thank the lord.

these expenditures are urgently needed because the current system holds responsibility for the sickness and deaths of millions of American citizens.

As a conservative, I'm offended that the government wants to limit feces in our foodstream.

It's abominable. Let those in the food-chain regulate it themselves!

I wonder how many members of the upper class die from food-borne illnesses. Therein may lie the lack of mystery.

Of all the e-coli, salmonella, etc. cases in the last eight years, I'd like to know how many of them would have been prevented by merely enforcing the laws we had. I have doubts that this new law would change anything with another Republican administration. But the more important issue to watch is tort reform. Right now it is the last protection for the little guy. When you have excessive awards, it is because the larger population has immense distrust for government and industry. That is the reason forum shoppers go to places like Alabama. It's not the poverty or the education. It's the rampant injustice.

Of all the cases of food-borne deaths in the US, I'd like to know how many would have been prevented by simply washing hands, whether it be the food picker, handler or preparer.

That said, I highly doubt this new set of laws will help much, if any.

If people actually washed their hands, I'm sure we could get a big decrease in the deaths from food-borne illnesses.

these expenditures are urgently needed because the defunding and incompetent, corrupt management of the current system by Republicans holds responsibility for the sickness and deaths of millions of American citizens.

Remember P.J. O'Rourke: The Republicans claim government doesn't work, then get elected and prove it.

And now, pace "ellen," use Republican incompetence and corruption to argue against government. Nice.

Taited foods make good copy. Scare the sh-t,I mean, e. coli, out of the public, and they'll tune in.

The number of food borne deaths per year pale when compared to traffic accidents and regular old flu.

When the government decides to "Do Something" it often causes more problems than it solves. Small producers, be they wooden toy makers or market gardeners, suffer from megalithic Rules, Records, and Regulations.

I know, I'm both. . .

As far as I've been able to determine, the food borne illnesses which have caused the most discomfort and deaths have arisen out of the "industrial" agricultural economy: Large, confined animal feeding operations such as pork, cattle and poultry (including confined laying hens). The recent outbreak of swine flu was traced to a large, corporate, confined feeding operation in Mexico, for example.

Congress passed legislation a year or so ago which requires that States enact legislation requiring ALL farm and ranch animals to be implanted with some sort of radio frequency tracking devices. The theory was that such devices would make it easier to track back to the points of origin any salmonella, e. coli or other large, contaminated food problems.

But Congress apparently exempted the largest herds, feed lot operations, etc., with the practical effect that small scale farmers and gardners will be the ones to incurr the costs of the program. The expense of implanting a flock of 100 chickens, and of all the chicks that may hatch, for example, is overwhelming.

It is no wonder that this program is looked upon as a ploy to destroy small scale farming and ranching.

It is not clear to me that the federal and state programs have been implemented, as yet. There is a huge opposition to it in Texas, where I live. And garden. And intend to raise goats for marketing.

I'll be interested in hearing from other commenters about this program's implementation in their States.

Democrats deride virulent e.coli strains as being a common enemy of humanity.

But Republicans call them "the base", and demand to know why liberals have such prejudice against bacterio-Americans.

It's pure multicellularism, and like multiculturalism, must be stopped!

</wingnut>

If this is HR875, then it will end up outlawing farmer's markets along with making it illegal for you go give away surplus vegetables to co-workers. It also "protects" us from food grown in other countries.

http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/03/10/could-the-food-safety-modernization-act-of-2009-be-the-end-to-farmers-markets-and-organic-farms/

After all, you can't give away your excess produce without registering as a class 3 food establishment. This bill requires million dollar fines for non-compliance. It also makes NAIS mandatory at the federal level. One of the most evil clauses in NAIS is that by registering, you permanently and irrevocably renounce your 4th Amendment rights.

It is a very, very bad bill.

The number of food borne deaths per year pale when compared to traffic accidents and regular old flu.

And of course that fact has nothing to do with the fact that the government -- responding to the will of the people it represents, I might add -- decided to "do something" back in 1906.

Thanks for the recitation of the libertarian chatechism.

Small producers, be they wooden toy makers or market gardeners, suffer from megalithic Rules, Records, and Regulations.

Not in Somalia.

hilzoy wrote: "... why we should spend over half a trillion dollars a year defending ourselves against human invaders while leaving ourselves open to bacteria that are every bit as lethal is a mystery that passeth all understanding."

Why we inflict massive, deadly epidemics of preventable disease on ourselves, and why we cause vast environmental destruction, so that we can eat huge amounts of charred flesh cut from the putrefying corpses of more than nine billion intelligent, sentient animals every year, who were subjected to miserable lives of abject suffering and then brutally slaughtered, is also a mystery that passeth all understanding.

I would like labels on every food item using genetically engineered food.

Safer food, recall and quarantine all sound good. Imposition of criminal sanctions under appropriate circumstances sounds good. The rest -- kind of sounds like a number of recent laws which mandate that producers (e.g., farmers) implement specific solutions to problems in food safety that can only be implemented on an industrial basis. Really not good. If this is true then I'd rather see no bill at all.

a mystery that passeth all understanding

Not at all. In the immortal words of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction screenplay: Bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste good.

The nation's complex food supply chain...

Don't we mean "the world's complex food supply chain" all you free traders? How are you gonna keep melamine down on the Chinese dairy farms when economists have seen the benefits of free trade?

Here's some homeland security I can believe in. It will make a difference. The Obamometer reading can only increase.

Most tainted food is either imported from abroad, or produced in giant factory farms in the U.S. Since such enormous agribusiness interests are more than capable of adapting to regulation and passing the costs on to consumers, I'm guessing that the main effect of this legislation will be increased overhead from compliance costs imposed on small family and community-supported farms.

It always pays to look behind all the goo-goo "public interest" and check out the "Baptists 'n' Bootleggers" angle on such legislation.

Watch this and connect the dots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmrF9KjlGsc