New Food Safety Bills

[applebuilder]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California.

Hello, my question concerns the 4 new food safety bills that are currently going through congress: S. 425, H.R. 817, H.R. 875, and H.R. 759. These bills (some more than others) seem to be getting a lot of hype in reference to whether or not organic farms, farmer's markets, roadstands, small sustainable farms and the like will be negatively affected. There are concerns about the broadness of the bills and that regulations that highly restrict or even eliminate organic farming could be put in place. Some say that the paperwork and hassles involved with registering could put a lot of small farms out of business and there is talk about large corporations such as Monsanto being involved. While some of this sounds more feasible than the rest, overall it just sounds too absurd. Outlaw organic farming? I really hope this isn't the case and I don't want to panic over nothing. I'd like some educated advice from someone who is familiar with the area as well as the subject. I've already seen some documentaries about some of Monsanto's more questionable actions (most notably involving GM foods) and found out that Rosa DeLauro (who presented H.R. 875) is actually married to a Monsanto employee. I really hope this is just the conspiracy theorist's overactive mind, but in any case I'd like some reassurance from some sound advice. Please keep in mind that you are speaking to someone with very limited knowledge of legislation so if you could break down as much as possible that would be great. Thank you.

[Hot Topic]

What's the basis of your intense interest? Are you a farmer fearing that you might be put out of business? Or a person writing a paper who wants someone to basically do the "leg work" of looking up the legislation and breaking it down to "every man" terms for you? I doubt that any of the volunteers have the time, so you might be better served to go to a law library and speak to the staff there.

[applebuilder]

This is for my own interest as a consumer. I was under the impression that forums like these were intended as an alternative for people who didn't know how to best find the answer, and as I stated before I have limited knowledge of legislative law. If I thought it was as easy as reading a book I would have done so, but translation of the bill is the issue. I don't expect someone to read the bills and translate them just for the sake of this post and that is why I asked the advice of someone who has knowledge of the subject. Taking advice as is off the internet is never good practise and I always backcheck what I was told with more notable resources (such as those books you recommended), but forums like these help me understand where I should start looking and are especially useful in matters as complex as law making. For example, I read elsewhere in an article that the author was told by a lawyer that H.R. 875 does not apply to farms and farmer's markets, and that kind of translational advice was what I was looking for. If I made a mistake in posting in this free advice forum than I'm sorry.

[applebuilder]

I'm sorry, I didn't see that you recommended the library staff's advice and not the books themselves. Unfortunately I think the best they could do is point me to a book and I'd like the help of the forum to narrow my search a little more. Thanks.