Michael Pollan on Food Safety #S510. I don't agree with him by YourEnchantedGardener .....
Michael Pollan on Food Safety #S510. I don't agree with him
Date: 11/29/2010 12:12:44 AM ( 14 y ago)
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INDUSTRIAL FOOD SHOULD BE BANNED
#s-510 Commentary from ex-micro farmer Barry Logan
added
12:13 pm
November 29. 2010
NOVEMBER 17:
FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST
BY :LEVY
With dietary supplements recently outlawed abroad, there is tremendous concern about this bill being a Trojan Horse for a take down of the healthy supplements industry. New language has been added to exempt "...any dietary supplement that is in compliance with the requirements of sections 402(g)(2) and 761 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (21 USC 242(g)(2), 379aa-1)."
What's more, S510 would enforce automatic harmonization with CODEX, an international law that would supercede American law.
The organization, Citizens for Health (CFH) also points out disturbing and unacceptable language in the House version of the bill, which "calls for the effective imposition of martial law through cordoning off potentially affected geographic areas in the case of a perceived food transport safety threat in order to halt the movement of food." This leaves the door open for the abuse of such power, CFH claims. Their action link is rel="nofollow" href="/aa/?654203" title="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/750/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5255" target="_hplink">here.
To call both your Senators, find their contact information at http://www.Senate.gov
or by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
That is why I am saying we need more time
to have a national conversation.
Vote No is the best answer for now.
The Tester Amendment protects the local farmers,
but does nothing to protect the raw dairy farmers
that are already being assauted by the FDA.
The FDA under Michael R Taylor is goin after the
small dairy people even before they get more reguatory powers.
On Monday night, the Senate is scheduled to vote on S510, the Food Safety Modernization Act. Eric Schlosser and I have collaborated on aNew York Tiimes op ed piece explaining why this bill should be passed, now that it's been amended to protect small farmers and food producers from costly new regulations. With the addition of the Tester Amendment, the legislation strikes a reasonable balance between the pressing need to more rigorously protect the safety of industrially produced food, as well as imported food, while at the same time assuring that the local food movement not be burdened unduly. In fact, the bill will exempt small farmers engaged in that marketplace, and also exempt them from some current Federal laws, including the 2002 terrorism act.
There is a lot of disinformation on the internet claiming that S510 will criminalize home gardening and seed saving and bring the American food system under the control of Monsanto or the World Trade Organization. There is nothing in the bill that can be remotely interpreted to do any such things. Many urban legends have sprouted around this legislation, but they are just that: legends. A broad coalition of sustainable agriculture groups supports the amended bill before the Senate. Now, the challenge is to beat back a last-minute assault from a coalition of Big Ag groups, from the United Egg Producers to the American Meat Institute, who cite the Tester amendment as their justification for rejecting the most the important effort to improve food safety in a generation.
I hope you'll read out piece and decide where you stand-- and then let your Senators know on Monday. It's going to be close.
"Sometimes, having had a surfeit of human society and gossip, and worn out all my village friends, I rambled still farther westward than I habitually dwell, into yet more unfrequented parts of the town, "to fresh woods and pastures new," or, while the sun was setting, made my supper of huckleberries and blueberries on Fair Haven Hill, and laid up a store for several days. The fruits do not yield their true flavor to the purchaser of them, nor to him who raises them for the market. There is but one way to obtain it, yet few take that way. If you would know the flavor of huckleberries, ask the cowboy or the partridge. It is a vulgar error to suppose that you have tasted huckleberries who never plucked them.
THE PRIMARY INTENT OF FOOD IS
SOMETHING OTHER THAN FOR IT TO BE A COMMODITY.
IT HAD PURPOSE. THE PURPOSE OF FOOD
IS TO HELP US, TO FULFILL THE EARTH's DICTATE:
PLANT YOUR DREAM!