Senate Approves S.510 - 73 - 25 and Now Moves to the House

NEW ACTION ITEM

THE US SENTATE JUST VOTED TO END FOOD FREEDOM IN THE UNITED STATES.

THE ACTION NOW MOVES TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

The Natural Solutions Foundation has developed A NEW ACTION ITEM TELLING THE HOUSE NOT TO ACCEPT THE SENATE BILL S.510. The NY Times just reported the "lame-duck leadership" in the House will attempt quick passage!

"Despite unusual bipartisan support on Capitol Hill and a strong push from the Obama administration, though, the bill could still die, because there might not be enough time left in the session for the usual haggling between the Senate and House of Representatives, which passed its own version of the bill last year. Top House Democrats have said that they would consider simply passing the Senate version to speed approval."

Action Item: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5270

Last night Sen Coburn said the bill will raise food prices; add 1.5 billion to deficit; add unfunded state mandates. It will not increase food safety one bit(e).

The ad hoc coalition against S.510 of health and food freedom advocates (such as Health FreedomUSA and Citizens for Health), garden, farm and ranch groups, both major Tea Party groups, the Oath Keepers, Downsize DC, Campaign for Liberty and others will not be fooled and we will remember! Below is a list of Senators who voted for cloture and who are up for re-election in 2012. Save this list!

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00257

We the People will continue to oppose S.510 on the House floor and in the House/Senate Conference -- if needed, will petition the current White House occupant to veto it. If he fails to do so, we will support defunding it in the new Congress!

Need more information about S.510?

C

lick here to read:

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/s-510-is-hissing-in-the-grass/

and here to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOups0dfdwM

Here's a list of senators who received donations from special interest groups:

http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2010/11/23/list-of-bribed-us-senators-to-support-senate-bill-s-510-food-safety-modernization-act/

OC

What is it? It’s the Food Safety Modernization Act!

http://www.examiner.com/environmental-news-in-national/what-is-it-it-s-the-food-safety-modernization-act

Hey, its FDA approved, what could go wrong?

Citizens for Health Urge You to Contact Your Senators NOW!

Citizens for Health has been tracking the progress of The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, S.510. While the bill has been amended, it still has a long way to go for us to consider supporting it, and now that Congress is returning from Thanksgiving recess we need to increase pressure on lawmakers to oppose S.510.

Urge your Senators NOW to oppose S. 510!

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/750/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5264

This deeply troubling bill enshrines industrial agriculture as the primary, if not the only, legally-accepted form of food production in the United States. S.510 sacrifices farmers and consumers in favor of the interests of big Agribusiness and it must not become law. If it does pass the lame duck Congress we must urge President Obama to veto it. If he signs it into law, its enforcement must be resisted; its funding must be blocked; and its repeal must be sought. The bottom line: The President and the members of Congress who support this bill need to know that it will be resisted, and that voters will be mobilized in opposition to the reelection of any S.510 supporters in 2012.

The Senate will be addressing a series of procedural votes and the final vote on S.510 is scheduled for Tuesday, November 30, 2010. Use messages, phone calls [Senate: (202) 224-3121] - any mechanism you have - to insist that your Senators oppose the bill. If it should pass the Senate we will then fight to oppose it in the conference committee assigned to reconcile the House and Senate versions. If S.510 makes it through the committee, we will bring our weight to bear on both the House and Senate to oppose the final version of the bill. Through these efforts we will also build grassroots opposition to its implementation and enforcement if it does pass.

Make no mistake about it - the 4000 new inspectors created by this bill will allow the FDA to further trample the rights and freedoms of anyone opposed to the industrial food orthodoxy that includes, among its horrors, food irradiation, genetically modified organisms, growth-enhancing antibiotics and hormones and the factory farming of animals. This industrialism has undermined America's food supply for the past four decades, and threatens the citizen-based small farms and local food production efforts that have begun to make some progress in saving American food from the clutches of industrial degradation.

Email your Senators NOW!

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/750/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5264

source: www.citizens.org

The S.510 Vote Has Been Delayed til Tuesday! CALL YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM TO VOTE "NO" ON S.510!

The phone lines were jammed in DC today, thanks to those who called their senators offices and urged them to vote "NO" on S.510, the giant step back known as "Food Modernization Act of 2010".

