Dietary Supplements, Clean Foods - Next Victims of Fake "Safety" Bills

03/05/10 - UPDATE: DC rumor has it that Sen McCain told Sen Hatch that he would no longer support his own bill, S.3002, so this bill's threat to Health Freedom appears to be over for now, but, it is increasingly likely that attention will now focus on S.510, the fake "food safety" bill which could be applied to that form of food known as Dietary Supplements, effectively enacting the intent of the McCain bill, namely, to restrict our access to high potency Dietary Supplements. The struggle continues and the Action Item below has been updated to reflect the change in the political winds... We calculate that over 390.000 email messages were delivered through this Action Item since the McCain bill was introduced, which brings the total emails opposing both fake "safety" bills through this Action Item to over 1,300,000!

02/04/10 - UPDATE: while the fake "Food Safety" Bill S.510 remains stalled in the Senate, after our November Blitz sent more than 150,000 emails to the Senate over one long weekend, this week Sen John McCain announced that he was offering another "safety" bill, S.3002. This alleged "safety" bill is aimed at the type of food called "Dietary Supplement" in a blatant attempt to undermine your freedom to access high potency vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements which Americans have enjoyed since a unanimous Congress adopted the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). The McCain bill seeks to overthrow major provisions of the current law and force "HARMonization" with international Codex Alimentarius (so-called "World Food Code") restrictions on our food and health freedoms.

See our analysis of the bill at: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4608 and please take the Action below; we've modified it to include the new bill; please send this new message to your Senators, even if you've already used the earlier version of this Action Item. See also: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4615 for our Health Freedom Action eAlert eblast on this issue -- and please forward that link to all your contacts.

11/17/09 - UPDATE: the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP Committee) "marked-up" S.510, the Senate version of the (sic) "Food Safety" bill on Tuesday, November 18, 2009. This is the last step before a full Senate vote. The Senate bill can be read at: http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.510: -- this bill has an even weaker Family Farm and Ranch, Community and Home Garden exemption than the bill (HR.2749) which passed the House at the end of July. Some minor changes were made, as a result of hundreds of thousands of emails to decsion makers generated from this Action Item and other citizen actions -- so now it's time to continue to Push Back! We have until early in the new year to make our voices heard, since the Senators, after considering the nearly 150,000 messages they received from this Action Item, will not vote on the bill until January. For updates: see our blog entry at: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4014

HELP Chairman Sen. Tom Harkin, mentioning “public concerns” (namely your Push Back!) and the Committee’s desire to protect family farms and organic agriculture, confirmed (about minute 58.5 of the "Mark-up" hearing video archive at the HELP site) that Codex Alimentarius (the so-called World Food Code) does not trump the Dietary Supplement Health and Safety Education Act of 1994 (the law that allows the USA to have the most potent nutrients and most vibrant nutrient market in the world) “DSHEA … governs the law here, not Codex standards…” Chairmen Harkin further stated: the provision in bill that requires FDA to “make recommendations including whether to harmonize whth Codex does not signal any intent to move in a different direction on DSHEA…”

2010 UPDATE: THESE PROMISES ARE NOT ENOUGH! WE CALL UPON ALL SENATORS TO OPPOSE JOHN MCCAIN'S "BACK DOOR" ATTACK ON DSHEA: DO NOT CO-SPONSOR HIS "DIETARY SUPPLEMENT SAFETY ACT OF 2010" DO NOT INCLUDE HIS PRO-CODEX PROVISIONS IN S.510!

PLEASE TAKE THE ACTION BELOW TODAY!

[Message goes to the President, FDA, your Senators and the HELP Comment Email Address]

NOTE: If you have already taken this Action Item, we encourage you, and every member of your family and circle of contacts to do so again since it has been amended to reflect the passage of HR 2749 on July 30, 2009 after two failed attempts on the previous days, the "mark-up" of the Senate version, S510 in November 2009 and McCain's February 2010 gambit to extend the attack to Dietary Supplements. If passed by the Senate, in any form, the Food Fascism Bill will guarantee the loss of clean, healthy food, high potency dietary supplements and independent farming in the US -- and the complete industrialization of the US food supply. Now the question is what will the Senate do?

We did manage to get some protective exemptions into the House bill for small farmers who sell food directly to consumers or to restaurants, but they are, frankly, weak and will not be enough to protect your food or our farmers. But the Senate bill has much weaker protections, just mentioning minor exemptions for restaurants once and farms twice. McCain's "Dietary Supplement Safety" bill is an obvious attempt to get the stalled (sic) "food safety" show going again.

We need to rally people immediately to submit the below email message to the Senate and to visit with their Senators at home to demand accountable voting on this bill.

The Obama administration is pushing new farm controls which will drive small and independent farmers off the land, literally leaving the field to Agribiz, (implementing all of Codex through complete HARMonization and allowing the FDA to declare Marshal law) through Congress as fast as possible and have coordinated the House bills so there will be no debate and committee meetings are closed. The story will not be the same in the Senate, if we can generate enough public outrage!

