Posted on 11/19/2010 7:13:15 AM PST by DrewsMum
I am posting this thread to see if Freepers can help break down Senate Bill 510. The original bill was 266 pages and full of legalese. I have been rallying friends, family and Facebook friends to call/email/fax the RINOs who are supporting this bill, but I am getting tons of questions about it. (Why is it so bad?) I can answer some, but I need help. I naturally gravitate to FR for answers. Could I get some help breaking it down into laymen terms? Perhaps some of you could help with the most damaging items using bullet points about the bill.
Adm Mod---please don't just delete this thread if I did anything wrong. Please tell me what to correct so that I can do that. This is important to so many of us and I am not an expert on posting. We're all in this together, right?? :0)
Breaking news? Really?
They are getting ready to vote on it!!! So maybe “urgent” news..???? Forgive me please....
Among other ‘fun’ provisions, it puts in place the mechanism for DHS and/or DOD to Nationalize - seize - all, or any part, of our food chain — in case of an unspecified/undefined ‘emergency’.....
Is this the Food & Farmer Control Act (my name). If so, I haven’t read it so I don’t know the details, but:
1) any new laws are automatically suspect and really ought to be Breaking News;
2) As I understand it, it sets up some serious hoops for small and all farmers to jump through;
3) It may place more controls on Farmers Markets; and,
4) I have heard that the language is loose enough to potentially encompass sharing home grown food (although I’m sure this won’t happen...right away).
I know that is not alot to go on, but I trust nothing passed by our current government - - from the underwear bomber to increased travel controls; from copyright issues on the internet to internet controls; from egg/food salmonella issues to Food controls....anyone see a pattern here?
Here is a helpful source.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510
From the little I read in the Q & A section it is more government regulation and control that will do what most government regulation and control does - increase the cost of food and hurt the small farmer and farmers markets while doing little to do what it says it is going to do in protecting the food supply.
It sounds harmless and like a good thing to do but it is just more government overreach. It is the EPA of food.
Your best course of action is to read some of the sites which offer reasons to oppose the bill. Here is one.
Farm To Consumer Legal Defense Fund (petition)
http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum1061.php
wow, thanks y’all....see, this info is so helpful...I hope others can use it as well!
I waded through the 250 pages over the past two days. This is a very draconian bill. The language is so vague that almost anyone growing or making food is subject to the law.
From what I can tell, it gives the FDA complete power over anyone or any group which produces, grows or raises food if that food is distributed in any manner or consumed by anyone other than the producer.
It doesn’t even seem to distinguish between food sold or food given away, making it potentially illegal to give away vegetables grown in a home garden.
What is really frightening is it seems to imply that even feeding your family homegrown vegetables or meat, not inspected by authorities could land you in trouble.
It also implies that growing/raising one’s own food could be prosecutable if said actions are found to interfere with interstate commerce. That could apply to anything.
Monetizing the debt could lead to massive food shortages due to rising costs. Food is already up 30%. There won't be enough money to feed the parasites through food stamps. The government will then need food growing slaves the same way they need monetary slaves.
The scrounges on the left will still want, but will be unwilling to do anything to carry their own weight. In order to keep the scrounge vote, the left wing politicians will have to steal food from everyone else. They'll refer to it as "sharing with those in need."
” I waded through the 250 pages over the past two days. “
Wow.. You have certainly earned my respect - I barely got through the first page before I bogged-down in legalese/bureaucratese....
From what I was able to gather, though, I agree that this bill is so vaguely written as to give FDA what is essentially a blank-check open-’mandate’ to do just about whatever it damn-well pleases....
Thanks for having the courage to post this. I hope you...and WE ALL...find out what is in this bill so maybe can call the ones that need calling to stop it before it makes our lives even more miserable than they have been for the past 2 years!
Except on this point: ", each person (excluding farms and restaurants) who manufactures, processes, packs, distributes, receives, holds, or imports such article can be acted upon by the FDA."
But certainly, growing your own “25 marijuana plants” for “personal consumption” will be exempted from this law. (Personally, I find it hard to believe that someone who has 25 marijuana plants and uses them for personal consumption would be motivated enough to grow them???)
Tobacco. Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
This bill will literally put him out of business. His entire family has invested heavily to keep this small farm running, and now he will lose everything. And my son will no longer be able to drink milk.
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