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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Bindare_Dundat on March 21, 2009, 01:34:38 AM
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I have a lot of info I want to post on this.
First the sponsors of this. I don't think democrats will ever win another election if this shit becomes law. Organic and small farming, farmers markets etc are a huge deal to the left. We've spent years fighting companies like Monsanto. This is to the left what guns are to the right. They'll shoot themselves in the face by passing this.
The Sponsors:
Introduced by: Rep. Rosa DeLauro [D-CT] HER HUSBAND WORKS FOR MONSANTO
Cosponsors [as of 2009-03-07]
Rep. Timothy Ryan [D-OH]
Rep. Gwen Moore [D-WI]
Rep. Fortney Stark [D-CA]
Rep. Bob Filner [D-CA]
Rep. Timothy Bishop [D-NY]
Rep. André Carson [D-IN]
Rep. Joe Courtney [D-CT]
Rep. Jerrold Nadler [D-NY]
Rep. Mark Schauer [D-MI]
Rep. James McGovern [D-MA]
Rep. John Tierney [D-MA]
Rep. Betty McCollum [D-MN]
Rep. Raul Grijalva [D-AZ]
Rep. Barbara Lee [D-CA]
Rep. Chellie Pingree [D-ME]
Rep. John Hall [D-NY]
Rep. Maurice Hinchey [D-NY]
Rep. Louise Slaughter [D-NY]
Rep. Eliot Engel [D-NY]
Rep. Nita Lowey [D-NY]
Rep. Janice Schakowsky [D-IL]
Del. Eleanor Norton [D-DC]
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D-FL]
Rep. Robert Wexler [D-FL]
Rep. Sam Farr [D-CA]
Rep. Marcy Kaptur [D-OH]
Rep. Kathy Castor [D-FL]
Rep. Mazie Hirono [D-HI]
Rep. Betty Sutton [D-OH]
Rep. Anna Eshoo [D-CA]
Rep. Eddie Johnson [D-TX]
Rep. Diana DeGette [D-CO]
Rep. Shelley Berkley [D-NV]
Rep. Linda Sánchez [D-CA]
Rep. James McDermott [D-WA]
Rep. Christopher Murphy [D-CT]
Rep. Sanford Bishop [D-GA]
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords [D-AZ]
Rep. Peter DeFazio [D-OR]
"Congressional Bill HR 875 was introduced by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, whose husband Stanley Greenburg works for Monsanto. The bill is essentially a giant gift package for Monsanto, mandating the criminalization of seed banking, prison terms and confiscatory fines for small farmers and 24 hour GPS tracking of their animals, and of "industrial" standards to independent farms.
The corporations want nothing less than full control of the land, the end of normal animals so they can substitute patented genetically engineered ones, and the end of normal seeds and thus of seed banking by farmers or individuals.
And now Monsanto wants its own employee, Michael Taylor (the man who forced genetically engineered rBGH on the country when the Clintons placed him over "food safety" in the 90’s) back in government, this time to act with massive police power as a "food safety tsar". HR 875 would give him immense power over what is done on every single farm in the country and massive police state power to wield over farmers.
Rosa DeLauro and Stanley Greenburg have a great deal to account for in attempting to force through a mislabeled “food safety” bill with hidden intent to wipe out farmers and harm everyone."
To get an idea of just how evil Monsanto can be, take a look at the documentry I posted, The future of Food http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=269009.0
Look at the recent massive jump in $ spent lobbying by Monsanto:
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?lname=Monsanto+Co&year=2008
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Some videos:
This chick did some good research on this:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Monsanto-s-dream-bill-HR-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090309-337.html
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I don't understand? How will they sell this to the rest of Congress as a good idea?
Fucking unreal...
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I don't understand? How will they sell this to the rest of Congress as a good idea?
