http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/submission_results6.php
DeMint threatens to force a reading of omnibus bill
The year-end legislative push appears threatened by procedural hijinks on the Senate floor.
As Democrats try to push through a nearly 2,000-page omnibus spending bill, Republican senators are threatening to bog down the floor by forcing Senate clerks to read the full text aloud, a process that could take more than one full day to complete.
“Democrats haven’t given Republicans or the American people time to read the bill, but I’ll join with other Republican colleagues to force them to read it on the Senate floor,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
Such a tactic is rarely employed, but any senator can force a full reading of legislation, which is usually skipped by unanimous consent.
During the health care debate last December, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) forced clerks to read aloud Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) 767-page amendment to establish a single-payer system. Sanders withdrew his amendment several hours into the reading, which had effectively paralyzed the Senate.
With the window closing on the 111th Congress, forcing a reading of the omnibus spending bill could further extend the lame-duck session until the end of the year, or force Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to scale back an ambitious agenda, which includes a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, ratification of the START treaty, confirmation of stalled nominations and a vote on an immigration bill known as the Dream Act.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1210/DeMint_threatens_to_force_a_re...
MY COMMENT TO POLITICO
The legislators do not deserve Christmas.
Naughty or nice????
Please, this bill and #S-510 is bad news
for food. Look deeper between the lines, please.
it is taking us in the direction of international Food Rules
over our food supply. Really, really bad.
7:15:O7 am
December 16, 2010
raining a bit now.
COMMENTS
http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/last25.php?paper=1&qnum=pnum1061
Action pnum1061
Last 25 Messages Transmitted Log
Total Submissions On This Issue = 8095
Vote "NO" on Cloture for H.R. 3082 and Oppose the "FDA Food Safety Modernization Act" (Division D of H.R. 3082)
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[060103:121610] S.D., Palm City, FL
HELP ! Please keep America's food in local small American farmers hands - vote NO on Division D of HR 3082 !!!
Stop corporate Agri-business greed and endagerment of our food supply !!!
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[055531:121610] A.U., Milwaukee, WI
We are not even allowed to drink real milk in this country! What's next?? At the same time the FDA continues to push High Fructose Corn Syrup (now rebranded as "Corn Sugar" in an attempt to continue to fool gullible people) which is proven to cause insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (take a look around you and see how fat and sick this country has become!) and Aspatame that they acknowledge is responsible for 92 different ill symptoms. There is a move to ban supplements. Is this a fascist nation or do you believe in freedom? At what point do you make any form of intelligent thought illegal? Raiding dairy farms for selling real Milk? My God!
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[055056:121610] R.L., Tallahassee, FL
I'm voting no and protecting my right to choose what I feed my family.
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[053922:121610] L.G., San Diego, CA
The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act needs to strip FDA of its abusive power. This is a hidden part of the Omnibus Bill that needs to be stripped out and trashed. We need to Chew on Food Safety: A National Conversation is Needed, not an undigestable and premeditated talk down of our small farming by the intenrational Food Rules sector. This Food Safety measure will not make food safe. This bill is about what is between the lines as much as what is in the black print. Strip it out. Open up to a Real Education on Food Safety and a year long campaign to start understanding what real food is about. Too much is at stake here. We can have Food Safety through supported 1000,s more micro-farmers and a nation of gardeners. Stop attempting to turn food into a commodity, into Fodder. Stop making profit on food the #1 concerns. IF you want Safe Food, honor what food is all about. It is about human and environmental fulfillment. Food is our medicine. Please find out how to make it your medicine too.
Respectfully intended,
Leslie Goldman
Your Enchanted Gardener
Plant Your Dream Blog
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[044353:121610] K.V., San Antonio, FL
I should have the right to decide which foods I want to consume for my over all health and not have the Government controlling my choices. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (the "Act") represents a major threat to the local food movement, states' autonomy to regulate food, and the country's ability to become self-sufficient in food production.
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[030503:121610] G.C., South Bend, IN
STOP! the insanity! vote NO on Cloture for H.R. 3082 and OPPOSE the Division D of H.R. 3082! This is where we draw the line. Taxes without representation, airport security, health care and now taking away the FREEDOM to choose our foods. There are people being cured of all kinds of diseases using organic foods. The chemicals, pesticides and GMOs are killing off Americans. Maybe that's what the food and drug companies and politicians want while DRIVEN to chase after the all mighty dollar with kickbacks and all the corruption. They're only biting the hand that feeds them. If this passes, maybe instead of smuggling drugs we'll be smuggling healthy food into the USA!
