People seek natural medicine to ease colds, build strong bones, improve digestion and stay healthy in many ways -- without mystery chemicals. But now small natural food and supplement makers and distributors are under attack.
Recently, Senator Leahy introduced a bill that would give the Federal Government more power to threaten, silence and penalize the small makers and distributors of natural foods and supplements.
If this legislation passes, these small natural food and supplement makers and distributors, who have harmed no one, could be sentenced for up to ten years in prison simply for telling a customer how a supplement or vitamin might help her.
Urge your senators to oppose this misguided bill and to leave small natural food and supplement makers, and consumers, alone!
Dear
[Decision Maker],
I am concerned about the provisions of S. 3767, the new Food Safety Accountability Act, which was introduced on September 13, 2010 by Senator Leahy. This bill gives the US Food and Drug Administration vastly expanded powers, and increases criminal penalties to ten years' imprisonment for any person who knowingly introduces or delivers for introduction into interstate commerce any food that is adulterated or misbranded, or for any person to adulterate or misbrand any food in interstate commerce.
[Your personal comments will be added here.]
The problem is that
the terms "misbranded" and "adulterated" are so broadly defined that they include even minor record-keeping violations, as well as selling a product whose manufacturer has cited peer-reviewed science about the product's benefits.
The FDA has a history of targeting natural health product companies under false pretenses, such as a group of cherry producers that cited Harvard research about the benefits of cherries on their website. The FDA forced the cherry producers to sign a consent decree so burdensome that it almost put them out of business. With the bigger threat of increased criminal penalties, the FDA would practically have free rein.
As one of your constituents, I support the freedom to take dietary supplements regularly, and value their help in keeping Americans healthy. This bill is a misguided attempt to protect our food supply or ensure the safety of supplements -- instead, it opens the door for natural product makers to be threatened, silenced and penalized for providing open and honest advice to their customers.
This bill won't even necessarily hold accountable a company which tainted a product, even on purpose, if the adulteration occurred before the product was sold by a distributor.
Please, Senator -- S. 3767 is a bad bill. I strongly urge you to fight and defeat it.
