Legislation Watch: H.R. 875

[Pennsylvania]

Aptly labeled as a "pile of stink" by a friend of mine, this bill is yet another assault on our right to eat.

H.R. 875:

Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009

To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.

Source.

Also, an excellent breakdown of the bill can be found at this blog.

From the top of the blog:

What this will do is force anyone who produces food of any kind, and then transports it to a different location for sale, to register with a new federal agency called the “Food Safety Administration.” Even growers who only sell only fruit and/or vegetables at farmers markets would not only have to register, but they would be subject inspections by federal agents of their property and all records related to food production. The frequency of these inspections will be determined by the whim of the Food Safety Administration. Mandatory “safety” records would have to be kept. Anyone who fails to register and comply with all of this nonsense could be facing a fine of up to $1,000,000 per violation.

Why not contact your rep?

[LittleLightShining]

I spoke with someone at Peter Welch's office who assured me that 875 is going nowhere. HR 759 is the bill to watch. There's a thread about this in the health freedom forum.

[weslinder]

I spoke with someone at Peter Welch's office who assured me that 875 is going nowhere. HR 759 is the bill to watch. There's a thread about this in the health freedom forum.

I'm not questioning what you say, but it has 39 co-sponsors. That usually means that it will make it to the floor, at least.

[Intuition]

I spoke with someone at Peter Welch's office who assured me that 875 is going nowhere. HR 759 is the bill to watch. There's a thread about this in the health freedom forum.

I'd take their assurance with a grain of salt. Obama announced his choice to head up FDA today and along with his announcement made it clear that he wants to perform a major overhaul of our food regulations:

WASHINGTON – The nation's food safety system is a "hazard to public health" and overdue for an overhaul, President Barack Obama said Saturday as he focused on that task by filling the top job at the Food and Drug Administration.

Obama used his weekly radio and video address to announce the nomination of former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg as agency commissioner and selection of Baltimore's health commissioner, Joshua Sharfstein as her deputy. Consumer groups applauded the picks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090314/...ma_food_safety

[tangent4ronpaul]

> What this will do is force anyone who produces food of any kind, and then transports it to a different location for sale, to register with a new federal agency called the “Food Safety Administration.”

wrong. It doesn't have to be food for sale, and you don't have to transport it. it's ALL FOOD!

also, the main reason for the bill is to drive small farmers out of business and to ban non-hybrid seeds. All seeds are now considered "food".

Say good by to bake sales, farmers markets, 4H, FFA, county fairs, etc. This will probably even put Girl Scout cookies out of business.

-t