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[142406:121510] R.P., Panama City, FL
Dont yall know enough to never vote on an empty shell bill before seeing what may be hidden in it???Good heavens! Please dont regulate my right to grow some tomatoes in my garden! What are yall thinking?? Thomas Jefferson must be turning in his grave!!! Have a little backbone and dont just go with the flow people!!
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[135511:121510] K.S., Dudley, MA
We, the people, our Constitution and Bill of Rights, no longer matter to our 'elected' officials. They are pulling out all the stops, to push freedom-stealing laws, down our throats. The real driving forces behind this and other terrible bills, have unlimited financial resources to destroy America. Most people don't even realize the magnitude of the situation and many are completely unaware of what it is happening to our great country.
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[130416:121510] B.L., Pikesville, MD
The Government took over our Health Care, and now it's telling us what foods we are "allowed" to eat? This is totally UNACEPTABLE! Where is our Freedom of Choice? If S. 510 passes, I will still seek out raw and natural foods even if it's against the law to do so.
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[123952:121510] S.W., Cashton, WI
I am sensitive/allergic to many chemical compounds and commercially produced foods (get bad headache/stomach problems for days, have to take antihistamines, which can progress to full anaphylactic shock in its most serious phase-I have an Epipen for that), so I NEED to eat foods that are as naturally produced with no chemicals etc. as a matter of LIFE and DEATH for me. Allergies are on the RISE for many Foods produced in my own garden are the very BEST tasting and BEST for me and my family!!!! We NEED to support our local small farmers who produce food on a small scale and as naturally/organic as possible We NEED CHOICES for OURSELVES. This is UNACCEPTABLE and UNNECESSARY oversight made confusing with "reason to believe" clauses etc. affecting small farmers that are NOT DEFINED For real protections, enforce what is already law and LABEL any foods with chemicals utilized, processing done, hormones utilized in production, acrylamides, msg and similar compounds, and that are genetically modified(GMO)!!!
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[122609:121510] M.R., Warren, OH
Dear Elected Representatives of the State of Ohio, Please vote "NO" on cloture on H.R. 3082. We, the citizens of the U.S. do have a fundamental right to bodily and physical health and to choose any food that we wish, contrary to the FDA's statements on public record. Who is going to work to pay the taxes if our freedoms to pursue health and wellness are taken away. We want to keep the freedom to buy locally farmed foods and whole foods, not to be forced to eat processed and commercially modified food. Research shows those who eat whole, unprocessed, unadulterated food are much healthier and disease free. Let's promote that! Thank you,
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[121054:121510] A.R., Warren, OH
Dear Ohio Representatives of the People of Ohio, elected officials, I am seriously encouraging you to vote "NO" on cloture of H.R. 3082 and oppose the "Food Safety and Modernization Act". The FDA should not that much power. We, the citizens of the U.S. do have a fundamental right to our physical and bodily health and well being that comes from that, and we do have a fundamental right to obtain any food that we may wish. We do not want some bureaucratic organization dictating our rights. Please help the citizens of your State that you represent and the citizens of the rest of the U.S. to keep our fundamental freedoms. Please don't be responsible for stripping the citizens of freedoms that so many gave their lives for. We all have to answer to the Almighty for every action, let this action be a right one. Vote no to cloture so it can be debated! Thank you, Melody Robbins
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[113452:121510] J.A., Warren, OH
I want the freedom to choose and eat healthy, wholesome foods. Industrial food companies have shown time and again that they have problems producing safe food.
I want the freedom to choose locally raised food that has shown to be safer for consumption than factory farm raised.
Please let me keep the freedom to make a choice.
Thank you
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[112536:121510] K.K., East Jordan, MI
All the confusion generated over this bill is a disgrace. The bill itself is a disgrace. Vote "NO" on Cloture for H.R. 3082 and Oppose the "FDA Food Safety Modernization Act" (Division D of H.R. 3082)."
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[105745:121510] D.J., Boise, ID
I was born and raised on a farm in the great state of Idaho. I grew up drinking whole, raw foods and whole, raw milk and have turned out to be healthy and even smart, just look at my college GPA and work history. Interestingly enough whole raw foods may be why I am alive today.
I am now a registered nurse and care for many patients that are extremely ill due to the modernization of food products through multiplies levels of food processing. Many of these individuals who I care for have severe immune deficiency's and are generally on deaths door step when I care for them. Many of these patients are victims of Myocardial Infarctions more commonly known as heart attacks. Again with heart attacks the research points to processed foods and consumption of the wrong types of oils, such as seed oils that our body cannot process adequately. Much of this research is not new but unfortunately continues to be ignored due to the fact that the information threatens large corporation's incomes.
