The Food Safety Modernization of Act (H.R. 875) defines its purpose as: “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.”

Despite its noble-sounding stated objectives, H.R. 875 would effectively transfer all state control over food regulation to the new Food Safety Administration (FSA), which is destined to become a new federal bureaucracy that would eventually dominate state and local food safety agencies already in place.

The definitions found in this legislation indicate that it intends to create an all-encompassing and intrusive agency. For example, “The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.”

The legislation will also mandate extensive record keeping and inspections, which may not be very burdensome to the large factory farm, but which will be difficult for the small family farmer to comply with.  First, “Any food establishment or foreign food establishment engaged in manufacturing, processing, packing, or holding food for consumption in the United States shall register annually with the Administrator.” Then, “The Administrator shall establish an inspection program, which shall include statistically valid sampling of food and facilities to enforce performance standards.”

The legislation requires “each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards.” And it invites snoopy government bureaucrats to descend upon each “food production facility [which] shall permit the Administrator upon presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner, to have access to and ability to copy all records maintained by or on behalf of such food production establishment in any format (including paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary to assist the Administrator.”

Recall that one of the complaints levied against King George III by the signers of the Declaration of Independence was: “He has erected a Multitude of New Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People and eat out their Substance.”

The FSA, by imposing burdensome record-keeping requirements on farmers, would contribute to the eventual closing of all independent, family farms as well as all organic farming operations due to overbearing federal regulations arbitrarily determined by FSA in favor of corporate factory farms.

Furthermore, H.R. 875 mandates what is a clear violation of the tenth amendment, which states that all powers not delegated to the federal government are retained by the states or the people. The Constitution does not delegate powers to monitor food safety to the executive branch (nor any branch) of the federal government. That the intrusion of the new Food Safety Administration into the affairs of the states and municipalities is planned by this bill is signaled by this statement: “The Administrator shall leverage and enhance the food safety capacity and roles of State and local agencies and integrate State and local agencies as fully as possible into national food safety efforts….” (Emphasis added.)

Click here to send an email to your representative and senators in Congress telling them to oppose passage of H.R. 875 in both Houses of Congress.

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Roger Siedow

April 11, 2009

67.162.88.167

Votes: -2

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LAW: I agree the separation of Federal and State Governments responsibilities should be maintained in adherance to the constitution.
FOOD SAFETY: The concept that food pathogens will be reduced through the use of specifically designed chemicals (insecticides, antibacterials, etc) is FALSE. Pathogens thrive and multiply, and adapt to new threats hundreds of times faster than humans can, as proven by the ravaging pathogen development taking place in all modern hospitals. The same result is already occurring in agriculture at current treatment levels. Not only do pathogens thrive with such treatment, as noted, it is poisonous to both the humans and plants which consume them, as their metabolism cannot adapt as rapidly as microbes do.
PROTECTION OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: Legislation, IN ACTIVE RESPONSE to this governmental and commercial threat, should now be passed MAKING NON-ORGANIC FARMING PRINCIPALS UNLAWFUL, in interest of protecting peoples right to metabolically safe and healthful food.

swalsh

April 14, 2009

174.153.197.182

Votes: +1

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This globalist power grab must be stopped, as it seeks to control the most basic of our liberties.

All4Constitution

April 17, 2009

173.24.109.155

Votes: +1

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I read an article from my local paper about pork producers suing the EPA because of "non-compliance" issues on the EPA's website. The site made it virtually impossible for the pork producers to comply and were being fined up to $25,ooo per every day they failed to comply. I never heard about it any where else or heard anymore about it. Have any of you heard about this? *The article was in the Journal Gazette/Times Courier (AP Des Moines, Iowa) on 1/21/09. It was titled "Pork producers sue EPA over new emissions rule". This is already a law and it sounds an awful lot like HR875 to me.

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