Posted on 10/22/2009 6:18:54 AM PDT by markomalley
egislation granting the Food and Drug Administration new powers to oversee the nation's food supply has elbowed its way onto Congress' crammed calendar with bipartisan support and rare agreement between consumer groups and an industry stung by product recalls.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), would require the FDA to step up inspections of food facilities and to issue new rules to improve the quality of imported food and to combat contaminants in fresh produce. The measure also would give the agency authority to recall products on its own, instead of relying on industry cooperation.
"Hardly a week goes by that there isn't a report of an outbreak of food-borne illness or death in America," Durbin said. "The current system really just reacts to food illness. We have to have a system that is protective of consumers" by preventing outbreaks or nipping them in the bud.
The bill is slated for a committee hearing today even as lawmakers wrestle with the tasks of overhauling the healthcare system, writing new regulations for the financial services industry and shaping major measures on global warming and education.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
we haven’t had any news stories in months of bad food ... It’s an emergency — Danger, danger, danger.
Bringing back RATIONING!!!
Take over the banks, car mfr now the food supply. Great!
Except from food imported from China or Mexico
People are going broke, can’t find a job and we have a government adding more layers of regulation on everything increasing the cost of everything while increasing taxes and spending borrowed money like there’s no tomorrow...
This won’t end well.
locally we haven’t heard anything. So maybe the local news is asleep?
They will come for the guns soon.
It always starts out with something small, like this bill. Soon farmers markets, roadside stands and even game taken during hunting season will be forced to submit to these people, with a hefty “permit license fee” attached as well.
I can easily see the day when a grandmother will be breaking the law by giving friends an family jars of her homemade jelly and peaches she cans.
Incrimentalism in all its glory will be what this bill is actually for, a foundation to springboard into every corner of our food chain, no matter how private.
Bingo.
taking steps to control the food supply.
Hardly a week goes by without new reports of food borne illnesses???
Well...
125 years ago, if you got a “food borne illness”, you had a good chance of croaking because it was probably botulism.
Or trichinosis from undercooked meat.
in the 70’s and 80’s and early 90’s, if you got a “food borne illness”, it was most likely E Coli.
Now, if you get a “food borne illness”, they probably mean you got the runs from salmonella because you left the chicken on the counter for a half hour and never rinsed it good before you made a hafazzd attempt at cooking it.
Next week: Beware the horrors of that evil creature determined to take over the planet and exterminate mankind:
The bread mold lurketh!!
I mean there is more than a little bit of defining downward and plain old hysteria going on here...
Vendors at our local farmer’s market see the end of the road; they won’t pay the hefty annual license fee and don’t like the idea of the feds having the authority to make unannounced visits to their farms and bank accounts. Control of the food supply, control of energy resources and control of healthcare gives the government total control over everything we do.
Wide support among our would be masters. Wide support for increasing THEIR power.
Darkness has indeed fallen
Florida tomato growers lost their shirts at the height of harvest season when the fed gov foolishly named FL tomatoes as the source of the outbreak. In reality it was Mexican jalapeno peppers.
If the fed gov is going to spend money, it ought to compensate the tomato growers, rather than hiring more idiot bureaucrats on our dime.
“taking steps to control the food supply.”
How about restaurants? Should regulations in place that require them to be sanitary and that they don`t feed the public spoiled food be done away with?
This is just another power grab.. Demonrats in our government don’t care about food, healthinsurance, carbon dioxide or anything else but POWER!
Starts off as “inspections” — it’ll end up as gov’t mandates on the food to produce...knowing this Administration.”
There are serious and onerous rules included in this bill that attack the farmer/grower who attends the local “Farmer’s Markets”, and the household that raised their OWN GARDEN.
These inspections should only apply to commercial growers and not to home use or Farmer’s Markets.
Some cities- like Reno, have spent lots of money to create a Farmer’s Market that is open 1 or 2 days a week. Now the Feds will slam them into oblivion.
I will grow what I want on my own property. NObama can go to hell.
Which of course, will be exempted from the new regulations. </sarcasm>
Those types of regulations already exist. That’s not what this is about.
Do the supporters even know that it outlaws organic and heirloom vegetables?
No food for supporters of liberty,
Plenty for those who are DemRat politicians by supposed brain power.
ping
seed bump
...sponsored by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), would require the FDA to step up inspections of food facilities and to issue new rules to improve the quality of imported food and to combat contaminants in fresh produce. The measure also would give the agency authority to recall products on its own, instead of relying on industry cooperation.Of course, it won't do much good regarding imported food. And that's the whole point of this legislation.
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