Dietary Supplements, Clean Foods
Next Victims of Fake "Safety" Bills
McCain's "Dietary Supplement Safety" Bill S.3002 Dies...
Will Its Worst Ideas Be Added to the Fake "Food Safety" Bill S.510?
Farmers, Food and Your Freedom Under Attack...
04/13/10 UPDATE: S.510 amended to protect Dietary Supplements - your PUSH
BACK works! But we are not satisfied! The revised Action Item below is needed
now more than ever! See: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=5144
for update details and then ACT BELOW!
[1] Send an
email to your Senators:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714
[2] CALL your US Senators' offices; Just dial 800-828-0498 and make a call
registering your strongly negative opinion of S. 510! If not now, when?
For 9 "talking points" about why the bill is just as we've described
it, see - http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=
03/11/10 -
UPDATE: Yes, the McCain bill is dead. Due to massive Push Back! But now
the Senator wants its worst provisions added to the fake "Food
Safety" bill that has been pending before the Senate since last summer...
read more here: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4805.
It is URGENT that more, updated messages be sent to the Senate; please take the
Action Item below!
03/05/10 -
UPDATE: DC rumor has it that Sen McCain told Sen Hatch that he would no longer
support his own bill, S.3002, so this bill's threat to Health Freedom appears
to be over for now, but, it is increasingly likely that attention will now
focus on S.510, the fake "food safety" bill which could be applied to
that form of food known as Dietary Supplements, effectively enacting the intent
of the McCain bill, namely, to restrict our access to high potency Dietary
Supplements. The struggle continues and the Action Item below has been updated
to reflect the change in the political winds... We calculate that over 390.000
email messages were delivered through this Action Item since the McCain bill was
introduced, which brings the total emails opposing both fake "safety"
bills through this Action Item to over 1,300,000!
02/04/10 - UPDATE: while the fake "Food Safety" Bill S.510 remains
stalled in the Senate, after our November Blitz sent more than 150,000 emails
to the Senate over one long weekend, this week Sen John McCain announced that
he was offering another "safety" bill, S.3002. This alleged
"safety" bill is aimed at the type of food called "Dietary
Supplement" in a blatant attempt to undermine your freedom to access high
potency vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements which Americans have
enjoyed since a unanimous Congress adopted the Dietary Supplement Health and
Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). The McCain bill seeks to overthrow major provisions
of the current law and force "HARMonization" with international Codex
Alimentarius (so-called "World Food Code") restrictions on our food
and health freedoms.
See our
analysis of the bill at: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4608
and please take the Action below; we've modified it to include the new bill;
please send this new message to your Senators, even if you've already used the
earlier version of this Action Item. See also: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4615
for our Health Freedom Action eAlert eblast on this issue -- and please forward
that link to all your contacts.
11/17/09 -
UPDATE: the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP
Committee) "marked-up" S.510, the Senate version of the (sic)
"Food Safety" bill on Tuesday, November 18, 2009. This is the last
step before a full Senate vote. The Senate bill can be read at: http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.510:
-- this bill has an even weaker Family Farm and Ranch, Community and Home
Garden exemption than the bill (HR.2749) which passed the House at the end of
July. Some minor changes were made, as a result of hundreds of thousands of
emails to decsion makers generated from this Action Item and other citizen
actions -- so now it's time to continue to Push Back! We have until early in
the new year to make our voices heard, since the Senators, after considering
the nearly 150,000 messages they received from this Action Item, will not vote
on the bill until January. For updates: see our blog entry at: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4014
HELP Chairman Sen. Tom Harkin, mentioning “public concerns” (namely your Push
Back!) and the Committee’s desire to protect family farms and organic
agriculture, confirmed (about minute 58.5 of the "Mark-up" hearing
video archive at the HELP site) that Codex Alimentarius (the so-called World Food
Code) does not trump the Dietary Supplement Health and Safety Education Act of
1994 (the law that allows the USA to have the most potent nutrients and most
vibrant nutrient market in the world) “DSHEA … governs the law here, not Codex
standards…” Chairmen Harkin further stated: the provision in bill that
requires FDA to “make recommendations including whether to harmonize whth Codex
does not signal any intent to move in a different direction on DSHEA…”
2010 UPDATE:
THESE PROMISES ARE NOT ENOUGH! WE CALL UPON ALL SENATORS TO OPPOSE JOHN
MCCAIN'S "BACK DOOR" ATTACK ON DSHEA: DO NOT CO-SPONSOR HIS
"DIETARY SUPPLEMENT SAFETY ACT OF 2010" DO NOT INCLUDE HIS PRO-CODEX
PROVISIONS IN S.510!
PLEASE TAKE THE ACTION BELOW TODAY!
[Message goes to the President, FDA, your Senators and the
HELP Comment Email Address]
NOTE: If you have already taken this Action Item, we encourage you, and every
member of your family and circle of contacts to do so again since it has been
amended to reflect the passage of HR 2749 on July 30, 2009 after two failed
attempts on the previous days, the "mark-up" of the Senate version,
S510 in November 2009 and McCain's February 2010 gambit to extend the attack to
Dietary Supplements. If passed by the Senate, in any form, the Food
Fascism Bill will guarantee the loss of clean, healthy food, high potency
dietary supplements and independent farming in the US -- and the complete
industrialization of the US food supply. Now the question is what will
the Senate do?