Fucking unreal...
this is how:
Look at the recent massive jump in $ spent lobbying by Monsanto:
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?lname=Monsanto+Co&year=2008
Once these guys are done lobbying for Monsanto, the company will use the first opportunity they have to call in favors with Politicians they've bought through financial contributions to put lobbyists in key posts. This happened back in 05
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/agpost011105.cfm
Saxby Chambliss appointed her and of course has received financial contributions from Monsanto and massive contributions from similar business.
and like this: http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Monsanto-Lobbyist-Consumer-Advocate.htm
and like this: http://www.purefood.org/Monsanto/breeding.cfm
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also remember they had no problem buying Bill Clinton's loyalty and they have Hillary's too.
What did Bill do?
1. Bill’s put Monsanto people in at the FDA, as US Agricultural Trade Representatives, on International Biotechnology Consultive Forums, and more … (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/072600-03.htm) or http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9904b/monsantofda.html or http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Revolving-Door.htm
2. Bill’s FDA gave Monsanto permission to market rBGH (a GE bovine growth hormone), the first genetically engineered product let loose on us (or did tomatoes with fish DNA get there first?).
3. Despite reports of bovine illness and death, Bill’s FDA did not recall it or put warnings on it. Even “a very angry, very vocal nationwide consumer base” had no impact.
4. Bill’s FDA wouldn’t even label rBGH as “present” in milk.
5. When dairy farmers tried to label their own milk rBGH-free so the public could choose [more on rBGH and labelling here], Bill’s USDA threatened all dairies that their products could be confiscated from stores. Michael Taylor, USFDA Deputy Commissioner, was formerly Monsanto’s counsel.
6. How were consumers to protect their family, given Bill’s FDA enforced public blindness, except to buy only organic? But Bill’s FDA tried to close off that last escape, proposing to include in “organic” standards, “the dirty three” a: genetic engineering of plants and animals, use of irradiation in food processing and use of municipal sewage sludge as a fertilizer. The FDA backed down.
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2008/03/29083.php
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:o
Speechless
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:o
Speechless
and this:
Thursday, December 18. 2008
Obama Chooses Monsanto Buddy, Tom Vilsack, for Secretary of Agriculture
Obama praised Vilsack for being someone who would bring a “new kind of leadership to Washington.”
What kind of "New leadership" is he bringing to Washington? Let's look at what he's done for Monsanto.
* Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack's support of genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn:
http://www.gene.ch/genet/2002/Oct/msg00057.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/drugsincorn102302.cfm
* The biggest biotechnology industry group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, named Vilsack Governor of the Year. He was also the founder and former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership.
http://www.bio.org/news/pressreleases/newsitem.asp?id=200...
* When Vilsack created the Iowa Values Fund, his first poster child of economic development potential was Trans Ova and their pursuit of cloning dairy cows.
* Vilsack was the origin of the seed pre-emption bill in 2005, which many people here in Iowa fought because it took away local government's possibility of ever having a regulation on seeds- where GE would be grown, having GE-free buffers, banning pharma corn locally, etc. Representative Sandy Greiner, the Republican sponsor of the bill, bragged on the House Floor that Vilsack put her up to it right after his state of the state address.
* Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto. Sustainable ag advocated across the country were spreading the word of Vilsack's history as he was attempting to appeal to voters in his presidential bid. An activist from the west coast even made this youtube animation about Vilsack
The airplane in this animation is a referral to the controversy that Vilsack often traveled in Monsanto's jet.
*Vilsack is an ardent support of corn and soy based biofuels, which use as much or more fossil energy to produce them as they generate, while driving up world food prices and literally starving the poor.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_16176.cfm
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ag-Secretary-Announced-To-by-Jill-Hamilton-and-081216-596.html
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everyone here should call their representatives.
this should note even make it to a vote
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Good stuff.
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Why would the left even consider this? They're bought and paid for I assume? (Didn't read whole thread).
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Ridiculous!
Every rep in this list should be flogged and cast out of congress... They are certainly not doing the will of the people here.
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Is there a link to the bill?
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Is there a link to the bill?
