Thread: Draconian Food Bill Up For Vote Today

For Farmers and Consumers Defending the Right to Buy and Protecting the
Right to Sell Nutritious Food Directly from the Farm

OPPOSE HR2749 -
House Votes On Tuesday

The House of Representatives is scheduled for a vote on HR 2749 (The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009) on Tuesday, July 28 (tomorrow). HR 2749 will be voted "on suspension", meaning that debate will be limited to 40 minutes and no amendments will be considered. A two-thirds vote will be required for HR 2749 to pass. The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund is asking everyone to contact their U.S. Representatives requesting that they vote against HR 2749.

Industrial food processors and food imports need effective regulation, but this should not be done at the expense of the ‘local food system.' HR2749 will impose burdensome regulations on small farmers and local food producers including registration fees and extensive paperwork requirements for which many small food businesses will not have the resources to comply. The ‘local food system' is not the source of the food safety problems in this country, small farmers and local artisanal producers are part of the solution.

HR 2749 would reduce FDA's accountability while significantly increasing its power. The bill would empower FDA to conduct warrantless searches of business records without any evidence whatsoever that a violation has occurred, to order a quarantine prohibiting or restricting the movement of food in a geographic area. HR 2749 also creates severe criminal and civil penalties with the potential for substantial fines for even minor violations of the law.

Urge your Representative to vote against HR 2749 and support a food safety bill that will target imports and industrial foods while leaving small farmers and local food producers alone.

Three Ways to Contact your Representative:

1. Sign the Fund's Petition and the American Association of Health Freedom's Petition.

2. Go to "My Elected Officials" at www.congress.org and enter your zip code to find your legislators. Call and/or send a fax.

3. Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 to contact your Representative's office.

NEWS
ALERTS
PETITIONS
SWARMS
BLOGS
ARTICLES

July 27 - Court Dismisses FTCLDF's National Animal Identificaion System Lawsuit
July 27 - Not very NAIS
July 27 - House vote expected this week on food safety bill
July 27 - USDA Closing NAIS Listening Tour Comment Period on August 3
July 27 - New investment would boost local food
July 27 - Beach reads for foodies A menu of summer treats
July 27 - Keeping it local: UW-Madison diners get 'home-grown' veggies
July 27 - Hot, Dry, Thriving? A Farm Plan for California
July 27 - Beginning Farmers Invited To Apply
July 27 - Hot dogs should carry a warning label, lawsuit says
July 27 - ISDA to update raw milk rules
July 27 - Floating farm is the wave of the future
July 27 - Alaska gardeners reap giant harvest
July 27 - Brasher: Food-safety bill meets objections from groups
July 23 - Chemical Makers Go on the Offensive in Agriculture
July 23 - Lawmakers and Farmers Clash on Food Safety Bill
more...

USA - July 27 - Contact Your Representative - HR 2749 House Vote on Tuesday!
USA - June 26 - HR2749 Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 Update
USA - June 18 - HR 2749 Action Alert - 061709 Hearing Update
NV - June 17 - Raw Milk Petition, Commission & Meeting
USA - June 16 - New Food Safety Bill HR2749
USA - June 9 - Meeting Locations for NAIS Listening Sessions
USA - May 29 - Farmers and Consumers Tell USDA “No NAIS!â€

Dear [Decision Maker],


* Please personalize your message
This letter is to express my extreme dismay over HR2749, also known as the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (FSEA).

As currently written, HR2749 has many deeply troubling provisions. It gives the FDA unprecedented scope, authority, and power over small farmers, food producers, and supplement producers. A cherry grower mentioning peer-reviewed scientific research from leading universities about the health benefits of cherries will, under this bill, face a ten-year jail sentence. The same goes for supplement producers: any violation of often very vague FDA rules, including rules against any reference to good science, will now carry a potential ten-year jail term. What do these oppressive jail terms for small food and supplement producers have to do with food safety?

This bill also gives the FDA complete control over specific farming practices and standards. This is unprecedented. What does the FDA know about farming, and why should it have control over all farms, large and small? It forces all facilities, farms, and restaurants to implement new hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls, food safety plans, and an extensive record maintenance program, without taking into account the vast differences between Mom-and-Pop businesses and huge agribusinesses.

Just as troubling, the bill empowers the FDA to conduct random, warrantless searches without cause of any food facility's records. Warrantless searches without cause are a weapon of intimidation and should not be tolerated in America.

The penalties for violations--even for administrative errors--are draconian: in addition to ten years in prison, civil fines up to $100,000 for an individual or $7.5 million for a corporation--even if it's just a family farm. Why the exact same fine for a tiny farm and a vast agribusiness? We need to protect our family and small farms, not persecute them.

In this new bill, any violation of the new administrative requirements could make a product be declared adulterated and/or misbranded. That is, an administrative violation (such as not keeping records exactly as required) which harms no one carries exactly the same penalty as a violation in which a product was intentionally adulterated during the manufacturing process and ends up killing people. This is senseless.

We need a food safety bill that protects Americans. Most safety problems have been traced to large operations. What we have is a bill that will place unreasonable burdens on small businesses, family farms, and supplement producers, violate our constitutional rights, and vastly expand the power of an agency that has a poor track record in keeping citizens safe.

Please protect the consumer, the small businessperson, the family farm, and supplement producers. Either insist on drastic amendments to HR2749, or help defeat it altogether. The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 as currently drafted is a bad and dangerous bill.


Your sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]


https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Ad ... ion&id=392

I'm sure this bill has nothing to do with the big shot politician that has a family member that works in the top ranks of Monsanto. Sarcasm.


This bill like most of the other legislative stuff is meant to make Americans slaves to the government. if the gov't really gave a rats behind about us, they would encourage us to grow our own food as their is a food shortage.

I called my Congressman but can rest assure he will vote for the bill.