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Monday, June 1, 2009

News

FDA about to get "smack-down" power

Posted by Owen Morris on Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 11:00 AM

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After the peanut recall, the spinach recall and the swine flu, it looks as if members of Congress are finally serious about overhauling the FDA. The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, introduced by powerful Congressmen Henry Waxman and John Dingell, would fix many of the problems that have plagued the agency for the past eight years.

Among other things, the bill would give the FDA more quarantine power to prevent food from traveling across geographic areas, a problem in the peanut butter salmonella scare. Another problem that the peanut butter scare highlighted was the fact that many food facilities do not keep track of where their supply is coming from. The new law would require every organization in the food supply chain to maintain complete origin and distribution records.

Other portions of the bill have to do with increasing safety requirements on infant formula -- an obvious response to the China melamine scandal, when the agency initially ruled that trace amounts of the toxic substance were safe. The bill also gives the agency more power to subpoena records. Most importantly, it would increase the number of inspectors looking into the safety of food. The Peanut Corporation of America hadn't been inspected in over five years.

The bill is currently in its infancy and there is a chance it won't make it out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. But it has the support of some powerful lobbies such as the Grocery Manufacturer's Association. The White House has remained mum, though Obama has previously called for a "complete review" and reform of the FDA.

This might be exactly what he was looking for.

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This "food safety" bill is essentially the HR.759 bill introduced earlier in 2009. It also has many similarities to HR.875, though some say it is even worse for small growers. See the following two articles for the real lowdown on what these fake "food safety" bills are really about:

http://www.naturalnews.com/z02...
http://www.naturalnews.com/z02...

Any such bill needs to have a clear exception for any small family or farm growers, as the only problems with "food safety" that have occurred in recent years are with the big industrial companies, NOT with the small growers.

If you care about your right to choose the food you eat from local organic/natural growers, then please sign this petition:

http://salsa.democracyinaction...

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Posted by Jim Bond on June 1, 2009 at 3:08 PM
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