From the Washington Post:
The House approved Thursday the first major changes to food safety laws in 70 years, giving sweeping new authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the way food is grown, harvested and processed.
[snip]
“Americans are dying because the Food and Drug Administration does not have authority to protect them and American producers and agriculture are being hurt,” said Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the bill’s author, who has been pushing food safety reform for more than 20 years. “This will fundamentally change the way in which we ensure the safety of our food supply.”
The measure passed by a margin of 283 to 142. The Senate is expected to take up its version after the August recess. President Obama, who has voiced concerns about the safety of peanut butter consumed by his 8-year-old daughter, endorsed the House bill Wednesday.
[snip]
“The federal government will tell our farmers and ranchers how to do something they’ve been doing since the dawn of mankind,” said Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.). “It goes too far in the direction of trying to produce food from a bureaucrat’s chair in Washington, D.C.”
[snip]
Under the legislation, the food agency will get new enforcement powers and be able to impose beefed up civil and criminal penalties. One provision allows the FDA to declare food “adulterated” simply if the grower or manufacturer has failed to follow safety standards, regardless of whether the food is actually tainted.
The government is now supposed to ensure that you can avoid any risk no matter the cost. Without such massive intervention, "greedy" farmers would, of course, try to poison us all. That would allow them to kill us and stay in business at the same time.
The result of this socialist law will be bigger government, higher costs, less choice and no assurance that we’ll be any safer. Next time someone dies or gets ill from food poisoning, the outcry will be for higher taxes and still more regulation. Or maybe Congress will "authorize" the FDA to execute bad farmers on the spot for treason or some such thing. Where’s the Queen of Hearts when we need her? Obama’s peanut butter indeed.
For the umpteenth time, this may have been a free country long ago; it certainly isn’t now.
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#1 by CorkyAgain on July 30th, 2009
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It all depends on how vigorously they decide to enforce this. I expect they’ll use this the same way they use all the other regulations on the books.
People who are on the political donors or other favorites list will pass the inspections with a wink and a nod (or is that the secret Freemason grip?)
Anyone else will find these new regulations used as the excuse for a heavy-handed shakedown — especially if they are political opponents, tax evaders or other “known troublemakers”.
Or perhaps one of the government’s favorites has his eye on your farm, and wants to have you driven into bankruptcy so he can pick it up for a few of those peanuts mentioned in the story. With a little help from his pals in the FDA, it’ll be a cinch. The gravy is that *you’re* going to be the one painted as a malefactor.