Here's the link to the senators contact information:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATOR'S DC OFFICE AND POLITELY SAY "VOTE NO ON S.510".

There's no need to elaborate, unless you feel compelled to do so. They will ask for your zip code -- and that's all there is to it. Every call is counted, and the senators get the sheets as they go into session, so they are aware of the sentiments of their constituency. Many people emailed, detailing their thoughts about the convoluted nature of the bill. Some have been surprised they heard back so quickly from their representative's offices. This bill is a very big deal, and requires everyone's attention.

For more information, read Mike Adam's newsletter here:

http://www.naturalnews.com/030565_Food_Safety_S_510.html#ixzz16kLNYANH

Mike closes this update with these thoughts:

Why we need to delineate the right to grow food in the next Bill of Rights

This also reminds me to point out that after the U.S. collapses from total financial and moral bankruptcy -- which seems to be getting closer by the day -- we must all remember that in the next society, we need to add "The Right to Grow, Harvest and Exchange Our Own Food" into the next Bill of Rights. Because that's exactly what's being stripped away from the American people with the passage of S.510.

Remember, too, that the FDA already took away your right to learn the truth about nutritional supplements and natural remedies. It has sought to destroy the natural products industry. Now it's poised to take away your access to raw milk while burdening food producers with outrageous new paperwork requirements -- all while ignoring the real causes of the food contaminations, which are actually caused by factory animal farms.

The people who are in support of this bill -- including several big-name food authors who should frankly know better -- are selling out to the agricultural giants and aligning themselves with the dark powers in government who seek to destroy food freedom.

"Food is no less a weapon than tanks, guns, and planes." said Franklin D. Roosevelt. And now the U.S. Senate is making sure that food controls can be used against the American people in exactly the same way the Patriot Act is now being used to crush our civil liberties.

OC

Even With 12,000 EMAILS OVERNIGHT, YOUR "VOTE NO" CALL IS NEEDED NOW!

The vote is scheduled for 2pm today, eastern time.

The Natural Solutions Foundation reports this morning that some are having difficulties with the Email-Your-Senator system which appears to be nearing capacity. Please CALL your Senators offices NOW! You can contact your state representatives here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Be polite, be firm: "Vote NO on S.510."

OC

This is the Response I Just Received From Senator Feinstein

Thank you for writing to express your opposition to the "Food Safety Accountability Act of 2010" (S. 3767). I appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

I strongly support S. 3767, and I am a cosponsor of this legislation. I believe that all food producers should be required to produce food that is safe to eat and does not harm consumers. Producers who knowingly violate food safety procedures and distribute tainted food to the public should be held accountable for their actions. The "Food Safety Accountability Act" will protect consumers by authorizing criminal penalties when a company or individual knowingly adulterates or misbrands food that is intended to be sold.

I understand you have concerns regarding this legislation and parties who might unknowingly contaminate food. The Senate Judiciary Committee, of which I am a member, amended S. 3767 so that its criminal penalties are limited to persons who knowingly adulterate or misbrand food knowingly with conscious or reckless disregard of a risk of death or serious bodily injury.

On September 23, 2010, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed S. 3767. Please know that I will keep your concerns in mind should the full Senate consider this legislation.

Again, thank you for writing. If you have any further questions or comments, please contact my office in Washington, D.C. at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.

Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
*********************************************************************************
OC's NOTE:Well, no support there, but I'm not surprised, which is why I've been so vocal about this bill leading up to this moment. There's too much at stake, making it difficult to believe that anyone would vote anything other than 'no' on this bill, unless they haven't read it, don't understand it, or have some other interest.
The time for emails has passed, as it's now lunch time in DC. I just called the above number and spoke with the Senator's office. If you live in California, please do the same. If you live elsewhere, contact your state senator's DC office immediately.
I URGE YOU TO CONTACT YOUR SENATOR'S OFFICES IN DC NOW AND TELL THEM TO VOTE "NO" ON S.510! The vote for S510 has been agendized for 2pm eastern time today.
OC

Take Action on S.510 - Push Back NOW!

Senate Bill S.510 is up for vote Monday. This bill, known as the "Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010", is not about food OR safety. It's about criminalization. Everyone knows that e.coli is from factory animals. Those who wrote this bill must think that you are pretty stupid to believe that factory animals have a place in organic farming and backyard gardens.

