New 'safety plan' would control what you eat

'It is to our food what the bailout was to our economy, only we can live without money'

By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily

Critics say a bill pending in the U.S. Senate would do for Americans' food supply what "Obamacare" is doing to the nation's supply of health-care resources.

And it's generating a surge of alarm among small-farm operators and natural food advocates.

"S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010, may be the most dangerous bill in the history of the U.S.," writes Steve Green on the Food Freedom blog. "It is to our food what the bailout was to our economy, only we can live without money."

The plan is sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who explains the legislation "is a critical step toward equipping the FDA with the authorities and funding it needs to regulate what is now a global marketplace for food, drugs, devices, and cosmetics."

His website explains, "The legislation requires foreign and domestic food facilities to have safety plans in place to prevent food hazards before they occur, increases the frequency of inspections. Additionally, it provides strong, flexible enforcement tools, including mandatory recall. Most importantly, this bill generates the resources to support FDA food safety activities."

The proposal, which was cleared by the U.S. House last year but has been languishing in the Senate because of a full calendar of projects, creates a long list of new requirements for food-producing entities to meet the demands of the Secretary of Agriculture. It is expected to be the subject of discussion in coming days.

According to a summary of the proposal, it "requires annual registration of food facilities, including food facilities that export food." It also sets up a suspension of registration for any "food facility" breaking any Health and Human Services rule, creates an annual fee for registration and gives bureaucratic oversight of many operations.

One such proposal, the summary explains, is to require federal officials "to establish a tracing system for food that is located in the United States or is for import into the United States that enables the Secretary to quickly identify each person who grows, produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, holds, or sells such food."

While it includes an exemption for food "produced on a farm," the absence of further definition is leaving many wondering whether they will be monitored if they pick strawberries, make jam and sell it at a farmers market.

Green's analysis quoted Shiv Chopra, a Canada Health whistleblower, who concluded S. 510 "would preclude the public's right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes."

Full story HERE