Even in these hyper-partisan times, it seemed as though Congress could agree on something as simple as improving food safety. As Jon Stewart illustrates in the video to the left, a number of people have been sickened or even killed because of contaminated food over the past two years. Approximately 325,000 are hospitalized each year from food-borne illnesses, and 5,000 people die each year. SB 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, would theoretically improve the situation by giving the FDA more authority to improve food safety.

Among other things, SB 510 allows the government to order mandatory recalls of contaminated foods. Under current law the FDA must rely on voluntary recalls of companies. Technically, if a company wanted to keep a packaged salad on the market, even after dangerous amounts of E Coli were found, they could. In addition, the bill would give the FDA the authority to inspect food producers more often. Right now many companies are only inspected once every year.

Still, despite the obvious reasoning behind the bill, ultra-conservatives have objected once more to an apparent "government overreach." Glenn Beck claims that the United States' food system is the safest the world. The United States has one of the safer systems in the world, but this is largely because of the food safety laws passed by the "progressive" Teddy Roosevelt, who established the FDA. Beck also conveniently ignores the statistics on illnesses and deaths caused by food-borne illnesses. Others have argued that the bill will drive smaller growers and sellers out of business, but the bill only regulates large companies. Provisions within the bill also exempt smaller farms from some of the more stringent requirements.

Despite all the conservative hysteria, which included threats from Beck that the bill was about "starvation," it did manage to pass the Senate with a 73-25 vote. However, as Stewart points out, under the Constitution, all bills implementing a new tax must first be passed in the House, and the House has yet to vote on the bill. What this practically means is that the bill must be passed again through the Senate in order for it to become law. Given the limited time in the Senate, that scenario is unlikely at best.