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-- use a unique identifier for each facility for such person for such purpose."
The above requirements leave many questions unanswered and may empower the FDA to enforce them onerously against small farmers, but loosely, if at all, for agribusiness because corporate officials run the agency and decide policy.
FSEA also empowers the FDA to impose growing standards called "science-based (ones) for the safe growing, harvesting, packing, sorting, transporting, and holding of raw agricultural commodities that - (1) are from a plant or a fungus; and (2) for which the Secretary has determined that such standards minimize the risk of serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals."
This and other bill provisions mask FDA's dubious track record of serving corporate interests to the detriment of small farmers and consumers. By imposing costly and burdensome regulations, it will be easier to claim independent producers don't comply, ban their output as adulterated, and put them out of business.
Under current law, the FDA can prohibit food sales based on "credible evidence or information indicating (it) presents a threat of serious adverse health consequences or death to human or animals." FSEA's standard is based on only a "reason to believe that (the food) is adulterated, misbranded or otherwise in violation or this act." In other words, suspicion alone without proof can prohibit food sales and put small producers out of business.
FSEA also greatly increases the FDA's recall powers. It currently can request a voluntary recall, administratively detain food, or file a court order to seize and prohibit its distribution. FSEA goes further by empowering the FDA to recall food based on "reason to believe that the use or consumption of, or exposure to, (it) may cause adverse health consequences to human or animals." No proof is needed, just the word of corporate officials running these agencies for the companies they represent and will return to in high-paying jobs.
Based on "credible evidence or information," FSEA empowers the FDA to quarantine a geographic area to prevent "adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals...." Without court order and solely by notifying an "appropriate official of the State affected," food distribution and sales can be halted even by producers unrelated to the problem's source.
Currently, anyone violating FFDCA provisions can be imprisoned for up to three years if there's proof of "intent to defraud or mislead." Under FSEA, it's 10 years and fines of up to $100,000 for individuals and $7.5 million for corporations for offenses like the following - failing to register a facility, "misbranding," or not conducting a "hazard analysis" or filling out required paperwork.
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