Bought & Sold' House Passes Federal Measure to Kill 200 State Food Safety Label

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http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/passed060309.cfm

 

 

" Bought & Sold' House Passes Federal Measure to Kill 200 State Food

Safety Labeling Laws

 

Web Note: Ignoring 50,000 letters and phone calls from members of the

Organic Consumers Association (as well as an equal number of calls and

letters from other public interest organizations), Congress voted

yesterday to ban local and state laws requiring food safety labels.

OCA and our allies have vowed to stop this law from being passed in

the U.S. Senate.

 

Environment News Service <www.ens-newswire.com>

 

National Uniform Food Act Would Kill State Protections

 

WASHINGTON, DC, March 8, 2006 (ENS) ­ The U.S. House of Representatives

today passed controversial legislation that would eliminate more than

200 state food safety and public health protections.

 

The National Uniformity for Food Act, H.R. 4167, is opposed by

environmental groups, Democratic legislators and a majority of state

attorneys general.

 

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that H.R. 4167,

introduced by Congressman Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, last

October, would cost taxpayers $100 million over the next five years,

with unknown additional costs on the federal government and state and

local governments.

 

Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman of California said no

Congressional hearings were held on this bill. " Dozens of public

health and environmental groups, 39 state attorneys general, the

National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, and the

Association of Food and Drug Officials have all expressed their strong

opposition to this legislation, but they have never been given an

opportunity to explain their concerns to Congress, " Waxman said.

 

Today, Congressman Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat, said, " This

legislation is vaguely written and jeopardizes consumer protections.

The impact of certain provisions in this bill on state and local

regulations is ambiguous at best and state and local governments - who

are in charge of 80 percent of food inspections - will lose

significant authority to protect their citizens. "

 

H.R. 4167 would shift the balance of power between the states and

federal government, critics say. They object that the bill would

undermine states' ability to prepare for and respond to terrorist

threats to the food supply; prevent states from requiring consumer

notifications about health risks associated with certain foods; and

create a new federal bureaucracy to review and, potentially

disapprove, new state food safety laws.

 

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer says the bill specifically

targets California's voter-approved Proposition 65, a 1986 law

requiring businesses to provide " clear and reasonable " warnings when

they expose consumers to known reproductive toxins, such as mercury.

 

Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan, introduced an answering

resolution that would allow for state notification regarding the

treatment of meat, poultry, or fish with carbon monoxide.

 

" The House is trampling crucial health safeguards in every state

without so much as a single public hearing, " said Erik Olson, senior

attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. " This just proves

the old adage money talks. The food industry spared no expense to

assure its passage. "

 

A new report released Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council

and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, " Shredding the Food

Safety Net, " finds that the the proposed bill would preempt shellfish

safety standard laws in at least 16 states, milk safety laws in all 50

states, and, restaurant and food service establishment safety laws in

50 states.

 

" The bill also targets a law limiting levels of toxic lead in candies,

a law requiring warnings to consumers about excessive levels of toxic

chemicals in foods that cause cancer, birth defects, or developmental

problems, and laws requiring labeling of fish as farm-raised or wild, "

the report states.

 

" Shredding the Food Safety Net " can be found at:

http://www.nrdc.org/legislation/factsheets/leg_06030701a.pdf.

 

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