Is The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act A Good Law Or Unnecessary Deficit Drain?

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Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) January 5, 2011 --

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Is The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act A Good Law Or Unnecessary Deficit Drain?

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The new law will require farmers to monitor places in food production where contamination might occur and to require processors to implement written food-safety plans. Each year, according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, 48 million people — or one in six Americans — are sickened by food-borne illnesses. Of those, 180,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 overhauls the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for everything in the U.S. food supply except for meat, poultry and processed eggs (i.e. not including raw eggs in their shells). Those are overseen by the Department of Agriculture.

How many of those 3,000 deaths are tied to fruits, nuts, grains, vegetables and natural non GMO organic foods? Keep in mind that this new law does not oversee meat, poultry, fish, dairy and processed eggs regulated by the USDA.

Per the CDC: Fruits and vegetables: 2-outbreaks ( 0.5%) 92 -cases( 0.8%) 0-deaths ( 0.0%) . Fruits and Nuts: 9-outbreaks (0.7%) 169-cases (0.7%) 0-deaths (0.0%) Source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5931.pdf August 13, 2010

The commodities most commonly implicated in outbreaks were finfish (41 outbreaks), poultry (40 outbreaks), and beef (33 outbreaks); the commodities associated with the most illnesses were poultry (691 illnesses), beef (667 illnesses), and leafy vegetables (590 illnesses). The pathogen-commodity pairs responsible for the most outbreak-related illnesses were norovirus in leafy vegetables (315 illnesses), E. coli O157:H7 in beef (298 illnesses), and Clostridium perfringens in poultry (281 illnesses). Source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/726972

The norovirus found in leafy vegetables are thought to largely result from contamination of food via the unwashed or improperly washed hands of food workers. The most commonly reported food-preparation practice that contributed to foodborne disease concerned improper holding temperature; the second most commonly reported practice concerned poor personal hygiene of food handlers. Food obtained from an unsafe source (@ farm/grower ) was the least commonly reported factor for all 5 years. Source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00044241.htm

Based on the CDC's own statistics, it would appear virtually all food-borne illness and deaths are attributed to improper food handling and food-holding practices. This reality is something the American farmer cannot control and monitor.

Oversight and regulation of processing facilities, safe food transportation, educating the public and food service workers about safe food handling practices is a good idea that should be the domain of state and local health departments, not the FDA. The FDA should have domain over inspecting and regulating imported food products, multi-national food suppliers and assist local and state health departments to reduce instances of food-borne illness and death with their substantial resources.

This law gives unprecedented powers to a government agency, funded by the entities it regulates, not the taxpayer, to control and regulate every aspect of the American food supply. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) was enacted in 1992 and renewed in 1997 (PDUFA II), 2002 (PDUFA III), and 2007 (PDUFA IV). It authorizes FDA to collect fees from companies that produce certain human drug and biological products. Since the passage of PDUFA, user fees have been a key FDA incentive in expediting drug approvals.

Every Year, Over 100,000 Americans Are Killed By FDA Approved Pharmaceuticals . . . As Reported By The Journal Of The American Medical Association. Another point of interest, the FDA's own scientists accused the agency of "serious misconduct" as reported by the New York Times. Do we really want them controlling our food supply?

The regulations imposed by the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act upon our farmers would appear to be at best, unnecessary, redundant, costly, oppressive and should be struck from the law. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., in line to become chairman of the agriculture appropriations subcommittee that would fund the measure, said he isn't sure the new act — and its $1.4 billion price tag over five years — is necessary.

"In the face of a deficit that's now $1.4 trillion and a debt that's 96% of GDP, is this really the way we need to be spending our money?" he said.

Citing the latest food-borne-illness figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kingston said that although one in six Americans is estimated to be sickened by food every year, if the numbers are divided by the number of meals we eat a day, 99.99% of those meals are safe "We're moving in the right direction under the existing state and federal and self inspections."

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote: If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny. Rep. Jack Kingston sounds like a voice of reason, a rare commodity among our elected officials. If you agree with his view of this new law, give him some back-up. http://kingston.house.gov/ContactForm/

More information can be found online at http://s510bill.com

deficit spending     food freedom     Food Safety     food supply chain     foodborne illness     government regulation     health department     nutritional health