Public has until Nov 22 to comment on FDA Approval of GMO salmon - Also, latest update on SB 510, one post down, as of 9:15 pm 11/22

Read about The Aqua Bounty Corporation's GMO fast growing salmon made of eel and salmon genes:  http://tinyurl.com/2bhjlnx

How to take action TODAY - Nov. 22 is last official day for public comment!


More from the Center for Food Safety on the poor research, and all the information concealed from the public by for-profit Aqua Bounty on, potentially, the first genetically modified animal to be ok'd for food production - and why is this animal being put up for approval as a drug, doing an end-run around tougher food regulations?

More on that as of 11/22 from Duke University researchers HERE.

Legislation proposed 11/18/10 by Senators Begich (D-AK), Murkowski (I-AK), and Murray(D-AK) re: GMO salmon.

UPDATE ON SB 510 (Updated last at 9:15 pm, 11/22/10)

Here is the latest information on SB 510 from the Cornucopia Institute and the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance:

"Even though an agreement was reached on the Tester-Hagan amendment last week, by the leadership in the Senate, this issue in the food safety bill is still not over!

The Tester-Hagan amendment would exempt smaller, organic and local growers from expensive regulatory burdens.

For over a year, the big Agribusiness trade organizations have supported passage of S.510, the Food Safety Modernization Act.  From agribusiness’s perspective, the bill was a win-win: they could absorb the costs of the regulations because of their size; they'd gain good PR for supposedly improving food safety practices, gain some protection from legal liabilities—and hobble the competition—local food producers by crushing them with new regulatory burdens.

Their anti-competitive motivation was only speculation until now.  But when the Senators agreed to include the Tester-Hagan amendment in the bill, to exempt small-scale direct-marketing producers from some of the most burdensome provisions, agribusiness revealed its true colors.  Late last week, twenty agribusiness lobby groups fired off a letter stating that they would oppose the bill if it included the Tester-Hagan amendment.

The letter from the agribusiness groups states: “[B]y incorporating the Tester amendment in the bill, consumers will be left vulnerable to the gaping holes and uneven application of the law created by these exemptions. In addition, it sets an unfortunate precedent for future action on food safety policy by Congress that science and risk based standards can be ignored.”

The full letter can be viewed at:

http://www.unitedfresh.org/assets/files/Letter%20on%20Passage%20of%20S%20%20510%20and%20Tester%20Amendment.pdf

What science and risk?  No one has produced any data or evidence of any widespread problems caused by local producers and marketed directly to consumers.  All of the major foodborne illness outbreaks have been caused by products that went through the long supply chains of corporate agribusiness, many emanating from factory-scale farms.

Agribusiness’s real concern about the Tester-Hagan amendment isn’t food safety, but the precedent set by having Congress recognize that small, direct-marketing producers are different, and should be regulated differently, from the large Agribusinesses.

Corporate agribusiness is trying to convince the Senators to pull the Tester-Hagan amendment back out.  While the amendment is currently part of the “Managers’ Package” – the amended version of the bill agreed to by six bipartisan sponsors – nothing is certain until the actual vote.

This Thanksgiving week, please take a moment to call or email your Senators to tell them to hold firm on KEEPING the Tester-Hagan amendment part of the bill.  The legislation will likely come up for a vote when they go back into session early next week. 

You can call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or go to www.senate.gov to find your Senator’s website (if the phone lines are busy, the best way to reach them is through the "contact" page on their website)"

Prepared by the staff of The Cornucopia Institute and the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance

Here are two other pieces of news on the bill, one from Food Democracy Now and from the Farm to Consumer Defense Fund (FTCDF).

Links:

Food Democracy Now:
http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/blog/2010/nov/18/compromise-reached-tester-amendment-consumer-group/

FTCLDF:
http://ftcldf.org/search-results.html?cx=003694308739973790001%3Atguqrmds2da&cof=FORID%3A11&q=tester&sa=Go#901

Photos: Slow Food Nation garden, City hall, SF CA. Squash from Land & Sea school garden, Friday Harbor, WA. L Degnan Cobos

URGENT Message from the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund & FOOD DEMOCRACY NOW

From Food Democracy Now: Join Michael Pollan & Eric Schlosser in urging your Senators to pass the Tester-Hagan Amendment to protect family farmers! Click here to call your Senators Now! Yesterday we made over 3,000 calls, can we get to 5,000 From the FTCLDF: The S.510 vote on November 17 was simply to allow cloture (limit debate period); the vote on November 18 has moved S.510 to the Senate floor for a vote.

CALL Your SENATORS ASAP Implore Them to Reject S.510 S.510 presents a major threat to the local food movement, States' autonomy to regulate food, and America's ability to be self-sufficient in food production. S.510 will significantly increase the power of FDA, an agency which has stated on public record that the American people have no ''fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health" and "do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish". S.510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 needs to be stopped! Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121; ask to be connected to your Senator's office. OR Go to www.Congress.org and Enter your zip code on the right side under "Get Involved" and click "Go" Click on your Senators' names then click the "Contact" tab to get the office phone number(s) Clearly state that you are calling about S510, the Food Safety bill. Ask for your Senator to Vote Against S.510 Be sure to give your Zip Code. If you get an answering machine, leave a brief message and immediately call another office. Ask Friends & Family to Call, too!

WHY AMERICANS NEED TO TAKE ACTION

S.510 will expand FDA's jurisdiction over intrastate commerce and impose one-size-fits-all regulations that will make it difficult for many small businesses to survive. See Talking Points at the end.

How bad can a federal food safety bill be? Let me count the ways! Better yet, let Senator Coburn give you a short video tutorial on the underlying problems with S.510.

FDA's failure to exercise its current powers hardly justifies rewarding the agency with expanded authority in the aftermath of the egg recall and peanut butter fiasco.

Moreover, FDA has proven itself untrustworthy to operate in the best interest of the American public as clearly seen in allowing the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in animals and its lax policy regarding genetically modified foods.

Congress needs to get the message: Solve the real food safety problems--the centralized food distribution system and imported foods--and not regulate our local food sources out of business.

Go to www.farmtoconsumer.org/stopS510 to use the online Reject S.510 petition to send a live email to your Legislators and local newspaper editor.

Tell your Senators to protect local foods and vote against S.510.

To see these points as quick talking points, go HERE