With Swine flu, E-coli outbreaks, and the discussion of school-wide closings and massive vaccinations this fall, I’ve been thinking about the new food safety bill, HR 2749.

I found this interesting article about the Organic Consumer’s Association. While the OCA recognized that there are significant protections for organic farmers in the bill, they contend that the underlying causes of many food born illnesses are from factory farming and the multiple environmental problems associated with it. Unfortunately, according to the OCA, this is not addressed in the new food safety bill.

According to the OCA, HR 2749 needs to be expanded to include these components:

“1) Animals should never be fed blood, manure or slaughterhouse waste.

2) Cows need to eat grass.

3) Animals need to be spread out on enough land to absorb their waste.

4) CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) pose unacceptable risks to human health such as antibiotic resistance, incubate dangerous viruses and pathogens such as the Swine Flu and Bird Flu, contaminate the environment, institutionalize animal cruelty, and need to be phased out and shut down.”

I couldn’t agree more with these tenants. Factory farming is inhumane, bad for the earth and for our bodies. The Organic Consumer’s Association is working to end these harmful practices. I’m eager to learn more about this bill and any efforts to expand it to limit unsustainable, inhumane factory farming. Readers, do you know of any good resources out there about this? What are your thoughts about it and how to reform the industrial food system that is making us sick?

[This post was written by Katy Farber]