S. 510 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act

Big Brother is at it again... this time no less than NINETY senators approved this Senate bill...
Here is a link to how your Senators voted: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2010-257

Here is a link to the bill summary : http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510&tab=summary

And, here is the link to the FDA's actual website... After you read all this stuff they are supposed to now be doing to protect us from ourselves... go see what they already do and ask if this bill is even necessary???
http://www.fda.gov/

Here is the first section (Section 101) summary -

Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to expand the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to inspect records related to food, including to: (1) allow the inspection of records of food that the Secretary reasonably believes is likely to be affected in a similar manner as an adulterated food; and (2) require that each person (excluding farms and restaurants) who manufactures, processes, packs, distributes, receives, holds, or imports an article of food permit inspection of his or her records if the Secretary believes that there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to such food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.

1. We have yet another goverment agency needing it's powers expanded... yeah right.
2. "Reasonably believes" "is likely" "affected in a similar manner" as an adulterated food... not "inspect suspected adulterated foods"??? This is hogwash.
3. EACH PERSON (farms and restaurants excluded, but NOT each person) who who processes, packs, distributes, receives, holds AN ARTICLE OF FOOD has to permit inspection... That means if you grow peaches on a garden tree, preserve and can them, keep it for yourself or god forbid, SEND them to friends and family, you are still on the hook for this massive government intrusion into your life.
4. So if "the secretary" feels there is a reasonable probability that use of or exposure (we'll say "use of" for this statement, as in "eating") will cause serious adverse health consequences or death they can inspect records... what if EACH PERSON doesn't maintain records? Do you keep records for you garden, your homemade jams, herbs you grow in a pot in the windowsill? But that point aside, what if you eat something fatty? Maybe something cooked in lard instead of vegetable oil? That can cause heart attacks, and that's pretty serious... you better get your record book open now, 'cuz the FDA is soon to be knocking on a door near you...

And that was a brief dissection of the summary of the FIRST section (there are 39 sections total).

Here are some highlights:

Section 107 -

Directs the Secretary to assess and collect fees related to: (1) food facility reinspection; (2) food recalls; (3) the voluntary qualified importer program; and (4) importer reinspection. Applies export certification provisions to food.

And your taxes and food costs go up!

Section 109 -

Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to report annually on the activities of the Food and Agriculture Government Coordinating Council and the Food and Agriculture Sector Coordinating Council.

Now we have DHS involved... One more Three-letter government agency (this one with teeth) closing in on the American people...

Section 111 -

Requires the HHS Secretary to promulgate regulations on sanitary transportation practices for the transportation of food.

SERIOUSLY? What has the FDA been doing since 1906?????

Section 204 -

Requires the HHS Secretary to: (1) improve tracking and tracing of fruits and vegetables that are raw agricultural commodities in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak; and (2) establish standards for the type of information, format, and timeframe for persons to submit records to aid the Secretary in such tracking and tracing.

Again, better keep records on your jams and potluck dinner nights...

Section 209 -

Requires the Administration of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide support for, and technical assistance to, state, local, and tribal governments in preparing for, assessing, decontaminating, and recovering from an agriculture or food emergency.

Section 206 -

Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to enhance foodborne illness surveillance systems to improve the collection, analysis, reporting, and usefulness of data on foodborne illnesses.

FDA, HHS, DHS, EPA, CDC... the list keeps getting bigger.

Section 309 -

Requires the Secretary to establish offices of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in foreign countries to provide assistance to the appropriate governmental entities with respect to measures to provide for the safety of articles of food and other products regulated by the FDA that are exported by such countries to the United States.

Now we police the rest of the world as well, not just with America's military, but with our expensive, expansive government programs as well? "All of your food are belong to us!"

Section 401 -

Authorizes appropriations for FY2010-FY2014 for the activities of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, the Center for Veterinary Medicine, and related field activities in the Office of Regulatory Affairs of the FDA. Directs the HHS Secretary to increase the field staff of such Centers and Office.

Yes, because even after trying to read all those initials and letters in this section, we can still cut through to the BS and see that on the taxpayer dime, we are creating MORE GOVERNMENT JOBS.

Section 404 -

Declares that nothing in this Act shall be construed in a manner inconsistent with the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization or any other treaty or international agreement to which the United States is a party.

Yup, WTO, another three-letter organization, this one not even voter approved, but hey, congress knows what's best for us...

Section 405 -

Requires the Secretary to update the Fish and Fisheries Products Hazards and Control Guidance to take into account advances in technology.

"Hey my main fish homey! Secretary here... yeah, hey, how's the wife and kids? Oh, just dropping you a line to say, make sure you take into account those advances in technology you keep hearing about..."

Damn, these people are stupid.

Section 406 -

Requires the Secretary, acting through the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, to study the transportation of food for consumption in the United States, including an examination of the unique needs of rural and frontier areas with regard to the delivery of safe food.

Of course, we've been transporting food in the United States for 400'ish years now, especially with regards to the "unique" needs of rural and frontier areas (since downtown NY, Detroit, Chicago, LA, Dallas, NO, etc... do not have much agriculture being produced).

So now the government controls many of the Banks through bailouts, GM and Chrysler, Air travel via super-secret no fly lists and the TSA (you know, all those radioactive xray scanners you have to walk through to fly, where they take pictures of your junk, but can't take pictures, but those pictures they couldn't take are all over the internet) and now the nation's food supply...

The game is afoot, and Liberty is losing.