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875)
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http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875)
Thanks. Pretty long. Which section is creating the fuss? I looked at the purpose and it looks fine (don't have time to read the entire thing):
(b) Purposes- The purposes of this Act are--
(1) to establish an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to be known as the ‘Food Safety Administration’ to--
(A) regulate food safety and labeling to strengthen the protection of the public health;
(B) ensure that food establishments fulfill their responsibility to process, store, hold, and transport food in a manner that protects the public health of all people in the United States;
(C) lead an integrated, systemwide approach to food safety and to make more effective and efficient use of resources to prevent food-borne illness;
(D) provide a single focal point within the Department of Health and Human Services for food safety leadership, both nationally and internationally; and
(E) provide an integrated food safety research capability, including internally generated, scientifically and statistically valid studies, in cooperation with academic institutions and other scientific entities of the Federal and State governments;
(2) to transfer to the Food Safety Administration the food safety, labeling, inspection, and enforcement functions that, as of the day before the date of the enactment of this Act, are performed by various components of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
(3) to modernize and strengthen the Federal food safety law to ensure more effective application and efficient management of the laws for the protection and improvement of public health; and
(4) to establish that food establishments have responsibility to ensure that all stages of production, processing, and distribution of their products or products under their control satisfy the requirements of this law.
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Thanks. Pretty long. Which section is creating the fuss? I looked at the purpose and it looks fine (don't have time to read the entire thing):
(b) Purposes- The purposes of this Act are--
(1) to establish an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to be known as the ‘Food Safety Administration’ to--
(A) regulate food safety and labeling to strengthen the protection of the public health;
(B) ensure that food establishments fulfill their responsibility to process, store, hold, and transport food in a manner that protects the public health of all people in the United States;
(C) lead an integrated, systemwide approach to food safety and to make more effective and efficient use of resources to prevent food-borne illness;
(D) provide a single focal point within the Department of Health and Human Services for food safety leadership, both nationally and internationally; and
(E) provide an integrated food safety research capability, including internally generated, scientifically and statistically valid studies, in cooperation with academic institutions and other scientific entities of the Federal and State governments;
(2) to transfer to the Food Safety Administration the food safety, labeling, inspection, and enforcement functions that, as of the day before the date of the enactment of this Act, are performed by various components of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
(3) to modernize and strengthen the Federal food safety law to ensure more effective application and efficient management of the laws for the protection and improvement of public health; and
(4) to establish that food establishments have responsibility to ensure that all stages of production, processing, and distribution of their products or products under their control satisfy the requirements of this law.
Nice to see you siding with the Dems for a change... Of course it's a stupid bill that shouldn't be even be created during this time, but of course, if you're going to agree with a Dem proposed bill, you might as well make it a stupid one.
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Nice to see you siding with the Dems for a change... Of course it's a stupid bill that shouldn't be even be created during this time, but of course, if you're going to agree with a Dem proposed bill, you might as well make it a stupid one.
::) I didn't side with anyone. I don't have an opinion yet. Which section of the bill do you have a problem with?
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::) I didn't side with anyone. I don't have an opinion yet. Which section of the bill do you have a problem with?
The establishment of a new administrative agency... I don't think we need another one and especially right now with the things going on... This is a waste of time.
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The establishment of a new administrative agency... I don't think we need another one and especially right now with the things going on... This is a waste of time.
I see. In other words, you didn't read the bill. The topic of the thread, and source of outrage, is criminalizing of "organic farming."
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I see. In other words, you didn't read the bill. The topic of the thread, and source of outrage, is criminalizing of "organic farming."
I did read the bill Beach...
From the bill I read.
SEC. 101. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOOD SAFETY ADMINISTRATION.
(a) Establishment-
(1) IN GENERAL- There is established in the Department of Health and Human Services an agency to be known as the ‘Food Safety Administration’.
(2) HEAD OF THE ADMINISTRATION- The Administration shall be headed by the Administrator of Food Safety, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of 5 years, and who may be reappointed.
(3) DELEGATION- All the authorities and responsibilities assigned to the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the food safety law are hereby assigned to the Administrator.
I think it's ridiculous to have another agency created... it's a waste of money.
I could copy even more crap out of the bill, but this part was enough to make me realize it was stupid.
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Here, from the bill LOL...
(1) to determine whether the food is contaminated<==(INSECTS), adulterated, or otherwise not in compliance with the food safety law; or
(c) Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator <==(MONSANTO LOBBYIST), in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture<==(MONSANTO ADVOCATE) and representatives of State departments of agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish science- based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall--
(1) consider all relevant hazards, including those occurring naturally<==(INSECTS),and those that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced;
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Seeds - How To
Criminalize Them
By Linn Cohen-Cole
3-20-9
HR 875: SHORT TITLE.-This Act may be cited as the "Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009"
Full text version pdf of HR 875: http:// frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi? dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h875ih.txt.pdf ]
-Wisdom says stop a bill that is broad as everything yet more vague even than it is broad.
-Wisdom says stop a bill that comes with massive penalties but allows no judicial review.
-Wisdom says stop a bill with everything unspecified and actually waits til next year for an unspecified "Administrator" to decide what's what.
-Where we come from, that's called a blank check. Who writes laws like that? "Here, do what you want about whatever you want and here's some deadly punishments to make it stick."
-Wisdom says know who wrote that bill and be forewarned.
-Wisdom says wake up.
Here's the bill. Let's use our imaginations and extrapolate from the little bit it reveals and from the reality we know.
SEC. 206. FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITIES.
(a) Authorities- In carrying out the duties of the Administrator and the purposes of this Act, the Administrator shall have the authority, with respectto food production facilities, to--
(1) visit and inspect food production facilities in the United Statesand in foreign countries to determine if they are operating in compliance with the requirements of the food safety law;
(2) review food safety records as required to be kept by the Administrator under section 210 and for other food safety purposes;
(3) set good practice standards to protect the public and animal health and promote food safety;
(4) conduct monitoring and surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the environment, as appropriate;
(5) collect and maintain information relevant to public health andfarm practices.
(b) Inspection of Records- A food production facility shall permit the Administrator upon presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner, to have access to and abilityto copy all records maintained by or on behalf of such food production establishment in any format (including paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary to assist the Administrator--
(1) to determine whether the food is contaminated, adulterated, or otherwise not in compliance with the food safety law; or
(2) to track the food in commerce.
(c) Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture andrepresentatives of State departments of agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish science- based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall--
(1) consider all relevant hazards, including those occurring naturally,and those that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced;
(2) require each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards;
(3) include with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting,and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment... and water;
Ah, such a little paragraph, and so much evil packed in it. Notice they mention harvesting, sorting and storage operations? Notice they never mention seeds but they are precisely what those words cover.
Now, watch how they will be able to easily criminalize seed banking and all holding of seeds. First, to follow how this will be done, you must understand that:
1. there is a small list inside the FDA called "sources of seed contamination" and
2. the FDA has now defined "seed" as food,
3. so seeds can now be controlled through "food safety."
Those seeds (so far) include:
*seeds eaten raw such as flax, poppy sesame, etc.;
*sprouting seeds such as wheat, beans, alfalfa, most greens, etc.;
* seeds pressed into oils such as corn, sunflower, canola, etc.;
*seeds used as animal feed such as soy ....
That includes most seeds. It may even be all seed, given how they are skilled at 'new' definitions.
And what are the "sources of seed contamination" inside the FDA? They include only six little items:
-agricultural water
-manure (but not chemical pesticides or fertilizers)
-harvesting,
- transporting equipment
- seed cleaning (sorting) equipment
-seed storage (storing) facilities
Did you know that seed cleaning equipment is THE single most critical piece of equipment for sustainable agriculture? It is how we collect organic seed. It is the machinery used after the season, when plants "go to seed," to separate out (sort) the seeds from the plant material so the farmer can collect (harvest) and then save (put in storage) seed for the next year at little cost. With his own seed, the farmer also stays free of patented, genetically engineered, corporately privatized seeds.
This year, 2009, one item on the "sources of seed contamination" list is suddenly illegal in some parts of this country - seed cleaning equipment.
To get the drift, perhaps you need to know that the people who clean seed are being wiped out, as well.
How can they make such vital equipment illegal? Quietly, first of all, so as not to alert organic farmers who have a lot of political ties. And by saying it contaminates food. And by applying their innocent and reasonable sounding "minimum standards."
