S.510, alternative medicine and natural foods

By Suzana Megles

For too long, we have let government entities like the FDA call the shots on important things which reflect on our lives. And sadly many of us believe that the FDA is too cozy with big corporations as in the case of Monsanto and others. Monsanto has almost put a stranglehold on the rights of the small farmer. We are eating genetically modified foods. I believe some call them “Frankenstein” foods. GM food is wrong in my opinion.

If it is in yours as well, please e-mail your US Senators and ask them to OPPOSE S 510, with a name that doesn’t surprise any of us who know how our government works. It’s called the FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT.

I think the name is a joke because it will give power to the FDA to call the shots. I don’t know if this includes investigating the vitamin industry, but it probably will. I say keep your mitts off of them. They are doing a good job without YOUR INTERFERENCE. If this bill passes I believe that they will stick their noses into the vitamin industry – causing them to hike prices because of the regulations they will impose. Again – my belief from what I have been reading about the FDA in the past.

And then my own personal experience. A few years back I had a growth on the bridge of my nose. I went to a dermatologist who anesthetized it and shaved it off. It came back. I then used Skin Answer, a product from alternative medicine. And it got rid of the growth for good. I told the dermatologist about this. Do you know that later, our wonderful FDA pulled the product until Lane Laboratories, the maker, conducted testing costing them and arm and a leg?  Skin Answer cream finally returned to the market under a new name – SunSpot Gel.

Sometimes I’m so mad at government interference that I could scream. Worried about our safety? While they allow the use of pesticides and hormones? While they allow the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in our food animals?

If you’re still with me – it is very easy to get a contact link to your Senator. Go to a search engine. In my case I just wrote CONTACT SENATOR SHERROD BROWN. At his link, I filled in the required information and then in the message box I wrote something very simple:

Dear Senator Brown,

Please oppose S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, which gives too much power to the FDA.

The name of the Act itself is deceptive. It would not help the small farms and businesses to stay in business. I also feel it gives too much power to corporations like Monsanto, the producers of genetically modified food which I do not approve of.

Rady Ananda wrote: “S.510 is a major threat to the local food movement. It greatly expands FDA’s jurisdiction over intrastate commerce and imposes a one-size-fits-all set of regulations that will make it more difficult for small farms and food processors to remain in business.”

But when it comes down to it – you don’t have to write much at all if you believe as we do that S.510 is a bad law. We all have to take the time to act because if we don’t then we can’t blame anybody else for what happens in government, if we don’t. Right?

Pass this on if you are concerned about the laws which so easily pass because they have big business pushing them. Let’s push back!

S.510 is to be voted on this week.