We
did manage to get some protective exemptions into the House bill for small
farmers who sell food directly to consumers or to restaurants, but they are,
frankly, weak and will not be enough to protect your food or our farmers. But
the Senate bill has much weaker protections, just mentioning minor exemptions
for restaurants once and farms twice. McCain's "Dietary Supplement
Safety" bill is an obvious attempt to get the stalled (sic) "food
safety" show going again.
We need to rally people immediately to submit the below email
message to the Senate and to visit with their Senators at home to demand
accountable voting on this bill.
The Obama administration is pushing new farm controls which will
drive small and independent farmers off the land, literally leaving the field
to Agribiz, (implementing all of Codex through complete HARMonization and
allowing the FDA to declare Marshal law) through Congress as fast as possible
and have coordinated the House bills so there will be no debate and committee
meetings are closed. The story will not be the same in the Senate, if we can
generate enough public outrage!
Transparency, change, undoing Bush's regulations, giving the
public time to comment, grassroots anything? None are visible in the
current legislative process. Our entire food system, and thus our health,
is being given to the last people with any interest in quality or
safety: Big Abgribiz. This is going on in the absence of public scrutiny.
Those who do know what is happening, of course, have zero access to the
process and to the major media. Meanwhile, the media is absent while
Congress is moving at warp speed to sew this up.
There will be no direct, frontal assault on organic farming and
dietary supplements, but an insidious process of "infecting" organic
farming and nutrient products with regulations, "traceability"
requirements, required practices and prohibitions enforced by truly draconian
fines and prision terms for even minor offenses running to hundreds of
thousands to millions of dollars and 8 years in prison for minor offenses...
all under the guise of fake "food safety."
Example: imagine Joel Salatin's wonderful organic farm under the
direction of the USDA, with detailed instructions on what he must feed and
when, how he must medically "treat" his animals and with what, what
he must "spray" and when, ... you get the picture. These bills
will industrialize all farms and insure the farmers are forced to buy chemicals
and drugs. Organic is dead. As well as human control over the food
supply. As well as health.
H.R. 2749 includes a weak exemption for farmer to consumer or
restaurant sales because of the Push Back we generated. But the bill has
now passed the House and it is imperative that NO version of "food
safety" pass the Senate. More Push Back is needed for more protection for
dietary supplements, farmers, gardeners, community farming, all local food
production (including yours!) and food processing.
We've set up an Action Item for you to send an unmistakable
message to your Senators. We must educate the Senate that you value DSHEA,
organic farmers and small farming and do not - do not - want independent
farmers regulated out of existence. You do not want "Big Agrabiz"
regulations applied to organic and small family farms and ranches or to
natural/organic food products, including Dietary Supplements.
We have prepared the following Petition to Congress with regard
to this matter:
-------------------------
PETITION
(2010 Changes in Red)
To Amend S.510
or Any Food or Dietary Supplement Safety Modernization Act or
Similar Bill
By the
Addition of the
Natural and
Family Food and Farming Exclusion Amendment
And by Defeating Any Attempt to Add John McCain's Fake
"Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010" Provisions to S510
To: The Members of the Senate of the United States of
America:
Whereas the proposed Food Safety Administration within the
Department of Health and Human Services should focus its activities on the
significant public administration issues involving the capacity of large scale,
industrialized agriculture to threaten public safety,
Whereas dietary supplements, organic and natural agriculture,
family farms and ranches, and natural or organic food products, including
dietary supplements are not a significant part of the food safety problem, and
Whereas Congress previously provided for an exemption for
natural food dietary supplements from the increased agency authority granted by
the FDA Modernization Act of 2007, through a rule of interpretation, added as
section 1011 of that Act, and has on numerous occasions exempted small and
family farms from the same level of regulation as has been deemed necessary in
the case of industrialized agriculture,
The citizens ascribing to this Petition therefore hereby request
that any Food Safety Modernization Act identical or similar to HR 2749 be
defeated, or that it, or any substitute for it be amended to exclude organic
and natural agriculture, family farms and ranches, and natural or organic food
products, including dietary supplements, through a rule of interpretation, as
follows:
“Rule of Interpretation
“No provision of this act shall be deemed to apply (a) to any
home, home-business, homestead, home or community gardens, small farm, organic
or natural agricultural activity, (b) to any family farm or ranch, or (c) to
any natural or organic food product, including dietary supplements regulated
under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994.”
We also note the language of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29
USC sec 203 (s) (2) which provides, "(2) Any establishment that has as its
only regular employees the owner thereof or the parent, spouse, child, or other
member of the immediate family of such owner shall not be considered to be an
enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce or a
part of such an enterprise..." Language such as this would be helpful to
allay our concerns.
If the FDA Center for Food Safety is to be moved into a new Food Safety Agency,
then Dietary Supplements, regulated as foods under the Dietary Supplement
Health and Education Act (DSHEA) should be included in such agency, with the
proviso that such substances, as foods, are deemed safe when used as directed.
We oppose any bill which undermines the provisions of DSHEA and call
for extending those protective provisions as has been proposed by Rep. Dr. Ron
Paul of Texas. No provision of the fake "Dietary Supplement Safety Act of
2010" should be included in S510 or adopted individually; we call upon all
Senators to refuse to co-sponsor Sen. McCain's bill which threatens our Health
Freedom and our rights under DSHEA.
Furthermore, the ascribing citizens Petition the Congress of the
United States to declare it the public policy of the United States that organic
and natural agriculture, home and community gardens, family farms and ranches,
and natural or organic food products, including dietary supplements shall be at
all times free from suit, vexation, trouble, penalty, or loss of their goods,
for the inestimable values they confer upon the public.
