National Uniformity for Food Act

The link leads to a good Molly Ivins column that just appeared in our paper today.

This is how I discovered the National Uniformity for Food Act. This sounds like a good thing on the surface, right? We should have minimum food safety labeling standards at the federal level. Oh, but wait, this bill actually does the opposite - with a few exceptions, it establishes maximum food safety labeling requirements. From the house bill (there are four versions, but they're all substantially the same) emphasis mine-

`(1) IN GENERAL- Except as provided in subsections (c) and (d), no State or political subdivision of a State may, directly or indirectly, establish or continue in effect under any authority any notification requirement for a food that provides for a warning concerning the safety of the food, or any component or package of the food, unless such a notification requirement has been prescribed under the authority of this Act and the State or political subdivision notification requirement is identical to the notification requirement prescribed under the authority of this Act.

So who supports this bill? Well, all the food manufacturers, of course. As I was doing a google search to find out more about this bill, the little results summaries were very interesting. The positive references were all from food corporations, and the negative references were all from consumer groups, scientists and other concerned citizens.

And of course, this issue may just be a drop in the bucket, in the grand scheme of things, but it certainly illustrates the further corporatization of our federal government. Bad laws are passed, that actually harm the people, to help the bottom line for large campaign contributors . The one good thing about this bill is that the senate hasn't passed it yet, so we can still voice our disapproval, but I wouldn't be too optimistic.