"Contaminate" is their favorite word since the public fears the deadly contamination that industry itself - not farmers - has caused. That fear is valuable. Scare the public and it is easy to get "food safety standards" set without anyone reading them. 39 progressive co-sponsors leap on, thinking this is about "food safety." But it is only about the use of "food safety," not the reality of it
For to eliminate seed cleaning equipment, the FDA simple set minimum "food safety" standards for seed cleaning (the simple separation of seed from plant) such that a farmer would need a million toa million and a half dollar building and/or equipment to meet the new requirements ... per line of seed.
On the ground, where reality lives, a farmer in the midwest who has been seed cleaning flax for 40 years with his hand made seed cleaner now can't sell his flax on the market anymore. Never mind there are NO instances of anyone ever having gotten sick from seed cleaning equipment. And a farmer in another part of the midwest who has been cleaning wheat, corn and soy for years with one single perfectly fine piece of equipment would now need three to four and half million dollars for three separate pieces of equipment, in order to satisfy the "food safety" standards.
The FDA isn't so high-bar setting when it comes to other things like melamine in baby formula. Though it has proven to sicken and kill infants, initially the FDA just denied the melamine was in all the corporate baby formula but when people found evidence that it was, the FDA then quickly supplied a "food safety" standard that defined whatever level of melamine that was in the formula as fine.
This game playing about "food safety" standards - one to eliminate farmers by setting the bar so high no one can climb, and one to protect industry by setting the bar so low nothing need be done - is nothing new but now it is being suddenly extended to seeds. And it comes with penalties that make bankrupting farmers in an instant, very easy.
The effort to eliminate both seed cleaners and seed cleaning equipment tips us off to who is behind this (shhh) and to this new means of controlling seeds andmakes it possible to see just a few suspect words in this bill, and sense where things are heading.
Organic farmers are not aware of any of this happening. It appears the organic community is being treated with kid gloves until HR 875 and related bills should be passed, coddled so they don't get wise to what's afoot. And they are too disconnected from traditional farmers to be aware of how the USDA has been tromping on them for years.
So organic farmers have missed the handwriting on the wall for themselves.
Plus, plain ole farmers have a history of no one listening to them, which is too bad in general but now it's blatantly dangerous because it is they who are the ones bringing the warning that these bills are not just bad but deadly. The organic community, lulled by its own seeming safety, hasn't heard or understood.
But given what just happened with seed cleaning equipment (sorting), the method and the intent are exposed. "Food safety" is the weapon, with public fear, kept at a high pitch, as the driver. After which, those running this game only need to set the bar at a "food safety" level impossible to meet and apply horrendous punishments for not complying. Farmer is either crushed by that pincer move, or quits. Either way, his land is up for grabs.
And those severe punishments are essential to control groups which will see the whole thing for what it is - insane in terms of farming and anything to do with health, a threat to survival, and driven solely by profit and power.
So, one crucial piece of equipment (seed cleaning) is illegal now and without most people realizing. And simply because a single "foods safety" bar has been raised.
In time, as more and more farmers are forbidden from using their equipment, significant sources of organic seeds will begin to dry up, at which point the organic community would begin to ask what was going on. By then, it will be too late.
Why? Because look at the last item on the list - (seed) storing facilities.
Farmers, gardeners, seed saving exchanges, seed companies, scientific seed projects, and seed banks, all require sorting. All are working overtime to protect biodiversity that is rapidly disappearing specifically because of genetic engineering. As Monsanto began reducing access to seeds, people around the world have worked hard to compensate.
But now the effort is to take over the whole game, going after even these small sources of biodiversity - by simply defining seeds as food and then all farmers' affordable mechanisms for harvesting (collecting), sorting (seed cleaning) andstoring (seed banking or saving) as too dirty to be safe for food.
Set the standard for "food safety" and certification high enough that no one can afford it and punish anyone who tries to save seed in ways that have worked fine for thousands of years, with a million dollar a day fine and/or ten years in prison, and presto, you have just criminalized seed banking.
