Senate Bill S510 (FDA Food Safety Modernization Act) Explained:
When I heard about Senate Bill s510 I was completely freaked out. The first thing I heard about it was that it makes it illegal to grow your own food. I immediately got on the phone to call my senator about how OUTRAGED I was and why was he planning on putting my grandma in jail for that cute little patch of cucumbers she grows for her canned pickles! What kind of man likes to put grandmas in JAIL HUH? In fact, I think I will just go down there and tell him what an asshole he is in person!! But then I regained some of my brain cells and remembered that MY senator probably didn’t write the bill and took a journey down the rabbit hole to see what I could find out about this bill.
The first thing I found out was it doesn’t make growing your own food at home and eating it yourself illegal. PHHHEWWWW!! Grandma’s pickles are SAFE!! Then I started actually reading what WAS in the bill.
You will probably think this bill is a good thing. Unless you are one of those tin foil hat wearing weirdos who think you need rights and freedoms. It might even be better than that wonderful piece of extistence we call the Patriot Act (Don’t you LOVE that one?)
A couple pertinent facts on the bill include:
The original bill no longer exists. The new S510 is only one part of an amendment they kept. (Kinda makes you wonder how bad the first one was huh?) It also is only in committee, which means the senate has been asked to consider it. Will they vote on it? Why yes of course, otherwise the senate doesn’t care about the children. Did I mention the bill is sponsored by congressman Dingell?
but here is why you should be mad as hell and just aren’t going to take it anymore:
If you trade or give your food away, or sell it at farmers markets, you are no longer considered growing for personal consumption which puts you in a category as a Community Supported Agriculture supplier, or so you forget what it actually means CSA’s for short. This is a whole world of difference because now your food has to be “traceable” That means if your neighbor little sally walker has a tummy ache, you need to be held accountable for giving her those bacteria laden zucchinis. What it really means is a drive to the freshly built State Agriculture Office, to talk to the ladies who got promoted from the DMV to fill out a stack of paperwork the size of War and Peace, pay a handy little “CSA Liscensing fee” plus all the taxes and stuff of course, agree to surprise inspections, OH, and don’t forget that dollar to the blabbity blabb fund. By the way would you like to register to vote sir?
So in other words you don’t grow it yourself, you probably aren’t going to get to eat it. Which is going to make you a pretty big ball of sad if you get most of your fruits and veggies from farmers markets. Is this going to be the end of organic farming? No probably not directly or in the near future but farmers who can afford to give away 50% of their profits to the government to implement this bill will probably not going to be living in your town. And because of the lack of farmers putting their heirloom seed grown produce out there, we will eventually see a decline in the amount of heirloom seeds available to the public. The worst part though is the bill will directly affect pet and animal feed manufacturers as well, which means higher feed costs for farmers, which means you ain’t makin chicken wings for the backyard barbecue buddy. It’s all hot dogs from here. We will probably still get hamburgers for a while, but eventually hamburgers will be the price of steak, steak will be the price of lobster, lobster will be filled with oil.
So the question now is how much do you love freedom? And vegetables.
PS there is a counter part in the house of representatives to this bill called H.R. 2749 I haven’t checked it out but it may be cause for a part 2 and s510 could cost Americans $825 billion in 2010 alone
UPDATE!!!
This bill has just passed the senate!! PLEASE Contact your state rep and let them know you oppose this bill!!!
References:
Click here to read the entire bill
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510
http://www.govtrack.us/users/questions.xpd?topic=bill:s111-510
A really good blog on the bill
Very useful information. I appreciate your effort, very well written article.
If you people hate HK so much then leave, and don’t let the door hit your shiit on the way out.
This really goes deeper than some seem to think. (Excuse me while I fold my foil hat.) The “Government” already controls your money, your schools, your gasoline, etc. If they can control your food supply, how much control does that actually give them over your lives? How much of a stretch is it to believe that they could eventually tell you that you can not grow food and feed it to your children? You already can’t give it to your neighbors. It is really all about control. The progressives want to get complete control of the economy so they can crash it and make us another European state.
I am still disappointed in the prospect of this passing,I have already started clearing an acre of land for spring planting.My four grandchildren live with me,and we thought it would be great fun to grow a large vegetable garden,for friends and family,also our local homeless shelter,meals on wheels ect…wow! I mean wow! I’m speechless! Thanks for Info will be monitoring this one.
If I am reading this correctly, it does not apply to anyone whose annual production is valued at less than $500,000. That doesn’t mean that I automatically like it, because at this point I’m pretty sure I don’t, even though I tend toward being one of those commie liberal types, but it does mean that the case is being overstated somewhat in regard to some of the producers you say will disappear. I think it’s important to frame the argument realistically; otherwise, we end up with two diametrically opposed sides screaming things that just aren’t true at the top of their lungs.