Transparency, change, undoing Bush's regulations, giving the public time to comment, grassroots anything? None are visible in the current legislative process. Our entire food system, and thus our health, is being given to the last people with any interest in quality or safety: Big Abgribiz. This is going on in the absence of public scrutiny. Those who do know what is happening, of course, have zero access to the process and to the major media. Meanwhile, the media is absent while Congress is moving at warp speed to sew this up.

There will be no direct, frontal assault on organic farming and dietary supplements, but an insidious process of "infecting" organic farming and nutrient products with regulations, "traceability" requirements, required practices and prohibitions enforced by truly draconian fines and prison terms for even minor offenses running to hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars and 8 years in prison for minor offenses... all under the guise of fake "food safety."

Example: imagine Joel Salatin's wonderful organic farm under the direction of the USDA, with detailed instructions on what he must feed and when, how he must medically "treat" his animals and with what, what he must "spray" and when, ... you get the picture. These bills will industrialize all farms and insure the farmers are forced to buy chemicals and drugs. Organic is dead. As well as human control over the food supply. As well as health.

H.R. 2749 includes a weak exemption for farmer to consumer or restaurant sales because of the Push Back we generated. But the bill has now passed the House and it is imperative that NO version of "food safety" pass the Senate. More Push Back is needed for more protection for dietary supplements, farmers, gardeners, community farming, all local food production (including yours!) and food processing.

We've set up an Action Item for you to send an unmistakable message to your Senators. We must educate the Senate that you value DSHEA, organic farmers and small farming and do not - do not - want independent farmers regulated out of existence. You do not want "Big Agrabiz" regulations applied to organic and small family farms and ranches or to natural/organic food products, including Dietary Supplements.

We have prepared the following Petition to Congress with regard to this matter:
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PETITION
(2010 Changes in Red)
To Amend S.510 or Any Food or Dietary Supplement Safety Modernization Act or Similar Bill

By the Addition of the
Natural and Family Food and Farming Exclusion Amendment
And by Defeating Any Attempt to Add John McCain's Fake
"Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010" Provisions to S510

To: The Members of the Senate of the United States of America:

Whereas the proposed Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services should focus its activities on the significant public administration issues involving the capacity of large scale, industrialized agriculture to threaten public safety,

Whereas dietary supplements, organic and natural agriculture, family farms and ranches, and natural or organic food products, including dietary supplements are not a significant part of the food safety problem, and

Whereas Congress previously provided for an exemption for natural food dietary supplements from the increased agency authority granted by the FDA Modernization Act of 2007, through a rule of interpretation, added as section 1011 of that Act, and has on numerous occasions exempted small and family farms from the same level of regulation as has been deemed necessary in the case of industrialized agriculture,

The citizens ascribing to this Petition therefore hereby request that any Food Safety Modernization Act identical or similar to HR 2749 be defeated, or that it, or any substitute for it be amended to exclude organic and natural agriculture, family farms and ranches, and natural or organic food products, including dietary supplements, through a rule of interpretation, as follows:

“Rule of Interpretation

“No provision of this act shall be deemed to apply (a) to any home, home-business, homestead, home or community gardens, small farm, organic or natural agricultural activity, (b) to any family farm or ranch, or (c) to any natural or organic food product, including dietary supplements regulated under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994.”

We also note the language of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 USC sec 203 (s) (2) which provides, "(2) Any establishment that has as its only regular employees the owner thereof or the parent, spouse, child, or other member of the immediate family of such owner shall not be considered to be an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce or a part of such an enterprise..." Language such as this would be helpful to allay our concerns.

If the FDA Center for Food Safety is to be moved into a new Food Safety Agency, then Dietary Supplements, regulated as foods under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) should be included in such agency, with the proviso that such substances, as foods, are deemed safe when used as directed.

We oppose any bill which undermines the provisions of DSHEA and call for extending those protective provisions as has been proposed by Rep. Dr. Ron Paul of Texas. No provision of the fake "Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010" should be included in S510 or adopted individually; we call upon all Senators to refuse to co-sponsor Sen. McCain's bill which threatens our Health Freedom and our rights under DSHEA.

Furthermore, the ascribing citizens Petition the Congress of the United States to declare it the public policy of the United States that organic and natural agriculture, home and community gardens, family farms and ranches, and natural or organic food products, including dietary supplements shall be at all times free from suit, vexation, trouble, penalty, or loss of their goods, for the inestimable values they confer upon the public.

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You know we need your help to defray the costs of this Action Item and to keep up the good food and freedom fight.
Please donate here: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189


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[March 7, 2009 - This Petition was prepared by Ralph Fucetola JD, a Trustee of the Natural Solutions Foundation, for educational purposes – www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and modified on July 31, 2009, November 17, 2009 and February 5, 2010]