Capitol Hill Blue Forums Science and Technology Health, Medicine & the healing Sciences S 510 Food Safety bill is still alive

The Food Safety Bill is baaaaack. Didn't take Big Agra long to find a way to circumvent the Senate's initial mistake in the first bill. In case you have not yet had enough fascism the bill will provide for up to 5,000 FDA police, yep food police. Pretty soon everyone in the nation will either be some sort of government cop or will be married to one. The new food police will require that all food producers register in a new data base so that they can be monitored. Oh, yeah. This will then allow the food police to show up inspect and/or raid facilities and farms. When these food criminals are manned over to court, they won't be judged by a jury of their peers. They'll be judged by the FDA! Lovely. Big Agra effing owns the FDA - does anyone disagree? - and now the FDA Food Police will arrest and try all violators for laws interpreted by the FDA.

This bill is harmless? Think again.

playin' taps.

The first paragraph of the article you cited was this:


I have pointed out before in this thread that registration of food producing facilities IS NOT NEW! It has been on the books for donkeys' years. It used to be that every package of food had printed on it somewhere: "Reg. USDA".

As to the inspection thing, you would rather have them make an announced inspection? If that had been proposed someone here would have been all over it screaming that giving advance notice is tantamount to knuckling under to the industry.

Actually you are wrong, Churl. Small farmers are not registered in a national data base.

Inspections are already handled by county, state and federal laws. We don't need more laws to do what we have laws to do. We certainly don't need more police. We don't need food police. We don't need people being arrested for smuggling cauliflower seeds and the like. We don't need small, independent farmers, and little truck patch farmers who have roadside stands being hauled in by the food police to the FDA court.

You appear to be talking about Big Agra and Big Food, I am not, other than the fact that this proposed bill is N-O-T about them. It is from Big Agra and it is for them. It is not about protecting the nation from perhaps about 2,500 annual deaths from food poisoning. Yes, I know 5,000 die annually but many of those die from food poisoning that happens in the home.

What we have here is a massive law that is controversial, that has seen a lot of public opposition, that for some reason both parties in Washington and huge food organizations and companies are hell bent to pass. Tens of millions have been spent on lobbying this bill. All this to save 2,500 to 5,000 deaths?

I'm not that naive. If Congress and Big Agra and Big Food are hell bent to save American lives lost in the consumption of food, they'll bloody well go after Frito-Lay, McDonalds, Coca Cola and on and on. Consumption of non-foods and of life threatening additives produced by Big Food likely harm and kill more Americans in a day than people in a year poisoned by food production.

The point is, Churl, current laws and practices already make American food production very safe for consumers. Violations that do occur seem in the vast majority of the cases seem to be covered by law on the books. No matter, you would advocate for more laws anyway and more police.

We need to make the distinction here, Churl, I am not advocating for Big Agra, I am not defending them nor am I defending big and bigger, unnecessary, government. I am talking about the people of America and personal freedom. Those freedoms will be in serious jeopardy if the FDA is further and unnecessarily involved.

I'm remained unconvinced that you've even read fully read the bill. That or your employed by Big Agra or Big Food or Big Government. Or perhaps that you don't yet understand that Big Food and/or Big Agra are Big Government.

I have read the law. And I can assure you that I am not wrong about the registration. Registration has been required under the existing law for decades. Nothing has changed except a requirement that the registrant provide an email address.

As to the small farmers, here's a bulletin:

SMALL FARMERS ARE EXEMPT FROM THE LAW.


You are right. We don't need that. And this bill does not require or provide for it.

If you can show me where truck farmers and other small independent farmers are not exempt from this bill I will apologize profusely and grovel at your feet (figuratively speaking, of course.)

It finally happened. I bought some deer sausage from a local "harvester/producer and when I cooked it I realized that one end of each sausage was meat and the other end plain bread crumbs. I called him to inquire about it, and he told me he was really sorry, but in this economy it was impossible to make both ends meat.

This all presumes that the agency will hire agents adequate to enforce to the level this posting claims will happen. The reality is that laws are often not fully enforced. The truth is that the degree of food inspection has dropped substantially over the last 30 years.
link

If a large food production facility can go 5 years without inspection.... I really doubt that there will be sufficient inspectors available to harass individual who happen to have a greenhouse for personal food production.


And given the present inclination to cut back all government expenses... I sort of doubt that 4000 new agents going to be hired to achive the feared fascist take over of the food production system.

But, as always, I stand ready to take bets with anyone who is certain this eventuality is a forgone conclusion.

The Tester Amendment clearly states:

(2) EXEMPTION. --A qualified facility--
(A) shall not be subject to the requirements under subsections (a) through (i) and subsection (n) in an applicable calendar year.

It then goes on to say that in order to be a qualified facility and be exempt from the massive and expensive food safety documentation required in S510:

Written Plan and Documentation- The owner, operator, or agent in charge of a facility shall prepare a written plan that documents and describes the procedures used by the facility to comply with the requirements of this section, including analyzing the hazards under subsection (b) and identifying the preventive controls adopted under subsection (c) to address those hazards. Such written plan, together with the documentation described in subsection (g), shall be made promptly available to a duly authorized representative of the Secretary upon oral or written request.

That very small farms and food production facilities will be required to submit:

3 years of comprehensive financial records indicating less than $500K in gross sales (Pg. 4, Line 11)

I. Documentation that the owner, operator or agent of the facility has identified potential hazards associated with the food being processed, is implementing preventative controls to address those hazards, and is monitoring the preventative controls to ensure that such controls are effective (Pg. 5 line 20).

II. Documentation (which may include licenses, inspection reports, certificates, permits, credentials, certification by an appropriate agency (such as the State Department of Agriculture) or other evidence of oversight), as specified by the Secretary that the facility is in compliance with state, local, county, or other non-Federal food safety law (Pg. 6, Line 5).

which is strikingly similar to the requirements from which they will be exempt. In other words, by registering in the national data base and by submitting the extensive and expensive documentation as outlined in the The Tester Amendment, very small food production enterprises and farms may then meet the criteria to be considered a qualified farm or food producer and will be exempt from completing almost the identical documentation required for large producers of food!!! That's some exemption.

In addition, "qualified producers" will not be able to sell products outside beyond the state in which they are located and not further than 275 miles. (That's where the food smuggling will kick in.)

In other words, if I live in Rock Hill and have a nice but small organic food farm going I will no longer be able to motor just a little bit north where the major market exists and sell my produce to yuppies in Pineville and Matthews, NC.

There's no need for you to apologize for not having identified the truth about S510. It's all out there for anyone who bothers to look and to reason with the information provided.

Finally! A job on the horizon!

Not true.

First of all, only poultry, beef, produce and juice industries are USDA guided. Everything else, seafood, etc are FDA.

Secondly, one can only use the USDA shield on packaging "if" the plant has USDA inspectors on the premises.