But wait...there's more criminalization!..... a 1099 reporting requirement, too, which will have small business owners running around to anywhere they spent over $600, turning them into paperwork pack rats.

And if S.510 isn't bad enough, there's a companion bill S.3767 which will reintroduce criminal penalties for anyone who sells what the government will later decides was 'adulterated' or 'misbranded' food, a provision which had been removed from the House-passed "Food Safety" version last year (HR.1279).

Dietary supplements are covered under this provision. It used to be that the FDA would send a warning letter telling a company its claims were illegal and the company would either change the claims or defend them. If this bill passes, FDA can simply start by bringing criminal charges any time it determines that a claim is not allowed.

The political insiders plan, our contacts tell us, to add S.3767 to S.510 so the penalties can be in the final bill approved by the House/Senate conference committee, if We the People allow S.510 to pass the US Senate!

What does this mean?

Here is what the bill actually says:

"S.3767 -- Food Safety Accountability Act of 2010 (Introduced in Senate - IS)
111th CONGRESS - 2d Session

To establish appropriate criminal penalties for certain knowing violations relating to food that is misbranded or adulterated.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

September 13, 2010

Mr. LEAHY (for himself, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, and Mr. FRANKEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To establish appropriate criminal penalties for certain knowing violations relating to food that is misbranded or adulterated.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Food Safety Accountability Act of 2010'.

SEC. 2. CRIMINAL PENALTIES.

(a) In General- Chapter 47 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`Sec. 1041. Misbranded and adulterated food

`(a) In General- It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly--

`(1) introduce or deliver for introduction into interstate commerce any food that is adulterated or misbranded; or

`(2) adulterate or misbrand any food in interstate commerce.

`(b) Penalty- Any person who violates subsection (a) shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.'.

(b) Technical and Conforming Amendment- The table of sections for chapter 47 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`1041. Misbranded and adulterated food.'."

Senate calendar:

http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/d_three_sections_with_teasers/calendars.htm

Click here to find the link to your state representative contact information:

http://lagunanaturalhealth.blogspot.com/2010/11/senate-bill-510-delayed-til-november-29.html

Please contact your state representatives and tell them to vote "NO!" on S.510. Senate votes on this MONDAY, November 29, 2010.

source: http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2010/09/s510-companion-bill-s3767-to.html

OC

Avoid Colds and Flu: Strengthen Your Immune System Naturally

Clean food, exercise, sunshine, pure water, rest and natural remedies will strengthen your immune system better than any chemical/synthetic products you'll find at the drug store. Over-the-counter (OTC) and pharmaceutical products were created to suppress cold and flu symptoms, and will not boost immune function to allow the body to heal itself naturally.

Chemical and synthetic products are not nutrition-based, and therefore unable to nourish the body what it needs to engage it's own healing mechanisms. What you consume is crucial to healing your body and boosting it's immune function. The body was not designed to metabolize chemicals, food additives and processed food products, and it will eventually respond by getting sick and/or shutting down.

Smoking substantially suppresses the immune and healing function. There are no health benefits to smoking, and one way to greatly improve immune function is to stop -- immediately.

Sugar is a major immune function suppressor. Avoid processed foods and drinks, sodas, etc., as most of them contain large quantities of processed sugars and other chemical food additives that your body doesn't register or know how to metabolize. Avoid processed dairy products, and farm-raised animal and fish products, as they are pumped full of antibiotics and hormones.

So what can you do to improve your immune function?

Optimize your lifestyle choices and boost your health by consuming fresh, organic produce, antibiotic/hormone-free, free-range meats, wild caught fish and raw nuts into your diet. Garlic, onions and horseradish are excellent immune boosters, as well as vitamins C, D3 and zinc. Herbs such as goldenseal, echinacea, chamomile, stinging nettle, etc., can also boost immune function. Consult your naturopath or master herbalist for specifics.

More tips:

• Feeling alternating cold and sweats is your body's way of reaching homeostasis (balance) -- sweats kill off pathogens.

• Use your juicer! Check out the LNH archives for the detox juice recipe -- carrots, beet, lemon, garlic, celery, cucumber and apple. Tastes great and detoxes the body naturally.

• Soak in a bathtub of mint, Himalayan salts, or homeopathic(s) as suggested by your homeopath, for 20 minutes.