The penalties are tremendous, the better to protect us from nothing dangerous whatsoever, but to make monopoly over seed absolutely absolute. One is left with control over farmers, an end to seed exchanges, an end to organic seed companies, an end to university programs developing nice normal hybrids, and an end to democracy - reducing us to abject dependence on corporations for food and gratitude even for genetically engineered food and at any price.
When you know that Monsanto, with the help of the US government, plundered ancient and rare seed banks in Iraq that held seeds with a genetic heritage (a biohistory belonging to all of us) going back 1000s of years and then made it a crime for farmers there to collect or use their own normal andnon-patented seeds off their own land, you see how extreme the intent to control is.
Now, perhaps it is possible to see how the identical thing is being done here, only it comes in a heavily, heavily disguised way - through "food safety" that isn't "food safety" at all - and quietly sitting in only one tiny little paragraph within a very large bill (and with no reference to seeds at all).
The Iraqis are now utterly at the mercy of Monsanto and the US for survival itself and will have to pay whatever prices are set for food. They can no longer just grow their own and be free people. So, no matter what form of government they may ever have, as long as this is true, they are now enslaved because the control over them is that extreme. Kissinger was right - control food and you control people.
We are inches from this ourselves. The Left needs to wake up.
In Afghanistan, people are buying and planting beans from America which at the end of the season have nothing whatever inside, the pods are empty. In Equador, the potatoes there do not develop eyes so can't be planted next season to grow potatoes.
Biotech's claim to care about feeding starving multitudes is belied by its blocking human access to normal seeds and its terminator technology (empty beans). Monopoly is monopoly is monopoly. And at this level, and when it comes to seeds which are life itself, monopoly terminates democracy as well as beans.
This trick of setting bars above any ability to be in the game was done to blacks and in realizing this, we must hold Obama accountable for pushing these bills which are profound civil and human rights abuses.
There are three other items of the list which surely will be controlled as well. In toto,that little list of six items (agricultural water, manure, harvesting, transporting and seed cleaning equipment, and seed storage facilities) contains the pieces to deconstruct farming itself,
Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
http://www.usalone.net/cgi-bin/oen.cgi?qnum=7467
Immediately withdraw HR 875, SR 425, HR 814, HR 759, and all related bills. They are intended to destroy small farmers and will trap us into GMOs
Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers
http://www.usalone.net/cgi-bin/transparency.cgi?qnum=oen7467
Linn Cohen-Cole
Related
Is Organic Farming Killer Rep. Rosa DeLauro Becoming the Most Hated Woman in America? (I Hope So) Mar. 20, 2009
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/ rosadelaurooppositiongro wing20mar09.shtml
Goodbye Farmers Markets, CSAs, and Roadside Stands by Linn Cohen-Cole (Mar. 19, 2009)
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/cohen- colegoodbyefarmersmarket s03mar09.shtml
Banning Organic Farming & Regulating Home Gardening, HR 875 & S 425 (Mar. 13, 2009)
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/ HR875andS425organicfarmi ngban13mar09.shtml
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I just sent this vid and The Future of Food vid page (on youtube) to a guy at my newspaper.
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I just sent this vid and The Future of Food vid page (on youtube) to a guy at my newspaper.
sweet ;D
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I just sent this vid and The Future of Food vid page (on youtube) to a guy at my newspaper.
And a guy at another newspaper.
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John Boehner's response to my email.
Dear #####:
Thank you for contacting me regarding food safety. It is good to hear from you.
The United States has one of the safest food supplies in the world. Jurisdiction over food safety is split between the Agriculture Department's Food Safety Inspection service (FSIS) and the Health and Human Services Department's Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FSIS is responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. The FDA is responsible for ensuring that all domestic and imported food products -- except for meats and poultry -- are safe, nutritious, wholesome, and accurately labeled. Examples of FDA-regulated foods are produce, dairy products, seafood, and processed foods. FDA has jurisdiction over meats from animals or birds that are not under the regulatory jurisdiction of FSIS. FDA shares responsibility for the safety of eggs with FSIS.
