Yahoo News Reports The Food Safety Modernization Act did pass the House Today-Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro has said the bill is a solid first step but said she believes Congress needs to go even further and reorganize FDA to help it better focus on its "food" mission. She has introduced legislation that would divide the FDA in two, separating the agency's drug oversight and food safety duties.
The bill, which has support from the food industry as well as a wide range of consumer groups, would give the agency the authority to order recalls if a company fails to act on its own, and would increase the frequency of inspections to high-risk food processing facilities. It would charge food processors an annual $500 fee to help defray the cost of increased enforcement. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090730/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_food_safety
However, small farmers and organic food consumers are suspicious. Given the momentum of the grow your own food movement including community gardens and gleaning, let's see if the opponents fears come forth. Will this bill make us any safer or is it just a publicity play band aide on the entire food industry given all the new food documentaries coming out. Could the result be the forfeiture of smaller farms for whom meeting the already unnatural unhealthy standards, applied to the smaller farms make little sense and could become a way to, as we have seen before, support the corporations and knock out the competition on the free market as consumers would rather support smaller more diverse farms.
