[Homesteadingfamily] Re: Update: Senate Passes Good Food Safety Bill.

It must be old news day.

On Tue, 7 Dec 2010 04:11:38 -0500
"Jeanne Lookabill" <atasteofcreole@gmail.com> wrote:

> Update: Senate Passes Good Food Safety Bill.
> Family farm advocates celebrated the US Senate's passage
> of the Food Safety Modernization Act (S.510) last Tuesday
> November 30. With wide bipartisan support the bill passed the
> Senate 73-25. Kept intact were amendments important to family
> scale operations including the Tester Amendment. That
> amendment, sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester, an organic beef
> farmer from Montana, exempts small farmers from new controls
> if they sell directly to consumers and have annual sales of
> less than $500,000. The House passed its own version of the
> Food Safety bill (H.R.2749) in July 2009. However the House
> version lacks the scale-appropriate measures inserted into
> the Senate bill. The Senate bill now goes to the House for
> action.

For what it's worth, a day or two after the Senate passed the
bill, it was reported that the bill is unconstitutional in that
it is a bill originating in the Senate that raises federal
revenue. According to the Constitution, any such bill must
originate in the House.

We could end up with a worse bill as a result. Those in favor
of the bill expected the House to pass it as it was and send it
to the President to be signed into law. But the current House
actually wanted a bill without the exemptions for small
farmers. As a new bill will probably have to be created in the
House and then sent to the Senate, it is more likely, if done
now, that the terms of the bill will be more onerous.

The hope is that they don't have time to do it before the new
Congress is sworn in and that the new members will be more
protective of our rights than the current members. That's a
lot to hope.

Eric