I am confident that the FSIS and FDA in conjunction with the many companies that raise and produce the food we eat can continue to ensure the safety and wholesomeness of the food supply. Some of my fellow lawmakers have proposed eliminating FSIS and FDA and creating a single agency for insuring food safety. While there is no harm in exploring the creation of such an agency, I would be reluctant to abandon a system that is working.
Thank you again for contacting me with your thoughts. Please don't hesitate to inform me of your concerns in the future. To sign up for email updates, I invite you to visit my website at http://johnboehner.house.gov/Forms/Form/?ID=89.
Sincerely,
John A. Boehner
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Monsento is not trying to drive you out, but to control their own interest.
We had multiple cases of farmers reusing roundup ready canola seeds.
They claimed that were volunteering crops and that the government and Monsento had no control over their usage.
These guys lost in court and had to pay hefty fines.
I don't know about the regulations in the US but in Canada certified Organic farms are already heavily regulated.
But most of these regulations are through the Certifying committees.
Also that bill is written to target other countries more then the US.
Canada is ready to take these clauses up with NAFTA and the WTO panels if it comes to that.
The United States has one of the safest food supplies in the world. Jurisdiction over food safety is split between the Agriculture Department's Food Safety Inspection service (FSIS) and the Health and Human Services Department's Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FSIS is responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. The FDA is responsible for ensuring that all domestic and -- except for meats and poultry -- are safe, nutritious, wholesome, and accurately labeled. Examples of FDA-regulated foods are produce, dairy products, seafood, and processed foods. FDA has jurisdiction over meats from animals or birds that are not under the regulatory jurisdiction of FSIS. FDA shares responsibility for the safety of eggs with FSIS.
Thanks. Pretty long. Which section is creating the fuss? I looked at the purpose and it looks fine (don't have time to read the entire thing):
(b) Purposes- The purposes of this Act are--
(1) to establish an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to be known as the ‘Food Safety Administration’ to--
(A) regulate food safety and labeling to strengthen the protection of the public health;
(B) ensure that food establishments fulfill their responsibility to process, store, hold, and transport food in a manner that protects the public health of all people in the United States;
(C) lead an integrated, systemwide approach to food safety and to make more effective and efficient use of resources to prevent food-borne illness;
(D) provide a single focal point within the Department of Health and Human Services for food safety leadership, both nationally and internationally; and
(E) provide an integrated food safety research capability, including internally generated, scientifically and statistically valid studies, in cooperation with academic institutions and other scientific entities of the Federal and State governments;
(2) to transfer to the Food Safety Administration the food safety, labeling, inspection, and enforcement functions that, as of the day before the date of the enactment of this Act, are performed by various components of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
(3) to modernize and strengthen the Federal food safety law to ensure more effective application and efficient management of the laws for the protection and improvement of public health; and
(4) to establish that food establishments have responsibility to ensure that all stages of production, processing, and distribution of their products or products under their control satisfy the requirements of this law.
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Monsento is not trying to drive you out, but to control their own interest.
We had multiple cases of farmers reusing roundup ready canola seeds.
They claimed that were volunteering crops and that the government and Monsento had no control over their usage.
These guys lost in court and had to pay hefty fines.
Monsanto operating in their own interest is exactly right. Are orangic farms in their interest? lol Is it in their interest to see regulations requiring pest control? Is it in their interest to deal with thousands of small farms or a few big international agri-businesses that do everything the same way, the monsanto way? What happened to the small farms in the EU nations and why on earth would we expect the same not to happen here?
I don't know about the regulations in the US but in Canada certified Organic farms are already heavily regulated.
But most of these regulations are through the Certifying committees.
There is organic and there is certified organic here, but that's not what we're talking about or what this bill deals with. Did you read it? It does in fact open the door to regulation that will essentially impose rules that will make the term "organic" pointless. With pesticide and fertilizer mandantes on all farmers, the only organic you'll get is on your own property and it better only be for personal use. The moment you take your extra harvest down to the farmers market for sale, you fall under this bill and you'll be fined one million bucks per violation per day.
Also that bill is written to target other countries more then the US.
exactly where did you get the notion that other countries are targeted "more" in the bill, especially in the major concerns voiced about the bill?
Canada is ready to take these clauses up with NAFTA and the WTO panels if it comes to that.
