Food Safety Bill Passes

UPDATE

The Food Safety Bill (S 510) I wrote about in yesterday's post, passed the Senate today. It needed 50% of the "aye" votes and received 73%. It still has several steps to go before it becomes law, so if there is something you don't like about it, there is still time to let your Representative in the House know about it.


My Take

As for me, I will continue to attempt to read it through (lord help me!), but I do believe I am in support of this bill. When asked today, in the comment section of a CNN article about the passing bill, why I was in support, this is the response I gave:

...As for why I am in support of this, well, that's a really good question. I've gone back and forth for awhile, but when I sat down to actually blog about this yesterday (searching for sustenance) I finally decided I was a "yay".

The funny thing is I am in support with the same opinions as many of the commenters here who are not! Our laws and regulations are out of date and not working - too many infected foods are making it to our plates. We DO need to become more educated consumers, but in the meantime shouldn't there be some sort of protection? I fear, although reading through this small unrepresentative sample of Americans commenting here you would think otherwise, that there is still an INCREDIBLE amount of trust placed in the food industry by the public as a whole. The food industry's job is not our safety, their job is to make money for their company - those are the facts. We need an UNBIASED group to come in and regulate.
I emphasize "unbiased" because I, too, have fears that the FDA may not live up to this lofty ideal, however, does that mean we should leave NO ONE to watch our backs for this lack of trust?? I say NO. I say we demand better of the FDA. I say we make sure that they are TRANSPARENT and understand that they work for us, not for big business.

So, in short, I support it because I think it leans in the right direction. I know, however, that there is still more to be done!

Let's Get To Work!

To continue briefly on that point, I believe one of the places that work needs to be done is on Farm Bill 2012. I got to the game on this Food Safety Bill a little late and have been playing catch up, but this Farm Bill will be getting its update soon. I think it is really important to stay informed and make sure that our representatives and President know exactly how we believe this money (OUR money) should be divvied up to support farms, nutrition programs, forestry, etc. I worry that so many people are going to get caught up in the food safety argument that they might unknowingly turn a blind eye to where the money goes!

I like to pay taxes.  With them I buy civilization.  

~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

I like this quote. Let's just remember that we can control the type of civilization we live in by participating in government when it is something that we hold near and dear to our hearts. To that end, if you did not have the opportunity to check out the website OpenCongress yesterday, I think it is worth a look. It is a non-profit, non-partisan public resource run by the Participatory Politics Foundation. It is truly difficult to get unbiased information these days, even if you are reading my blog you are getting my view of things, so why not check out the primary sources? They aren't always the easiest reads out there, but isn't it better to question primary sources than second and third party interpretations?

Well, I guess without intending it, this post turned into another Take Action Tuesday post! Think about it, share it and get in on the action of the world around you!