On animal ID and food safety laws

If you're like me and find the idea of requiring all farm animals to be microchipped outrageously Orwellian, you'll want to check back frequently to NoNais.org, a site maintained by Vermont farmer Walter Jeffries that's full of up-to-the minute news on NAIS-related legislation and resistance.

Today, he posts an action alert about another you-gotta-be-kidding-me piece of legislation, Bill HR 4167, the "National Uniformity for Food Act," which is coming to a vote in Washington, D.C this Thursday, March 2.

With this bill, says Jeffries, "Congress is poised to forbid states from being able to require stricter guidelines for labeling of GMO/GE foods. This would mean you would not be able to know if a food is genetically engineered unless the federal Govi-Corp says you can know."

This bill is also opposed by the Consumers Union, the non-profit, independent publisher of Consumer Reports. Policy Analyst Susanna Montezemolo writes:

The bill is not a simple food-safety uniformity bill, as its proponents claim. Under the guise of national "uniformity," this bill would eliminate critical state laws that protect consumer health while leaving in place an inadequate federal system based on the lowest common denominator of protection.

As drafted, the bill would wipe out state food safety laws and regulations that are not "identical" to federal law - even in areas where the federal government has not acted. The bill could directly harm consumers by increasing their exposure to food-borne illnesses, undermining the authority of state food safety officers, and overturning state food labeling laws. In order to keep current laws in place, states would be required to go through a new costly, time-consuming, and burdensome regulatory appeals process, which the Congressional Budget Office has estimated would cost the federal government alone more than $100 million over five years. In the end, the federal government could wind up denying state requests to keep their own laws in place.

Only two days to get in touch with your Congressman about this creepy, unconstitutional piece of legislation. My rep, Ben Chandler, is one of the sponsors. Sigh....