Oh, wait.
1. Increased inspections and paperwork won’t actually detect microbial pathogens
2. Costly risk-reduction rules (HACCP) are outdated and will stifle innovation
3. Even if the smallest producers are exempt, S.510 will still crush tens of thousands of small and mid-sized farms
4. By replacing the words “credible evidence” with “reason to believe,” S.510 gives the FDA power to outlaw foods based on opinion rather than science
5. So-called “food poisoning” often comes from chicken prepared in home kitchens, but S.510 doesn’t apply to meat
6. Produce contamination is usually caused by factory animal farms whose rivers of cow feces end up in the water supply, soils, and equipment that comes into contact with fresh produce; S.510 doesn’t address that problem
7. Finally, it’s impossible remove all risk from life, and a car has a roughly 7,600% higher chance of killing you than eating fresh produce. S.510 imposes costly, unworkable “solutions” to the wrong problems.
Freaky, just wait until you have to pay tax on wipeing your but with your right hand, and thrown in jail for using your left. (Yes, the world will come to an end).
[...] Here’s some clear and simple explanations of was and still is in the bill: http://laughterandliberty.com/senate-bill-s510-explained-sort-of/ [...]
Good post, learned something new, Thank You
part of the bill (one paragraph) S510 addresses seed storage. apparently requiring expensive equipment. those that control the seed do control agriculture. monsanto has tremendous power already, plus the benefit of having more — thanks to obama gifting them with a cabinet seat for tom vilsack, now sec. of agriculture.
You completed several nice points there. I did a search on the topic and found most persons will have the same opinion with your blog.
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This is the time to shut the show down. Tin Foil Hat? No baby. Far from tin. The problem with Americans today is that they are cowards. I too cannot fathom being resolute enough to be a Gandhi. To be a Malcolm X. To be a Martin Luther and a Martin Luther King. But. We must play the man, no matter how strange it may feel. It does get good after awhile. Seriously. Even when it hurts. I did it once. I entered the otherside of real obedience to the real law. It is time to return to the past that never ends.
You know it gets to the point when life is not worth living anymore, because your life has been stolen, gradually, right from under you. At that point you do not live. You exist.
No sirs, my hat was not tin during the Viet Era. I learned quite a bit from my brothers. At that time they were not robots. RESIST and GROW. Flee when necessary. Return when it is right.
We must make the Prohibition years look like a cakwalk in the park. We must make them helpless. Amenhotep
1984, Harrison Bergeron, Things to Come, Brave New Word, Patriot Act, Dream Act, FEMA. All subliminal masterpieces. I never knew natural foods were so harmful unless monitored by humans. Thank God for Monsanto! Without them, all these poor seeds would’ve unknowingly kept reproducing all on their own. How messed up is that? Mother Nature needs to get with the times. I need my tinfoil hat. Viva la Revolution!
americans don’t protest.they are too busy watching stupid american shows or movies.they will accept everything goverment says and does.
Thanks for posting this “clarification”. We started gardening 3 years ago, and we give away a lot of what we grow. With things the way they are we’ve gotten into food preservation and food storage. I encourage everyone to do the same.
[...] Senate Bill S510 Explained (sort of) http://laughterandliberty.com/senate-… [...]
If this bill comes before the Supreme Court, I guarantee that Clarence Thomas will vote to uphold it. He used to work for Monsanto (and seemingly still does, given his refusal to recuse himself from cases involving his former employer). I also be that in the house not a single “Tea Party” Representative will vote against it, or anything else that benefits corporations (people too, as affirmed in Citizens United) at the expense of “natrual persons.” Be careful what you wish for.
Now that this horrible mess has passed, what can we possibly do about it?
added this to digg
“The original bill no longer exists.”
Here it is:
Do You mean ” FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (Introduced in Senate – IS)”
But I found it
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:s510:
Thanks to the Rush Limbaugh wannabees this viewpoint is usually taken for granted.
Is anyone paying attention? We need to shout this from the rooftops. Are we so dumbed-down and mentally controlled by the flouride in our water and the drugs in our foods that we are willing to give up ALL our human rights and dignity? Give me my freaking aluminum foil hat and get out of my way. I’m going to DC and throw the bums out. Any of you out there who believe the conspiracy theorists are paranoid psychotics need to move aside while I (and the voices in my head) go by. “Give me liberty or give me death.” And stay the hell away from my garden.