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ACTION PAGE:
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Reject S.510 now cloaked as H.R. 3082 - Protect America's Small Farms & Food Producers
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111th U.S. Congress - FDA Food Safety Modernization Act [formerly S.510 now in H.R. 3082]
Update 12/9/10: By a 212-206 vote on December 8, the House passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act as an amendment to H.R. 3082 (the "Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011" to fund the government through September 2011). House Democrats attached what was S.510 to H.R. 3082 (see Division D) because they were worried about Republican opposition to it as a stand alone bill. A food safety act should not be part of a spending bill!
As this is the Senate, the first vote on H.R. 3082 will be on a cloture motion to limit debate before there is a vote on the bill itself. Contact your Senators now!
More than ever, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (the "Act") represents a major threat to the local food movement, states' autonomy to regulate food, and the country's ability to become self-sufficient in food production.
The Act will greatly expand the power of FDA, an agency that does not respect your freedom of food choice. The FDA has stated as a matter of public record that people have "no fundamental right to their own physical and bodily health" and "no fundamental right to obtain any food they wish."
Passage of the Act into law will enable FDA potentially to regulate all farms marketing food products direct to consumers even if the farms engage only in intrastate commerce. [NOTE: The Amendment offered by Jon Tester was adopted 11/18/2010 to mitigate the most immediate impact on small farms and counter the trend of consolidation of the food supply; however, the bill is still fundamentally flawed.] The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010(in whatever form) needs to be stopped!
How bad can a federal food safety bill be? Let me count the ways! Better yet, let Senator Coburn give you a short video tutorial on the underlying problems with the Act (formerly S.510).
FDA's failure to exercise its current powers hardly justifies rewarding the agency with expanded authority in the aftermath of the egg recall and peanut butter fiasco. Moreover, FDA has proven itself untrustworthy to operate in the best interest of the American public as clearly seen in allowing the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in animals and its lax policy regarding genetically modified foods.
Congress must get the message that they need to solve the real problems--the centralized food distribution system and imported foods--and not regulate our local food sources out of business.
Tell your Senators to protect local foods and VOTE "NO" on Cloture for H.R. 3082 and OPPOSE the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. Then follow up this Petition Fax with phone calls; for contact numbers, go to the S.510 legislation page and enter your zip code in the right panel box.
NOTE: If you leave the comment box blank, recipients will see only the subject line Vote "NO" on Cloture for H.R. 3082 and Oppose the "FDA Food Safety Modernization Act" (Division D of H.R. 3082) and your contact information to confirm you are their constituent. Your comment shows with your Initials, City and State at "View last 25 messages sent"; a copy is also sent to us at petitions@ftcldf.org unless you deselect it. The confirmation page will offer other options to you. Your message will be sent and saved through The People's Email Network (The PEN) petition system. You may receive invitations to sign other petitions from The PEN. Please refer to terms and conditions for details. You may also receive follow-up emails from the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense. A compiled report of petition submissions may be faxed to Congress. As of 10 a.m. Eastern 12/2/2010, this petition has been reset to FAX your message to your selected legislators.
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