WASHINGTON - The House voted Wednesday to strip many warnings from food labels, potentially affecting alerts about arsenic in bottled water, lead in candy and allergy-causing sulfites, among others.
Pushed by food companies seeking uniform labels across state lines, the bill would prevent states from adding food warnings that go beyond federal law. States could petition the Food and Drug Administration to add extra warnings, under the bill.
So if your state knows that a food potentially contains high-levels of toxins, now they can't tell you. They have to ask the federal government to do that in all 50 states. Now that makes a kind of sense, as in a way it could be seen as protection for everyone instead of a privileged few. But think, does anyone ever praise the government for putting more consumer protection in place? How many of the petitions would be granted?
About a dozen states have safety and labeling rules for fish. In California, white signs with "WARNING" in red letters tells grocery shoppers about high mercury levels in certain fish. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., displayed the placard during debate Wednesday on the House floor.
Eshoo noted the bill's supporters have personal ties to food industry lobbyists.
"This is not about consumers. This is about special interests," she said.
Republicans toadying to lobbyists? Who would have guessed? Anyway, write your representatives and tell them to quit being idiots.
UPDATE: If you want to write those idiots and tell them why this is a bad idea, here's a handy link to make it easy on yourself. Tip: it's always a good idea to personalize the form letter somewhat -Xanthippas
2 comments:
Jesus Christ...do they really think that none of us little people are paying attention? If you write you Rep. ask them one question: how does this help you? There'll be no answer. You know why? Because it doesn't! It only benefits these food companies that don't want to burdened with having to bother to warn us about what the hell is in food that we eat. At this rate, I'm going to be breathing my own carefully filtered air, drinking water I purify myself, and eating food I grow in my garden in the back, sealed off from contaminants.
Well, given the state of affairs that's not a bad idea. You know this is true, especially if you read Fast Food Nation! I get disgusted with our government when I see them taking action like this. It's obviously going to compromise what little food safety we have, all for the sake of a few pennies' worth of labels.
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