A year and a half after it was passed by the House of Representatives, the Senate passed the Food Safety and Modernization Act (SB510) by a 73-25 margin.\u00a0 The bill has to be brought into line with the House’s version before President Obama can sign it into law, but food-safety advocates have hailed it as “the most important food-safety legislation in a generation.”<\/p>\n
The bill would produce a major shift of regulatory power, granting the FDA power to oversee farming and track and recall food products–while giving the agency the authority to conduct more safety inspections on farms, slaughterhouses, and processing plants, etc.<\/p>\n
So what does the legislation mean to the average American consumer?\u00a0 Here’s a quick list of the direct effects it may have on all of us:<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 Slightly higher food costs.\u00a0 Critics of the bill, both on the left and the right, have argued that food producers will pass on the higher costs of stricter regulation to consumers.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0 Selling and sharing food from your small garden.\u00a0 Opponents have suggested that the bill would basically outlaw the sale and distribution of fruits and vegetables grown in backyard gardens.\u00a0 This is not the case.\u00a0 As SB510 is currently worded, small growers who sell their goods at food coops, farmers’ markets, roadside stands, etc., wouldn’t have to register with the FDA, although they will need to comply with whatever state and local food laws are in effect.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0 Enhanced public health:\u00a0 Seventy-six million Americans are stricken with some sort of preventable food-borne illness each year, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.\u00a0 Advocates of the new bill say that eliminating these outbreaks will save lives and health care costs each year.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0 Peace of mind:\u00a0 In the wake of recent recalls of eggs, spinach, pistachios, peanut butter, and milk many Americans are increasingly worried about serious health risks from large-scale corporate agriculture.<\/p>\n
5.\u00a0 A functional Congress:\u00a0 For the first time in recent memory, the bill fostered a strong bipartisan effort between Republicans and Democrats to do something about a problem that touches just about every American.\u00a0 The New York Times reported that some of the Senate staffers from both parties involved in the negotiations had never even met previous to working on SB510.<\/p>\n
So safer food makes for happier, healthier bodies–and greater bipartisanship.\u00a0 Perhaps the next Slurpee Summit in Washington should feature wheatgrass smoothies!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A year and a half after it was passed by the House of Representatives, the Senate passed the Food Safety and Modernization Act (SB510) by a 73-25 margin.\u00a0 The bill has to be brought into line with the House’s version before President Obama can sign it into law, but food-safety advocates have hailed it as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-general_news","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1750,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions\/1750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}