The US has several organizations which are responsible for the safety of food products including the USDA, the FDA,the CDC and the EPA. As is typical with most agencies they are underfunded, understaffed and don't communicate with each other.

Recent food poisoning outbreaks have shone a light into the world of food inspections and public safety. The plant responsible for the peanut butter recall did not even have a state health department permit, a fact which went unnoticed during the 3 inspections by the USDA certified Texas Department of Agriculture.

Peanuts, Jalapenos, Spinach, Beef, Tomatoes. The list goes on and on. The answer for some appears to be HR875 which is a bill currently being rushed through congress. Also known as the Food Safety Modernization Bill of 2009 it effectively creates a new agency with extensive powers to enforce federal guidelines taking away the power from individual states. It's reach is seemingly limitless affecting small farmers and producers through its new definition of food production facilities which can be applied to almost anything including your back yard vegetable garden.

By standardizing food production procedures to factory farming methods they will automatically force out smaller organic producers who are not able either financially or morally to comply. This will leave the public no options as to how they choose their meat, dairy, produce etc.

So who stands to benefit from this bill ? Probably the Monsantos, Tysons and Cargills of this world who probably had more than a helping hand in its creation. What could be more standardized than genetically modified food? Designer seeds with designer pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers? Patented animals? The possible financial rewards for these companies is hard to even imagine. In 2007 Monsanto had over $1B in sales of Posilac the only rGBH product allowed in the US by the FDA but banned in Canada and Europe. The failure of our food agencies is obvious. We allow additives and adulterants in our food that means we are unable to sell our products abroad yet we are about to punish the only people who still grow their food the way nature intended it.