Jon Stewart Tackles Food Safety Bill Paranoia

The Senate held hands, mostly, Tuesday night to pass the sweeping Food Safety Modernization Act by a vote of 73-25. The landmark food safety bill allows for increased federal inspections of food processing facilities and gives the FDA the authority to directly order recalls, shifting that power from a voluntary recall system determined exclusively by the offending companies themselves, when they feel like it.

After spates of recalls in the last year alone, including a massive, nationwide egg recall of nearly half a billion eggs and numerous deaths, the food safety overhaul seemed like an uncontroversial, obvious improvement to a broken system that fell far beyond the left-right paradigm of most modern politicking. It is apparently anything but, however, as Jon Stewart pointed out on the Daily Show last night.

WATCH: 'The Food, the Bad, and the Ugly' on The Daily Show:

Comments

[thurstjo]

05:52 AM on 12/23/2010

What Jon Stewart hasn't grasped is that the FDA already has the power to inspect and fine the frankenfarms that are producing salmonella tainted eggs and all other farms of frankenfoods BUT CHOOSES NOT TO!!! By lampooning Glenn Beck and not looking at the details of the bill, Stewart gave political cover to congress to pass the bill!?! The bill which unconstitutionally gives the FDA the power to regulate intra-state commerce, and especially small farms (which have rarely if ever been the source of the problems related to tainted food). The regulatory burdens that they are seeking to put on these farms is such that most will be unable to function as viable businesses. Bravo!?!

What is left now if for the states to use tools such as the tenth amendment and nullification to resist the FDA since the real danger is that it is trying to impose itself on to intra-state commerce for which it has no jurisdiction not inter-state commerce. Let's see what happens, but it's another step in the decline of the US.

[Icantbelieveher]

09:16 AM on 12/07/2010

The toxins in methyl iodide are so potent that the chemical is used to grow cancer cells in laboratory settings. It can cause severe brain damage, miscarriages, and thyroid diseases.
Thanks to a decision last week by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), this substance could soon be used on the strawberries in your supermarket. The agency approved methyl iodide as a pesticide for the state’s strawberry fields, and farmers could start spraying it as early as this spring.  
The scientific community has spoken loudly against the toxin. Six Nobel laureate recommended banning the use of methyl iodide completely back in 2007, and earlier this year all eight independent researchers on DPR’s scientific advisory panel expressed serious concerns about using the chemical as a pesticide. 
But scientific warnings were no match for an intense lobbying effort by a Japanese chemical firm that produces methyl iodide, Arysta LifeScience, and a full-court press by the state’s powerful $2 billion per year strawberry-growing industry. In response to this pressure, the DPR approved use of the chemical at 100 times the level scientists consider safe.
Even if you don’t live in California, this affects you -- the Golden State grows roughly 90 percent of all strawberries sold in the United States.

This is the petition:

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/urge_governor-elect_jerry_brown_to_reverse_the_methyl_iodide_decision

Talk about not getting enough sleep!

[Icantbelieveher]

09:15 AM on 12/07/2010

Now that you've nearly completed EWB, find your specific program community (Accounting Program Community). This will be the other community link in your portal besides the EWB Community. Peruse that community, introduce yourself and ask any questions you might have about your program.

Sign the petition!!!

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/urge_governor-elect_jerry_brown_to_reverse_the_methyl_iodide_decision

[Icantbelieveher]

09:18 AM on 12/07/2010

TALK ABOUT NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP!

[p456]

10:10 PM on 12/06/2010

Please everyone watch food Inc. Most of us can not afford safe food the multinational corporations have taken control of our food supply. I still do my best to get grass fed meat and free range poultry and catch wild sustainable seafood. Produce is another story, I wish I had the space to grow my own.

[SpikeC]

05:39 PM on 12/04/2010

It seems that posts critical of Beck may or may not get posted.

[SpikeC]

04:42 PM on 12/04/2010

Glen Beck is the most dangerous anti-American on the planet. Those who believe his trash demonstrate the reality of reverse evolution.

[suds mcduff]

03:45 PM on 12/04/2010

Please, please, Karma give Beck a painful death by eating tainted meat in another country...

[3openeyes]

12:54 PM on 12/04/2010

Whoops! That website is www.healthfreedomUSA.org. Check it out. Thanks.

[3openeyes]

12:52 PM on 12/04/2010

If you want to really learn about this subject, go read what the largest health freedom organization in the world has to say about. This organization, alone, has sent nearly 6 million Emails within the last year protesting what has been termed by many the "Food Fascism Bill." Look at their Food Safety Amendment which, if included, could address many of the concerns in the bill. This bill will also provide a back door entry for a European trade commission, CODEX, founded by a former Nazi, who brought us XYCLONE-B POISON GAS USED AT THE DEATH CAMPS IN NAZI GERMAN! And, it will supersede the vitamin protection act DSHEA. So, if your doctor tells you s/he doesn't know what's wrong with you and sends you home to die or suffer diminished quality of life, you'll find no alternatives medicines/therapies available. Remember the FDA has consistently allowed cigarettes, but have attempted to outlaw ear candles. Director Sibelius last Summer actually told the media to stop giving any press to parents alleging mercury as a cause for Autism. Oh, and they went along with the false H1N1 scare and netted BigPharma huge profits. Yes, it started out as a great progressive idea, Mr. Stewart, but it has been taken over by big business a long time ago. Their money is behind this and some to the Senators who passed it.

to take over our food policy, and make our food supply ultimately

[pomegrante]

09:26 PM on 12/02/2010

http://www.anh-usa.org/good-news-food-safety-bill-suddenly-on-life-support/

[kfreed]

09:06 PM on 12/02/2010

By the way, want the real scoop on all things food and hunger related?

