Friday, December 10, 2010

FDA Food Safety Act Update; Jackpot for Lobbyists

Despite some procedural hiccups last week, it looks like the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act will soon become law.

According to an article yesterday in the Food Safety News:
Food safety legislation inched forward Wednesday as the House passed the Senate version of the bill as part of a larger resolution to fund the federal government for the next several months.

The bill, which passed the House 212-206 with 35 Democrats joining Republicans to vote "no," must now be re-approved by the Senate. Though the upper chamber approved virtually the same measure last week, the bill was voided because it inadvertently contained a fee provision that is technically unconstitutional--Article 1 says revenue-raising provisions must originate in the House.

The Senate is expected to vote on the food safety bill and continuing resolution in the next few days.
The bill, which will hopefully result in a safer food supply, won’t just benefit consumers. According to an article in The Washington Post, lobbyists hit it big:
At least 221 organizations hired 77 lobbying shops to quibble over details in the Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act since it was introduced . . . [T]he Grocery Manufacturers Association, the National Restaurant Association, the Natural Products Association, Abbott Laboratories and Anheuser-Busch . . . retained multiple [lobbying] firms to represent their interests.
These lobbyists charged individual clients hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

Personally, I think professional lobbying should be illegal. I know I sound like a greenhorn, but it doesn’t seem just that the multinationals’ billions and inside connections allow them better access to government than my twenties and e-mails. Isn't that why we vote?

2 comments:

D.A.Wagner said...

Like the recent grading of restaurants in NYC to give consumers some confidence about the cleanliness and quality of the food they eat in restaurants, what's wrong with a law designed to give the FDA authority to test for pathogens and prevent the distribution of tainted food? And, I wonder home many millions of dollars it cost the US taxpayer to banter this bill around capital hill until it got passed.

Unknown said...

Sorry to tell you Wagsfx but your comment is completely bizarre...And the test you said "I wonder home many millions of dollars it cost the US taxpayer to banter this bill around capital hill until it got passed."
How many Billions will it cost tax payers to implement this Food Safety "Modernization"? Something like 330 Billion, my friend...Obviously you have not been following the bill or the Senate floor activities. I suspect you also are one of those who think that GMOs are good,,,Because you believe that propaganda too. Wake UP...We are being poisoned and this bill makes it legal...
As Martin Luther King said, "Everything Hitler did was Legal."
And being a good American in a Democracy you should be very against this action. As it gives unlimited Power to the FDA to have "reason to believe" and that is LAW. The only people who have that priviledge are Kings...They believe and that's the law.
King George would be very happy with this law.
In case you did not know my friend the FDA and other GOV. Depts. are all manned from the top with Monsanto employees, including Obama's choice of the Food Czar Michael Taylor...Who while working at the FDA hid and changed the science to allow the approval of GMOs. He also wrote the bill. Elena Kagan wrote this past spring the brief for Monsanto, while working for the US Gov, as is Scalia an ex-Monsanto employee and their are many others who are a part of this so called revolving door, which I call a con's Piracy.
The FDA has killed more people then have died in every war since 1900, compare that to less then 100 who have died recently from the food poisoning, which all came from FACTORY Farmed food. The FDA protects these farms and goes after Natural and true Good Earth Food.
You choose, and if you want the Senate to know how you feel send a FAX and tell them. As a fax is the only recorded record of our contact with Congress.
Good Luck trying to cure your cancer when you get it, because the factory meds do not work to cure only to show Controlled Opposition to the situation.