S.510 - The End Of Farmers Markets

The Senate recently voted 74 to 25 to pass cloture on the new Food Safety and Modernization Act (Senate bill 510). This means it will have 60 days from the time of the vote (November 17, 2010) for any final amendments before it is passed as law.

If passed, S510 will be a massive power grab by our Federal Government over the very food we eat. It could literally mean the end of Farmers Markets where small farmers and home gardeners trade produce with the general public. If you like buying your produce from local farmers, farmers markets, and road side produce stands instead of big corporate factory farms, then you should be outraged by this bill.

S510 is being sold to the American public as necessary to prevent food contamination. I find it sadistically ironic that the only ones who will be capable of adhering to the licensing, paperwork, and mountains of bureaucratic red tape that this bill will require of anyone selling food to the public are the big corporate factory farms. Yes, the very farms that have brought us massive recalls in meat, dairy, and vegetable produce due to contamination from unsanitary conditions. Anyone remember the recalls of E. coli contaminated meat, salmonella contaminated eggs, or contaminated peanut butter. All courtesy of big corporate factory farms bereft of common sense sanitation.

So, the very bill that is supposed to protect us from these big corporate factory farm contamination incidents is guaranteeing that they will be the only choice we will have left.

Say good bye to yet another freedom. How long will it be before they expand this power grab to cover even the very garden you have in your own back yard? You will still have the freedom to grow your own food, so cherish it. It may not last long.