Thursday, March 09, 2006

Poison for sale

When do Republicans stop believing in the sovereignty of States? When it affects the bottom line of giant corporations, that's when:

House Moves to Strip Food Warning Labels

The House voted Wednesday to strip many warnings from food labels, potentially affecting alerts about arsenic in bottled water, lead in candy and allergy-causing sulfites, among others.

Pushed by food companies seeking uniform labels across state lines, the bill would prevent states from adding food warnings that go beyond federal law. States could petition the Food and Drug Administration to add extra warnings, under the bill.

This bill is going to overturn 200 state laws that protect our food supply," said Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. "Why are we doing that? What's wrong with our system of federalism?"


Aside from the sheer reprehensiblity of stripping warning labels from food products (what, exactly, is gained by doing so?), and aside from the fact that it is a graphic demonstration of how totally in thrall elected official are to big money corporations - what could be the LOGICAL justification of not allowing states to place warning labels on their own food?

No comments: