S-510 update: both U.S. House and Senate Vote YES on “Food Safety” bill

This just in via the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund office:

December 21, 2010 — Moments ago, the House of Representatives passed the Fake Food Safety bill—which the Senate, in one of the most underhanded legislative maneuvers we’ve ever seen, approved late Sunday night. It now goes to the president to be signed into law.

As we told you last week, Democrats first attempted to attach the food safety bill to the short-term spending measure to keep the government running, but Republicans balked because they wanted to keep that measure clean. So Sunday night,the Senate raised it as an amendment to a completely unrelated bill from the House of Representatives—H.R. 2751, the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act!

Defeating Bill C-36 in Canada’s Senate is still a work in progress and needs YOUR active participation

Here’s the latest news on the Bill C-36 front, from an email we received today:

Canada's Senate chamber

THIS IS IT. WE NEED YOU TO STAY INVOLVED.

WE KNOW WE’RE ASKING A LOT BUT THE STAKES ARE HIGH.

With Bill C-36 going into another day of third reading December 13, we are making a difference.

If you haven’t worked with us, please make the time to work with us today. NHPPA leads by creating awareness and launching initiatives; but the difference is made by you.

Canada’s Senate restricts debate on Bill C-36, in bid to pass the unconstitutional legislation before the year 2010 ends

From a National Health Products Protection Association media release:

Canadian citizens who see Bill C-36 as anything but ‘safe’ overwhelmed Senators with communications last week.

They pressed government to allow time for a full debate in the Senate committee. Hundreds of individuals requested the attendance of constitutional and legal expert Shawn Buckley, who has studied the Bill and can testify to the dangers of it.

Food and farm control bill snagged

from Augie’s “Journal of Natural Food and Healing”:

Picture via Journal of Natural Food and Healing

“The so-called Food Safety Control S510 bill with the so-called savior Tester-Hagan amendments may now be passed back to the overwhelming approving Senate. This is a perfect example of hard-ball politics of division, where half the food freedom folks are for it and half against it.

Typically, federal control bills are written to appease large  stakeholders, then revised to include most stakeholders, changed several times in the process, including having several bills of different names. In this battle, the war on food controls by the corporate/government  partnership, the magic trick is to appear to save the small farms producing local foods, yet provide the legal and regulatory framework, with funding, to take it all way.

Tester-Hagen as stealth NAIS in S-510

The latest insights from David E. Gumpert on his “The Complete Patient” blog:

“The Tester-Hagan Amendment was supposed to be the savior of S510, giving smaller producers an exemption from the worst requirements of the so-called food safety legislation. Now, it turns out, the amendment may be the great black hole of the entire food safety steamroller. 

While the lawyers are trying to figure out ways to finagle around the U.S. Senate’s error in venturing into the U.S. House’s territory by initiating revenue-generating legislation, another hole has opened in the crumbling dike that is S510. (Even The Wall Street Journal, normally a supporter of the FDA, has come out against it, stealing some of my lines, it seems.)

Bill C-36 in Canada’s Senate Dec. 2

From a recent email:

WE HAVE BEEN REFUSED TIME FOR DUE PROCESS

Despite hundreds of confirmed calls, emails and faxes from Canadians asking selected representative Shawn Buckley to appear on our behalf, Conservative Senate committee members voted down the request.

Liberal Senate committee members have been tabling our request consistently, asking for an honest debate. All 12 Senators on the Social Affairs committee have acknowledged receiving hundreds of emails.

House of Representatives may block S-510 over Senate constitutional error

From Roll Call.com:

“A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate’s lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House.

By pre-empting the House’s tax-writing authority, Senate Democrats appear to have touched off a power struggle with members of their own party in the House. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday, sending it to the House, but House Democrats are expected to use a procedure known as “blue slipping” to block the bill, according to House and Senate GOP aides.

David Gumpert on preparing to deal with the fallout from Senate bill S-510

From David’s The Complete Patient blog:

“The U.S. Senate passed S510 by a large majority, including the provisions of the Tester-Hagan amendment exempting small food producers. It’s looking ever more likely that the U.S. House will approve the Senate’s version and, presto, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will have powers approximating those of the airport screeners (part of Homeland Security), which is absolute power, as anyone who travels well knows (and in point of fact, the legislation requires FDA to work together with the Department of Homeland Security in implementation).

Senate “food safety” bill S-510 passed

From the story on Natural News.com:

Picture: Natural News.com

“(NaturalNews) Senate Bill S 510 – the “Food Safety Modernization Act” – was passed by the U.S. Senate today (http://www.naturalnews.com/030576_F…). If signed into law, it would unleash a new era of FDA tyranny over farmers, food producers and even small family farms, many of which already exceed the “small farms exclusion” written into the bill…”

“….Notably, there was not a single Democrat who opposed the bill. This bill was also supported by Food, Inc. authors Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, who have become the favored food commentators of the left. It’s now clear why: In supporting this bill, they have aligned themselves against Constitutional freedoms and in favor of increased Big Government (FDA) authority over food, seeds and farmers.

“Food Terrorism and Sedition Act” — David Gumpert calls a spade a spade

David’s latest thoughts on bill S-510, from his “The Complete Patient” blog:

“I’ve been referring to S 510 as the so-called food safety bill. I’ve done that because, while some of it has to do with food safety, much more of it has to do with repression. So in looking over the comments over the last week, I was inspired to come up with a name that seems more accurate in describing the legislation: The Food Terrorism and Sedition Act….”

“….Bigger picture, S 510 has been used to pile a bunch of repressive measures affecting control of our food, and eventually, control of our health–authority to quarantine parts of the country, do warrantless searches of food producers, establish “Good Agricultural Practices”, implement “scientific standards” of its choice, and gain more control of intrastate food commerce. Amazingly, some high-profile foodies trust the FDA with all this added authority, even writers Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, as they state in a new op-ed….”