On Monday, November 29, a cloture vote on Senate Bill 510 will determine if the bill then goes immediately to the Senate floor for a final vote. Cloture requires 60 votes. If there are fewer than 60, the bill will not go forward. Let’s make sure the cloture vote fails.
PLEASE CALL ALL THE SENATORS IN THE LIST LINKED BELOW AND ASK THEM TO OPPOSE CLOTURE AND OPPOSE S 510.
The votes of these “targeted” Senators could make all the difference. Even if they are not your Senators, please call them at their District Offices and, using the Talking Points below, ask them to oppose cloture and oppose S 510.
Why Senators Should Oppose S 510
S 510 threatens the existence of small, independent farms and will limit the food choices of consumers. As written - even with the proposed amendments - the bill is fundamentally flawed. S 510 will not improve food safety. Instead it will bury farmers in regulations and paperwork and consolidate agricultural production into fewer, larger industrial facilities.
The FDA has authority to inspect processing plants and imports, yet it inspects less than 1% of imports and less than 25% of the processing facilities it is authorized to. FDA claims it does not have the resources to carry out these inspections, yet it has the time and personnel to harass Amish farmers, raid food clubs, and pull over individuals who are transporting privately purchased fresh milk and make them dump it on the roadside.
S 510 would increase the cost of U.S. grown and produced food and extend the authority of international trade agreements onto small farms. Inspections and audits of farming and harvesting processes will cost farmers in upfront expenses just to exist. Even if they are not participating in direct or local sales, they will have to assume the audit and inspection costs as well as develop HACCP type plans. Larger corporations will not need to buy from domestic growers - they can import from countries with lower infrastructure costs to offset the expenses S 510 regulations will force on U.S. producers.
There are many reasons to oppose S510, but the fact that the FDA has stated in court that you have no right to consume any particular food, no right to bodily or physical health, and no right to contract is sufficient reason to not give it any more authority over your food than it already has.
Please call your Senators and the other Senators listed below and tell them you are smart enough to decide what you want to eat:
Talking Points
- S 510 will eliminate the only productive sector of our economy - small farms and local food. The Tester amendment still puts additional paperwork, record keeping and scrutiny onto direct marketers.
- The FDA fails to do the job it is charged with doing. Tell FDA to inspect the imports and the plants it has the authority to inspect and stay out of farming.
- The rules and regulations the FDA will promulgate under S510 will harm our ability to get food that we want to eat. Tell FDA instead to require truthful labeling and disclose genetically modified products on labels. This would create a safer food supply and not harm the small family farmer.
- S 510 will create even larger governmental bureaucracy, and the estimated costs don’t include costs to individuals who actually produce food.
- S 510 opens the door to violations of due process including illegal search and seizure and suspension of judicial review.
Please join NICFA, John Tate - President, Campaign for Liberty, Kristin Canty - Director of “Farmegeddon” the movie, and David Gumpert - writer of “The Raw Milk Revolution” and www.TheCompletePatient.com, in OPPOSING cloture and OPPOSING S 510.
ACTION:
1. Please call the Senators in this list - at their District offices - as well as you own two Senators, and tell them to oppose cloture and oppose S 510.
Yours for food freedom,
Deborah Stockton, Executive Director
National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (NICFA)
nicfa@earthlink.net
http://www.nicfa.com
