Thread: Food Inspector Coming to Fruit Stand Near You

Food Inspector Coming to Fruit Stand Near You
By Bob Livingston • Apr 27th, 2009 • Category: Bob Livingston, Health, Personal Liberty Articles

Under the guise of making sure our food is safe the heavy hand of government is about to clamp down on everyone who grows, transports or sells produce, livestock or poultry.

Two bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, have been introduced that will stifle everyone involved with growing and distributing food products—from grandpa and his small garden plot and grandma’s homemade preserves, to roadside fruit stands to farmers’ markets to small cattle growers to chicken farmers.

Named the Food Safety Modernization Act, HR 875 calls for the establishment of the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services. The bill assigns Federal regulators the task of ensuring that food producers, processors and distributors prevent and minimize food safety hazards like food-borne illnesses and contamination from bacteria, chemicals, toxins, viruses, parasites, prions, physical hazards or other human pathogens.

The legislation calls for regulation on slaughterhouses, seafood processing plants, establishments that process, store, hold or transport all categories of food products before delivery for retail sale, farms, ranches, orchards, vineyards, aquaculture facilities and confined animal-feeding operations.

Once enacted, every entity that falls under the jurisdiction of the legislation would be required to maintain records of all food products so the government can keep track of them in the event of contamination.

“Good,â€

I will be fighting this tomorrow. NO ONE messes with my tomatoes.

Time to get these clowns out of office. imgaine getting a 1 million dollar fine for planting a tomato?

Just got this email from Sue Myrick:

Thank you for contacting me regarding HR 875, The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. Your views are important, and I appreciate you taking the time to share them with me.

As you know, HR 875 was introduced by Rep. Rosa Delauro (CT-03) on February 4, 2009. This bill would establish a new Food Safety Administration under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This new agency would then take over the enforcement and administration of all food safety laws, a job currently done by the FDA. The bill would also direct the new agency to set up new minimum standards for a wide range of food production processes and safety inspection protocols.

Of course, such sweeping changes to our current food safety system bring up a range of concerns. For one, it has been suggested that this bill is so broad that it could be seen as giving the proposed Food Safety Administration authority to shut down local farmers markets and small scale organic food production. I believe that local and small scale farmers are important, integral, and welcome contributors to the American food supply, and I would be extremely concerned about any act of Congress that would limit such production.

HR 875 has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. I serve on this Committee, and I can assure you that I will keep your concerns in mind as HR 875 moves through the committee process.

Again, thank you for contacting me. Your views are always welcome and helpful. If you have not done so already, please visit my website - www.myrick.house.gov - and sign up for my eNewsletter. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you in Congress.

Sincerely,



Sue Myrick

Member of Congress