Posted on 03/14/2016 4:13:02 PM PDT by HomerBohn
While thousands of Americans continue to die each year from taking government-approved pharmaceutical drugs, the Food and Drug Administration is busy investigating actual bullsh*t.
FDA officials announced last week that the agency isn’t so sure that fertilizing food crops with animal manure— something human beings have been doing since the advent of agriculture— is safe.
“The FDA is planning to conduct a risk assessment to determine how much consumer health is put at risk by the use of raw manure as fertilizer in growing crops covered by the final [Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)] Produce Safety rule, and what can be done to help prevent people from getting sick,” the agency said. “Before starting the assessment, the agency wants the help of stakeholders in the produce industry, the animal agriculture industry, academia and members of the public in developing the model for this work.”
When it was passed in 2011, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was touted by lawmakers as an update of food safety laws designed “to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.”
The rule paved the way to allow armed FDA regulators to inspect American farms that sell produce and other agricultural products to the public.
Critics of the legislation argue that it is allowing the FDA to meddle in processes already regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
And because the FDA lacks any real understanding of how farms of different sizes operate, many of its proposals would place onerous and unnecessary new regulations on the nation’s smallest agricultural producers.
The current attempt to figure out whether it should ban the use of animal waste for fertilizer, a process already regulated by the USDA, is just one example.
The worst part is that the FDA realizes its efforts are unnecessary.
“At this time, the FDA does not object to farmers complying with the USDA’s National Organic Program standards,” the agency noted.
But that doesn’t mean this is the last you’ll hear about the FDA’s attempts to increase government regulation over natural fertilizer. The FDA backed down on a similar effort to ban and regulate manure for certain farming applications in 2013 after receiving a wave of public comments about the benefits of natural fertilizer to organic farmers.
Now that they’re re-interested in pushing the rules forward, it’s not likely that FDA officials will back down until they succeed.
Isn't this nonsense just politics in play from commercial farmers trying to limit competition? This stupidity has nothing to do with food safety as time has proven that natural fertilizers are safe! The same can't be said of agricultural products imported from south of the border where human waste is used as fertilizer.
Finally, something the Fed Gov are experts at
They actually know shi’ite from shinola?
Today’s government agencies overlap each other as the army of employees runs out of things to do with themselves. A government employee can only watch so many hours of porn on the computer.
These agencies continue to prove their worthlessness and redundancy.
“”because the FDA lacks any real understanding of how farms of different sizes operate””
But they DO understand BS....
“”Critics of the legislation argue that it is allowing the FDA to meddle in processes already regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.””
Overblown story. We should be focusing on the removal of country of origin labels on human food imports.
Anybody complain when the FDA and Department of Agriculture mandated portable toilets and potable water stations in the farm fields to accommodate the pickers?
Sounds like chemical company lobbying to me.
Redundant for sure. They will not stop till a President Cruz or Trump takes away their paycheck. Cruz guy here but you can see the DONALD saying you are fired. Civil service I know but either one of them would use the pen or Obama phone to reign this end.
Horse manure’s not that bad. I don’t even mind the word “manure.” You know, it’s, it’s “nure,” which is good. and a “ma” in front of it. MA-NURE. I mean when you consider the other choices, “manure” is actually pretty refreshing.
“Organic” is a word rich liberals use for manure. The health risks at organic restaurants like Chipolte are clear.
It’s good to encourage the use of safe, clean chemical fertilizers.
Manure regulations fall under the purview of the FEC.
Sh*t rules.
Milorganite is composed of heat-dried microbes that have digested the organic material in wastewater. Milorganite is manufactured by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. The District captures waste water from the metropolitan Milwaukee area, including local industries such as MillerCoors. This water is then treated with microbes to digest nutrients that are found in it. Cleaned water is then returned to Lake Michigan. The resulting microbes are then dried, becoming Milorganite fertilizers. The Milorganite program is one of the world’s largest recycling efforts.
Yes...human poop...
“Organic” is a word rich liberals use for manure. The health risks at organic restaurants like Chipolte are clear.
A friend of mine ran the health department in a college town rife with hippy dip “back to nature” types. Fecal coli poisoning was an ongoing problem for them. These nuts thought anything naturally occurring in nature was healthy.
If the Fed’s don’t like BS, they should stop producing such huge quantities...
You are kidding right?
we are not talking about Japanese farmers putting raw Human shit in fields.
Manuer is usually composte before placing in fields. While composting temperatures can get to 110-150 degrees. Kills off everything.
has worked since the beginning of cultivation.
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