Many of you would question my statements as the relation to processed food consumption and health, but it does not take a PHD to know and understand this from the most basic level. Just pay attention next time to how you feel after eating a burger and fries, or if you like eat as healthy as possible meaning eliminating as many processed foods as possible out of your diet for two weeks, then eat the burger and fries that are "safe" food to consume. After eating evaluate how you feel.
That said it is every American's right to choose how to be healthy be it through raw whole foods or through following or not following government or medical advice. It is each individual's choice, not the government's choice to be healthy. If we all follow the government's advice as to be healthy we will find that America's health will become worse than it already is!
Please remember that the land of the free means: free chose to be healthy or to be sick! That also means we are also free to suffer the consequences of our actions!
Thank you
Sincerely
Mr. J.RN
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[104617:121510] G.W., Sarasota, FL
Food Safety needs to be addressed appropriately and directly--not cloaked in a spending bill, the current version of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act still fails to get to the root problems in the U.S. food supply and gives FDA a blank check to continue to run amock over small producers. FDA needs to be held accountable and answerable for its failures to exercise the powers it currently has. The food safety bill needs to focus on the large corporations who are continually the source of the major multi-state food outbreaks. Our best defense is to decentralize food production and not pass laws that essentially favor imports. FDA cannot be trusted to act in the best interest of America's public health as proven repeatedly by its bias toward pharmaceuticals and refusal to rein in GMOs.
Vote "No" on cloture on any bill containing the Act and then Oppose the Act until the real issues are addressed. A bill that 'bites off more than it can chew' fails to serve the American people.
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[095230:121510] L.H., Raleigh, NC
'fundamental right' to produce, obtain, and consume unpasteurized milk
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[075945:121510] J.B., Saint Marys, OH
Vote "no" on Cloture for H.R. 3082 and oppose the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act" (Division D of H.R. 3082)
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[071755:121510] A.C., Oklahoma City, OK
I am concerned about local farmers, especially organic farmers being affected by this bill. It seems it will just put unnecessary burden on the small local farmers I buy from, while not really enforcing all that much on the big factory farms where these recalls are taking place. Processed food companies are the ones causing this mess, punish them, not the little guys.
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[070214:121510] J.A., Orlando, FL
The passing of H.R. 3082 is a clear example of the lack of oversight and communication so characteristic of our government, generally, and leaders specifically. Further, lack of Agency accountability has become a great concern within the past decades and the passing of this bill ensures this trends' continuation. Without the disease itself being treated, but the symptoms alone, there can never be true progress and change within our system and, ultimately, health. How can there be when one USDA/FDA inspection alone cost the state of Florida $350 million due to an incompetency erring the discovery of salmonella in the wrong produce? And there still has been no oversight hearing to account for this. This Bill disguises the real problems Washington does not have the gall to face up to for any number of reasons. The continuation of this deceit and ignorance is going to leave this country in totalitarian ruins in the years to come. It is time to do something NOW, before it is too late.
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[065714:121510] W.P., Newport News, VA
FDA has gone too far in dictating what kind of food one can or cannot eat. It derides natural foods which has been in existence virtually since human civilization. Instead, foods which have dangerous health effects or unknown safety records, such as GM foods, trans fats, etc. are allowed to continue to be produced. Where will this nation go if laws like S.510 is allowed to pass? Already, I have seen too many Americans living, but unhealthy. What's wrong is basic food education (including common-sense safety for farmers and consumers alike) and not this kind of "cover-it-all" supposedly-for-food-safety technologies which destroy God-made nutrition.
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[062448:121510] N.P., Louisville, KY
Please oppose S.510. Don't take away our right to buy from the small farmer. This will put them out of business. I love buying from my local farmer. Don't take away our rights and give them to the FDA. It's just more government control. 40245
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[061442:121510] J.P., Louisville, KY
Please oppose S.510, the food safety bill. I oppose the government to take away my fundamental right to my own body and physical health. Please do not put the small farmer out of business. This is another way for big business to push out small business. 40245 is my zip code. Thank you,
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[032551:121510] m.e., Butler, OH
Govt agencies should not be able to decide what we consume. Its our right to drink raw milk,etc. The greedy aspect of it should be on the back burner when it comes to the health of the people. What is wrong with these b ig companies? With all the power and money they currently possess, just think how healthy our nation could be if we went back to old time traditional farming. Gods way.
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[193652:121410] C.M., East Granby, CT
Please vote NO on Cloture for H.R. 3082! Also WE oppose the FDA so-called Food Safety Modernization Act (Division D of H.R. 3082). We have the right to choose which food is best for us and obtain and use any food of OUR choosing. We have the right to a healthy lifestyle as we see fit. We DON'T want or need the FDA to decide which food is "best" for us. This bill if signed into law will wipe out safe food sources and economically destabilize our nation further.
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