• Oregano, cinnamon, frankincense, lemon, eucalyptus and peppermint essential oil can be used in a massage oil blended with a carrier oil (a popular base is grapeseed oil with a little vitamin E oil as a natural preservative).

• Drink hot water with lemon throughout the day (like a tea).

• Rest/sleep. Allow your body recharge itself.

As simple as it sounds, be sure to wash your hands frequently. If you're not in the habit yet, start by washing your hands the minute you get in the house.

If all of this sounds very simple, it's because it is. Optimizing health isn't rocket science, and it is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and those around you. If you've ever been sick you know that your health IS your wealth, and we are reminded of this every time our health becomes compromised.

Enjoy a happy, healthy, cold-and-flu-free holiday season!

OC

Choose Your Alliances With Care

Not everyone is healthy enough to have front row seats in our lives. There are some people who need to be loved from a distance. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you let go of -- or at least minimize your time with draining, negative, incompatible, not-going-anywhere relationships/friendships.

Observe the relationships around you....pay attention!

• Which ones lift and which ones lean?

• Which ones encourage and which ones discourage?

• Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill?

• When you leave certain people, do you feel better or worse?

• Which ones always have drama or don't really understand, know or appreciate you?

The more you seek quality, respect, growth, peace of mind, love, and truth around you, the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in the front row and who should be moved to the balcony of your life.

You cannot change the people around you, so change the people you're around.

Enjoy a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

OC

Why Diet Drugs Don't Work

"Diets" don't work. Neither do diet drugs.

Diet drugs are created to affect the learning, memory, motivation, and habit circuits, which are also necessary for humans to function. Diet drugs will impact IQ and memory, as there are no selective agents to distinguish between shutting off a response to food stimulus or another unrelated stimulus.

Dr David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner, says "there's going to be considerable adverse events, because we really are mucking around with these circuits that are necessary for the rest of human function."

source: http://vimeo.com/16212349

LNH advocates clean, organic and antibiotic/hormone-free nutrition, pure water, exercise, prayer/meditation and rest/sleep as the basis of a balanced lifestyle, optimizing vibrant health.

OC

Smart City Governments Grow Produce to Feed Their People

Great news! Smart thinkers are alive and well in city governments. Baltimore, MD, Bainbridge Island, WA, Des Moines, IA, and Madison, WI, are examples of forward-thinking cities who have replaced the lawns, shrubs, underutilized parks, plazas, street meridians, and parking lots with fruits and vegetable gardens. Many believe it makes more sense to spend resources to grow edibles in this economy, rather than ornamental plantings.

It is the job of municipal policy makers to continually strive to create programs to increase quality of life for their citizens, and this plan ensures the health, safety and welfare of citizens as much as other city government-provided services, and fosters a sense of community. This "Public Produce" promotes healthy eating, and bolsters food security by providing passersby with access to low or no-cost fruits and vegetables.

Davenport, IA, is taking this plan to the next level by converting an underutilized one acre parking lot into a space filled with orchards, gardens and grapevines. $370.000 has been allocated for construction, with ongoing maintenance supplied by volunteers from United Way, Big Brothers Big Sisters and local students and business owners. One restaurants owner will grow and harvest hard-to-find ingredients for his authentic dishes in this space.

I just love a story with a happy ending.

Next time you're driving around where you live, make note of an under-utilized space in your community, and suggest this plan to improve your area at your next city hall meeting.

OC

source: http://www.grist.org/article/food-smart-city-governments-grow-produce-for-the-people

See Video Footage From RAWESOME Food Coop Raid

Imagine, gun-wielding officials coming into your kitchen to take your milk, honey and eggs. You'd think that could never happen in the 'land of the free', but it does -- and more frequently than people realize.

With guns drawn, no less than five government agencies raided Rawesome Food Coop in Venice, California last summer, confiscating 17 coolers of raw milk, raw honey, and raw cane syrup. The photo above is cut from the surveillance footage at Rawesome.

In addition, the officials intentionally spoiled thousands of dollars in raw inventory by intentionally leaving the refrigerator doors open. They also said they needed to take 'samples', but they took 20+ jars of the same raw honey.

