Everything You Need To Know About The Food Safety Bill

Grist:

The House will vote today on a momentous, controversial plan to overhaul a large swath of the nation's food-safety system.

The vote comes amid yet another round of recalls. On Tuesday, the FDA announced the voluntary recall of "one lot" of salmonella-tainted cilantro, distributed by a company called Frontera Produce.

Read the whole story: Grist

Comments

[BannedNBoston]

12:29 PM on 07/31/2009

Announcing The Most Powerful People's Advocacy Tool EVER!!

The word we are getting is that our "good for nothing but photo-ops
and grandstanding" Congress may try to sneak through HR 2749 real
fast, the latest phony food safety bill on a suspension of rules any
day. Yes, we do need to take action to protect our food safety. But,
no, this bill does absolutely nothing to identify or address the real
problems. And by NOT addressing the real problems it can only do more
harm than good.

But we now launching an incredibly powerful new advocacy tool,
especially for the fight against HR 2749, and to stop all such future
lunacy in its tracks, the People's Phone Lobby interface. It's so
simple to use, just go to the page below and call your members of
Congress and there is even a link to give you all their direct
congressional and local district office phone numbers.

HR 2749 People's Phone Lobby:
http://www.peaceteam.net/lobby.php?bill=HR2749

Then when you speak to the staffers in your congressional offices,
you don't JUST tell them your position, first you ASK them for their
position. Are they supporting HR 2749 or not? And THEN you give them
your position and MAKE them defend theirs if they do not agree with
us, that HR 2749 is just more very bad news, another deceptively
titled bill that in fact does the opposite of what it purports to be
about, assuming it is anything

[elan4444]

11:52 PM on 07/30/2009

What I am concerned about is that most of our pharmaceuticals are made in China and there is no government requirement that it be stated on the label.

[glitzqueen]

07:57 PM on 07/30/2009

This bill is yet another gift to Big Ag, a disaster for everyone else.

[jeanruss]

09:55 AM on 07/30/2009

Uh, a little late with this article, wouldn't you say? They are voting TODAY. I guess Huffpo didn't want their readership to have the opportunity to react to this terrible bill. The Grist article was very wanting. If you really want to know about this terrible legislation go to www.ftcldf.org. This group SINCERELY looks out for small farmers and have worked very hard to make the public aware of the dangers of this bill. The FDA will have omnipotent power over our food. They can quarantine areas (of course these won't be big agribusiness farms, just the little guy). This bill virtually ignores the problems created by agribusiness. General Mills will pay the same $500 fee as the local beekeeper, which is absurd and unfair. Huffpo has so many articles about farmer's markets, yet these will be GREATLY harmed by this bill. Today is the day to stop this terrible bill that THE DEMOCRATS have delivered to us. Shame on them.

[farmette]

01:48 PM on 07/30/2009

The bill is misguided at best and at its worst will put out of business the very farms capable of turning around the problems with our food system. If you care at all about sustainability issues, please call your rep immediately to oppose this bil that will NOT address the safety issues we are having.