Check out Food First at:

http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/3202

...and have a look at the "About Us - Who We Are" section.

Raj Patel, author of "Stufffed and Starved," and no fan of big Ag or Monsanto, is a fellow with the institute.

No alarm bells about the food safety bill here either, just a Nov. 18 call for an amendement to protect small farms with gross income of $500K or less.

So what gives on this forum?

[Independent1969]

11:57 PM on 12/02/2010

kfreed,

Are you also one of the last holdouts who still believes the Bush Administration's Patriot Act was done for our own good?

Well you need to realize that the "Food Safety bill" is very similar. It gives GOD authority to the FDA and if you think the FDA isn't a dangerous, criminal organization then just look at all the dead they've left in their wake.

So how many more Americans have to die from FDA approved, legal prescription drugs before some here realize how sinister this organization is? How many more farmers have to be jailed for selling their goods to people who want them? How many more family farms will be shutdown because the Monsanto's of the world control the seed supply? How many more vitamin manufacturers will be terrorized and shutdown before we realize that the FDA works for Big Pharma and not you?

kfreed, Watching John Stewart and doing Google searches intended to match your naive beliefs doesn't change the fact that this is an extremely dangerous bill which gives even more authority to an organization that should been shut down decades ago. You need to do your research before you come out here guns a blazin' defending something this dangerous.

And if the name didn't already imply it, I'm an INDEPENDENT.

"Top Ten Lies About Senate Bill 510"

http://www.naturalnews.com/030587_Senate_Bill_510_Food_Safety.html

[kfreed]

01:47 AM on 12/03/2010

The government can't be trusted so hobble it, right? That's exactly the GOP approach that set the precedent for undermining the FDA in the first place. This bill is about repairing a gutted agency and giving it the power it needs to do its job... as was intended when it was created.

As far as I'm concerned, private industry can be trusted even less and I'd rather have the possibility of oversight than a corporate free-for-all.

I read your link... you might do the same. As for the Patriot Act... stinks to high heaven, since you ask.

[kfreed]

01:59 AM on 12/03/2010

Speaking of "Google" searches... in fact, it changed a whole bunch for me because I actually spent time researching the topic and managed to post a whole series of valid info and links beyond the one you keep throwing up, including the text of the bill itself. Seeing as its been all rant and rave Glenn Beck style, I felt compelled to get to the bottom of it and I did. Turns out the only one hallucinating is you.

I don't rightly care what your party affiliation or nonafilliation might be... delusional and paranoid is delusional and paranoid.

[Independent1969]

12:03 AM on 12/03/2010

Btw, it's GROSS income. So a farm would still be subjected to this if say their Gross income was $500,000 but their actual profits were say $25,000. This also discourages family farms from getting larger meaning they can't compete and they can't sell their goods to you and me.

[kfreed]

02:03 AM on 12/03/2010

And I suppose if you read any of the info I provided... I'm sure you passed it up on your way to posting nonsense in reply to this comment... then you'd know there's more to it than that.

[kfreed]

08:37 PM on 12/02/2010

Oh for Christ's sake... Stop being such chumps and do your homework. Take the time to research this yourself rather than rely on a bunch of uninformed, emotional, talking-point spewing schizophrenics.

The actual bill at Open Congress:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s510/text

Snopes Fact Check:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/organic.asp

Politifact has a 'Pants-on-Fire' Report out on some of the rumors in regard to personal gardening and small farms while also posting a host of reasonable sources from which to get non-paranoid information about the bill and its transition throughout the legislative process:

http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/dec/01/blog-posting/food-safety-law-regulate-your-backyard-garden-no-i/

And then there's the level-headed assessment of the bill from Jill Richardson, a well-known food activist, who isn't hyperventilating over this much-needed food safety bill and explains the real issues addressed by the bill without any knee-jerk Monsanto ranting:

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/09/s-510-----a-study-in-how-much-you-trust-your-government/

And for all those crapping their pants about former Monsanto VP Taylor's role in the FDA, check out the people in positions of authority throughout the food network besides Taylor:

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2009/09/the-seven-most-powerful-people-in-federal-food-safety/

[Independent1969]

12:05 AM on 12/03/2010

Here's one for you:

"Top Ten Lies About Senate Bill 510"

http://www.naturalnews.com/030587_Senate_Bill_510_Food_Safety.html

[kfreed]

02:12 AM on 12/03/2010

As I said, I already read your link. Your turn.

[EricLightborn]

08:05 PM on 12/02/2010

Jon Stewart nailed my feelings on ripping on Glenn Beck:

"Screw it! It's not even worth it."

Yup...

[Ainsaade]

12:38 PM on 12/03/2010

It's starting to feel like beating up on a guy who's mentally retarded.

[EF3]

07:16 PM on 12/02/2010

Looking at Glenn Beck's pudgy face, a little food control wouldn't hurt him.

[znd]

07:01 PM on 12/02/2010

Our food is downright poison, and I doubt this will completely fix that.

Just look at people in this country. Look at all the fat kids. I don't even think it comes down to how often we eat, how much we eat, how much exercise we get, or even what KIND of food we eat, it's what is IN our food. All this fake stuff that makes us obese, and unhealthy as hell. People everywhere having thyroid problems and such.

I'm aware of all this, and yet I still end up eating this poison mostly because I can't afford real food. I would not be surprised if the average lifespan starts dropping really rapidly soon. I'm starting to notice that a lot of people in their teens or twenties are more overweight than their parents who are in their 40's and 50's.