PRESS RELEASE

SENATE FOOD SAFETY AWAITING FINAL SENATE ACTION

By Lee Bechtel
NHF National Lobbyist

May 25, 2010

While others’ attention has been focused upon the House and Senate Financial Reform legislation, the National Health Federation has actively been following not only this legislation but S.510, the so-called Durbin “Food Safety” bill and Senate floor action, as well.

Federal Control of Our Food Supply

As readers will recall, S.510 will require registration of all food facilities, including manufacturers, processors, packers and storage facilities.  Any such facility that introduces food into interstate commerce without being registered and having paid the mandatory registration fee would be subject to penalties for marketing misbranded food.  Registered facilities must also implement hazard analysis, risk-based preventive controls, and food-safety plans.  For large commercial operations and Agribusiness with their retained professional staffs of attorneys and accountants, these additional costs will be barely noticed; but for small farms and small operations, these regulatory requirements will be oppressively burdensome, even fatal.

In essence, this bill proposes total Federal government control over and tracking of food production, distribution, and sales supposedly to ensure “food safety” but which powers in fact would be unconstitutional and unnecessary. Under S.510, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would empower the government to regulate food production at all levels, up and down the chain of production. For violations, the bill provides for criminal prosecution for producers, manufacturers, and distributors who fail to comply with the new laws, and punitive property seizures and large fines for each offense upon conviction.  And S.510’s “science-based” approach tracks that found in Codex food guidelines.

BPA to the Rescue

The Senate, under the direction of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Dick Durbin, the best known of the anti-health-freedom and dietary-supplement “axis of evil” leadership of the Democratic-controlled Congress, have had to delay full Senate consideration of S.510, again, until mid-June.

In the most recent developments on S.510, on May 18th, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) held a press conference with representatives from U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), a Ralph Nader group, and announced that despite food-industry opposition, she plans to offer an amendment to S.510 that would immediately ban the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in beverage and food containers.

BPA is often used as a liner in cans for foods and other items, as well as in plastics.  It has come under scrutiny in recent years for possible health dangers.  A study conducted by PIRG found small levels of BPA in 46 of 50 grocery store cans.  The results suggest that BPA, a xenoestrogen, can migrate from can linings into food, causing disruption of the endocrine system in humans and possible fertility problems.  While some are convinced that BPA levels are within safety limits, the NHF’s position is that one cannot consider synthetic contaminants such as BPA in isolation; with all of the xenoestrogens that humans (and animals) are exposed to from hundreds, if not thousands, of different sources, the cumulative and interactive effect of all of these xenoestrogens is devastating.  The incontrovertible fact remains that human fertility is dropping in developed countries and it is not without man-made causes.

Since the Feinstein announcement, the Can Manufacturers Institute, the American Chemistry Council, North American Metal Packaging Alliance, and Grocery Manufacturers Association have communicated to Senators that if Feinstein does introduce her amendment, then they will collectively withdraw their support for S.510.  This, of course, gives Senator Dick Durbin, a passage headache.  In addition, Congressman Henry Waxman has sent a letter to the FDA querying the role of a small number of industry-sponsored studies that may have played a role in influencing the FDA decision last year to conduct a more extensive study before considering a ban on the use of BPA.

And Another Delay

In addition, following the May 20th Senate Democratic Caucus meeting, Senator Byron Dorgan, the retiring Democratic Senator from North Dakota, informed his colleagues that he will offer his foreign-country prescription drug re-importation bill to S.510 as an amendment.  Of course, once again, the big pharmaceutical companies are opposed to Dorgan doing this, while the NHF has supported foreign-drug re-importation as a means to increase competition and lower drug prices.  After all, many of these “foreign” drugs come from the same factories in Puerto Rico as those shipped directly to the Mainland U.S.!

This also gives Senator Dick Durbin another Senate legislative hurdle to overcome in order to gain final Senate passage of S.510.  In any event, a House-Senate conference committee awaits any Senate final passage.

All of these developments certainly slow things down and gum up the works with Senate passage of this bill.  The Senate will now not get to S.510 before the Memorial Day recess, and maybe not even until mid-June.

The NHF is opposed to passage of S.510 because: (1) it is absolutely unconstitutional; (2) it will not remedy the “food safety” problem it is ostensibly intended to address; and (3) it expands the arbitrary power and authority of the FDA in particular and the Federal government in general.  It is a recipe for disaster that will make our food supply less safe, not safer.  Moreover, it will lead to the eventual extinction of the big Agribusinesses’ competition – the small- and medium-sized farms; but then this is part of the plan as well made by these huge corporations and their bought-and-paid-for buddies on Capitol Hill who pass coercive laws limiting our free choices so that, in the end, we will only be able to buy the trash food sold by Agribusiness.

More than ever, continue expressing your opposition to S.510.

Sample Letter to Your Senators – Click Here

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Contact Information to E-mail Senators:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

The Senate main number is (202) 224-3121

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Click for complete list of House of Representatives contact info:
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Fax List for House of Representatives

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As the oldest and best-respected health-freedom group on Capitol Hill, the NHF continues to be the credible source of objective assessment of, and proactive actions on, Congressional legislation and FDA matters that have material impact upon our freedom-of-health choices and access to dietary supplements and nutritional foods.

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Click here for the permanent link to this press release, use this link to inform others.

National Health Federation: Established in 1955, the National Health Federation is a consumer-education, health-freedom organization working to protect individuals’ rights to choose to consume healthy food, take supplements and use alternative therapies without unnecessary government restrictions. The NHF is the only such organization with recognized observer-delegate status at Codex meetings. www.thenhf.com

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Kevin Brown is President of Liberation Wellness and co-author of the Liberation Diet. He serves as a Fellow on the National Board of Fitness Examiners, and is president of Visionary Trainers. Kevin and his wife Tracy are Chapter leaders for the Weston A. Price foundation, a non-profit organization that is helping restore real food to its rightful place in the American diet.