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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/2/905/81694
Hold Congress accountable for selling out America to food poisoners
by Rep Louise Slaughter
Thu Mar 02, 2006 at 07:00:04 AM PDT
Good morning folks. Please only recommend this diary if you think others should see the information I'm posting.
Last week I came here and shared with you the release of our new report, "America for Sale: The Costs of Republican Corruption" exposing how the Republican leadership is selling out interests of American taxpayers by allowing their friends from drug companies and oil and mining industries to write our legislation.
Well the selling out of America continues in Congress. This week, lobbyists representing giant food producers are having their Republican friends in Congress ram through the House a bill that will undermine the efforts of states like California's to improve the safety and quality of the food consumed in their communities.
The legislation, just like other recent GOP legislation (Clear Skies Initiative anyone?), is cynically titled, the "National Uniformity for Food Act." (H.R. 4167). This legislation would eliminate almost every state and local law that provides greater consumer protection than our limited federal food safety laws.
· Rep Louise Slaughter's diary :: ::
http://rep-louise-slaughter.dailykos.com/
Here is an editorial from the New York Times this morning [Mar 2] on this bill:
{{http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/o...ef=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
you must be registered, which is free }}
The driving force behind the bill seems to be the challenge to industry forces posed by California, which is leading the way in demanding consumer warnings about mercury levels in fish, lead in calcium supplements and other hazards. Other states have followed suit.
Proponents of the bill in the food industry and Congress claim that their goal is being misunderstood. If so, they should pull the bill back and prove their case at open hearings that treat the public interest as something more than a nonentity.
This legislation which will make American consumers more vulnerable to some of the more horrific practices of our food industry and will have consequences just like the costs of Republican corruption we detail in America for Sale: The Cost of Republican Corruption.
Here is one specific example of exactly how this legislation is going to hurt average Americans who live next door to you.
Think about the meat you buy every week in your local grocery stories. Right now, the Bush FDA says it's OK for the meat companies to lace our meat with carbon monoxide.
If some of the meat in supermarkets is looking rosier than it used to, the reason is that a growing number of markets are selling it in airtight packages treated with a touch of carbon monoxide to help the product stay red for weeks.
This form of ''modified atmosphere packaging,'' a technique in which other gases replace oxygen, has become more widely used as supermarkets eliminate their butchers and buy precut, ''case-ready'' meat from processing plants.
The reason for its popularity in the industry is clear. One study, conducted at Oklahoma State University for the Cattlemen's Beef Board in 2003, said retailers lost at least $1 billion a year as meat turned brown from exposure to oxygen, because, though it might still be fairly fresh and perfectly safe, consumers simply judged meat's freshness by its color.
The carbon monoxide is itself harmless at the levels being used in the treated packaging. But opponents say that the process, which is also used to keep tuna rosy, allows stores to sell meat that is no longer fresh, and that consumers would not know until they opened the package at home and smelled it. Labels do not note whether meat has been laced with carbon monoxide.
The "Food Uniformity Act" would prevent states from stopping this practice if they decided thay didn't want its citizens eating meat laced with carbon monoxide.
Hold Congress accountable for selling out America to food poisoners
by Rep Louise Slaughter
Thu Mar 02, 2006 at 07:00:04 AM PDT
Good morning folks. Please only recommend this diary if you think others should see the information I'm posting.
Last week I came here and shared with you the release of our new report, "America for Sale: The Costs of Republican Corruption" exposing how the Republican leadership is selling out interests of American taxpayers by allowing their friends from drug companies and oil and mining industries to write our legislation.
Well the selling out of America continues in Congress. This week, lobbyists representing giant food producers are having their Republican friends in Congress ram through the House a bill that will undermine the efforts of states like California's to improve the safety and quality of the food consumed in their communities.
The legislation, just like other recent GOP legislation (Clear Skies Initiative anyone?), is cynically titled, the "National Uniformity for Food Act." (H.R. 4167). This legislation would eliminate almost every state and local law that provides greater consumer protection than our limited federal food safety laws.
· Rep Louise Slaughter's diary :: ::
http://rep-louise-slaughter.dailykos.com/
Here is an editorial from the New York Times this morning [Mar 2] on this bill:
{{http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/o...ef=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
you must be registered, which is free }}
The driving force behind the bill seems to be the challenge to industry forces posed by California, which is leading the way in demanding consumer warnings about mercury levels in fish, lead in calcium supplements and other hazards. Other states have followed suit.
Proponents of the bill in the food industry and Congress claim that their goal is being misunderstood. If so, they should pull the bill back and prove their case at open hearings that treat the public interest as something more than a nonentity.
This legislation which will make American consumers more vulnerable to some of the more horrific practices of our food industry and will have consequences just like the costs of Republican corruption we detail in America for Sale: The Cost of Republican Corruption.
Here is one specific example of exactly how this legislation is going to hurt average Americans who live next door to you.
Think about the meat you buy every week in your local grocery stories. Right now, the Bush FDA says it's OK for the meat companies to lace our meat with carbon monoxide.
If some of the meat in supermarkets is looking rosier than it used to, the reason is that a growing number of markets are selling it in airtight packages treated with a touch of carbon monoxide to help the product stay red for weeks.
This form of ''modified atmosphere packaging,'' a technique in which other gases replace oxygen, has become more widely used as supermarkets eliminate their butchers and buy precut, ''case-ready'' meat from processing plants.
The reason for its popularity in the industry is clear. One study, conducted at Oklahoma State University for the Cattlemen's Beef Board in 2003, said retailers lost at least $1 billion a year as meat turned brown from exposure to oxygen, because, though it might still be fairly fresh and perfectly safe, consumers simply judged meat's freshness by its color.
The carbon monoxide is itself harmless at the levels being used in the treated packaging. But opponents say that the process, which is also used to keep tuna rosy, allows stores to sell meat that is no longer fresh, and that consumers would not know until they opened the package at home and smelled it. Labels do not note whether meat has been laced with carbon monoxide.
The "Food Uniformity Act" would prevent states from stopping this practice if they decided thay didn't want its citizens eating meat laced with carbon monoxide.
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