Fw: Oppose S.510 Alert - Vote NO on Cloture

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Oppose S.510 Alert - Vote NO on Cloture

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Dear M,

November 23, 2010

VOTE " NO " on CLOTURE & OPPOSE S.510

On Monday, November 29 the Senate will take up for

consideration the " manager's package " of S.510, the

FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.

First the Senate will vote on whether to invoke

cloture, which takes a three-fifths majority (i.e., 60 votes) to pass.

If the cloture motion passes, the Senate will take

up a list of specified amendments (repeal of the 1099 requirements from the

health care bill, a moratorium on earmarks, and a substitute bill by Senator

Coburn). The Senate will then proceed to a final vote on S.510.

We continue to believe that S.510 is NOT in the

best interests of small farmers, and especially raw milk farmers. Even though

the Tester-Hagan Amendment makes important improvements in the bill, S.510

remains fundamentally flawed.

The core problem is that S.510 will significantly

increase the power of the FDA. In response to our suit challenging the ban on

raw milk in interstate commerce, the FDA 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 " . This

agency should not be given any increased power!

TAKE ACTION

STEP 1. Call your Senators and tell them to VOTE

" NO " on CLOTURE and OPPOSE S.510

Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121; ask

to be connected to your Senator's office.

OR

Go to www.Congress.org; 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 office phone number(s).

Clearly state you are calling about S.510, the

Food Safety bill; ask your Senator to VOTE " NO " on CLOTURE & OPPOSE S.510 and

give your zip code.

If you get voicemail, leave a brief message with

your zip code.

STEP 2. Send a live message to your Local

Newspaper through the online petition to Reject S.510 at

www.ftcldf.org/stopS510.

TALKING POINTS

1. FDA does not respect individuals' rights to

obtain healthy, quality foods of their choice:

" There is no absolute right to consume or

feed children any particular food. "

" Plaintiffs' assertion of a 'fundamental

right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes what foods they do

and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families' is similarly

unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food

they wish. "

FDA has even participated in armed raids on

small-scale co-ops and membership organizations. This agency should not be given

any additional power.

2. FDA has adequate powers under existing law to

ensure food safety and effectively deal with foodborne illness outbreaks. FDA

has power to inspect, power to detain product and can readily obtain court

orders to seize adulterated or misbranded food products or enjoin them from

being sold. The problem isn't that FDA needs more power; it's that FDA does not

effectively use the power it currently has. The agency has power to inspect

imported food yet inspects only 1% of food coming into this country from outside

our borders.

3. FDA has used its existing power to benefit the

pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries at the expense of public health

(e.g., allowing the overuse of antibiotics in confined animal feeding operations

and refusing to require labeling for genetically-modified foods). This bill does

not address the fundamental problems at this agency in order to truly protect

public health.

4. S.510 will hurt our ability as a nation to be

self-sufficient in food production because it has more lenient inspection

requirements for foreign than domestic producers creating an unfair advantage

for food imports. Giving an advantage to foreign producers will only increase

the amount of food imported into this country that does not meet our domestic

standards. S.510 does not address food security--the ability of a country to

produce enough food to meet its own needs.

5. S.510 does nothing to address many significant

food safety problems in this country, such as those resulting from confined

animal feeding operations (CAFOs), genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and

various contaminants (e.g., BPA, pesticides, herbicides, etc.).

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