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The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
...The bill is part of a broad effort backed by the Obama administration and consumer groups to tighten food-safety rules...[the bill] would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate all farms. It has provoked uproar among small farmers."There's been a battle cry in North Carolina, that the FDA is coming onto the farm," said Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees most farms, but regulates only meat, poultry and egg safety. FDA oversees other food but generally has not extended its reach to farms.
Some provisions in the bill worrying farmers include
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--empowering the FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested;
giving the FDA the authority to quarantine geographic areas, including "prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being use or that has been used to transport or hold such food";
--granting the FDA the authority to perform warrantless searches of business records; and
--establishing a "tracing system" on food for anyone who "produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports or holds such food."
Sounds like whoooooole lotta regulation to me. Have any TH readers been following this bill? Any farmers out there care to comment on how this bill might affect you?
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