If a non-government citizen, such as yourself, committed these unconscionable acts that were committed by the government officials at Rawesome, they'd be charged with assault with a deadly weapon, trespassing, some sort of stealing charge, whatever that's called when people ransack and destroy property, and more. There'd be fines imposed and, no doubt, jail time served. I'm not a lawyer, but you get the idea. It's just plain wrong.

So, what's this REALLY about?

Organic farming and consumer demand for organic products are on a steady, fast-track rise, which poses a threat to those parties who are motivated to "own" the world food source, such as Monsanto and other manufacturers of GMO seeds.

Senate Bill S-510 is up for vote on November 29, 2010. Our government has tried to make us fearful and believe that raw is wrong and will hurt us. The fact is, even those who are 'lactose intolerant' are able to assimilate raw milk, which by scientific accounts is a 'perfect food'. That said, pasteurization destroys all that is good and nutritious in milk.

There's been much debate about unpasteurized foods and food safety. Obviously, the raid on Rawesome and other food coops has nothing to do with 'food safety' or the S510 "Food Safety Modernization Act". After all, it's common knowledge that e.coli, salmonella and other pathogens which taint our food source are from factory farm animals, not unprocessed raw foods.

Whether or not you are a milk-drinker, beef-eater or raw food consumer, we urge you to take a moment to preserve your freedoms and those of your friends, family, and generations to come by placing a call to the Capitol Switchboard at 202.224.3121 to STOP S510. Or call your state senators here:

http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

When the person answers the phone, just tell them you say "NO" to S510. That's all there is to it. It's that easy.

Feel free to sign the petition here:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4613

Check out the video surveillance footage of the raid and interviews at Rawesome here:

http://la.eater.com/archives/2010/11/18/inside_the_rawesome_foods_raid_a_video.php

OC

Senate Bill 510 Delayed 'til November 29 -- The Capitol Needs to Hear From YOU!

We've been given the gift of delay for the final vote on the dangerous S510 bill ("Food Safety Modernization Act") that would expand FDA's power over our farms, seeds, farmer's markets, raw milk and greenhouses. As part of this debate over the safety of the food supply, Senator Mike Johanns is making a courageous attempt to kill the new, idiotic 1099 reporting requirement that would require every person running a small business in America to get 1099 forms from Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Costco, Amazon.com or any other retailer where they've spent over $600 in the previous year.

This absolute nightmare of 1099 paperwork was passed as part of the Obamacare health care reform legislation earlier this year (http://www.naturalnews.com/028854_1099_small_business.html). It will turn America's small business owners into paperwork pack rats and criminalize anyone who doesn't spent several hundred hours a year chasing 1099 forms from corporations that are almost certain to refuse to give them to you. This is the government's way of penalizing small business owners in America and killing off yet more jobs as a way to destroy the economy.

This 1099 recall is the only real positive thing being considered in the Food Safety and Modernization Act. And as you've probably noticed, it has nothing to do with food.

LNH doesn't have a problem with making wise, sensible improvements in food safety, but giving the government control over seeds, backyard gardens and small organic farms is not an improvement, nor is it about 'food safety'.

As we now know, the problem with e.coli, salmonella and other pathogens in the food supply is really a problem with factory animal farms -- notably cattle and chicken operations. That's where these pathogens come from (e.coli grows in the intestines of animals), so cleaning up factory animal farms is the answer to food safety, not invoking the FDA and its food irradiation agenda.

Why would anyone want to grant more power to the FDA when they've killed more Americans through corruption, fraud and negligence than any other organization in US history? Read Mike Adams' story detailing how putting the FDA in charge of our national food supply can only lead to disaster: http://www.naturalnews.com/030461_Senate_Bill_510_Food_Safety.html

Your voice needs to be heard, and because the vote has been delayed until after the Thanksgiving recess, you have more time to oppose this dangerous legislation. Why wait? Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202.224.3121, and ask to be directly connected to your Senator's office:

You can find other contact information for your US Senator at:

http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

You can also petition at Citizens for Health:

http://www.citizens.org/?page_id=2312

and

Natural Solutions Foundation:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4613

This is petition is sent to your senators as well as President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius. Her direct email address is included, so feel free to send her a note. It doesn't have to be long -- a sentence or two will be just as effective.

source: http://www.naturalnews.com/030462_Food_Safety_bill_FDA.html

OC