The United States has one of the safest food supplies in the world. Jurisdiction over food safety is split between the Agriculture Department's Food Safety Inspection service (FSIS) and the Health and Human Services Department's Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FSIS is responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. The FDA is responsible for ensuring that all domestic and -- except for meats and poultry -- are safe, nutritious, wholesome, and accurately labeled. Examples of FDA-regulated foods are produce, dairy products, seafood, and processed foods. FDA has jurisdiction over meats from animals or birds that are not under the regulatory jurisdiction of FSIS. FDA shares responsibility for the safety of eggs with FSIS.
Since people love this guy now ::) listen to this:
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I have still not heard back from the one newspaper guy that I sent this to that I usually always get a response from (the other one I've never sent anything to before).
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bump for TA
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Now they've come up with HR 759 ::)
Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h759/show
Clearly more shit written by big agriculture and Monsanto. The small guys will drop like crazy, Monsanto will have their products essentially required and the other big ag companies will be buying up the little guys for pennies on the dollar.
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This has loony conspiracy theory ALL OVER it.
I read the entire bill and the nonsense being discussed in this thread does not apply.
Much ado about nothing. Nonsense.
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Myth or Fact? A Bill in Congress Will Mean the End of Organic Farming
Debunking 6 viral myths about H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act 0f 2009.
Myths and Facts: H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act
MYTH: H.R. 875 "makes it illegal to grow your own garden" and would result in the "criminalization of the backyard gardener."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens. This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.
MYTH: H.R. 875 would mean a "goodbye to farmers markets" because the bill would "require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would result in farmers markets being regulated, penalized any fines, or shut down. Farmers markets would be able to continue to flourish under the bill. In fact, the bill would insist that imported foods meet strict safety standards to ensure that unsafe imported foods are not competing with locally-grown foods.
MYTH: H.R. 875 would result in the "death of organic farming."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would stop organic farming. The National Organic Program (NOP) is under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Safety Modernization Act only addresses food safety issues under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
MYTH: The bill would implement a national animal ID system.
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would implement a national animal ID system. Animal identification issues are under the jurisdiction of the USDA. The Food Safety Modernization Act addresses issues under the jurisdiction of the FDA.
MYTH: The bill is supported by the large agribusiness industry.
FACT: No large agribusiness companies have expressed support for this bill. This bill is being supported by several Members of Congress who have strong progressive records on issues involving farmers markets, organic farming, and locally-grown foods (Barbara Lee, etc.). Also, H.R. 875 is the only food safety legislation that has been supported by all the major consumer and food safety groups, including:
Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Food & Water Watch
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Safe Tables Our Priority
Trust for America’s Health
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go figure this would be your response, you're either the biggest speed reader of all time or you just did a quicky copy and past of the first thing you could find. I knew you wouldn't take this serious. Instead of having a discussion, you just off and pull the conspiracy wacko card ::) you're a Party loyalist, 100% the only reason you didn't like some of the things Obama did was because Bush started it. lol...
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go figure this would be your response, you're either the biggest speed reader of all time or you just did a quicky copy and past of the first thing you could find. I knew you wouldn't take this serious. Instead of having a discussion, you just off and pull the conspiracy wacko card ::) you're a Party loyalist, 100% the only reason you didn't like some of the things Obama did was because Bush started it. lol...
Again, I read the entire bill. It is not long at all. Hope this helps. 8)
Here I will link you:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875
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go figure this would be your response, you're either the biggest speed reader of all time or you just did a quicky copy and past of the first thing you could find. I knew you wouldn't take this serious. Instead of having a discussion, you just off and pull the conspiracy wacko card ::) you're a Party loyalist, 100% the only reason you didn't like some of the things Obama did was because Bush started it. lol...
Seriously, I perused your posts and found them to be irrational, devoid of any evidence and certainly not grounded in any fact. What is left are only Conspiracy Theories or Media Processing Bias, where you make a pre-conceived conclusion and look for anything to support it in any interpretative way.
You are not basing your rebuttal on anything but feelings and emotions or one of the two above or both.
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Seriously, I perused your posts and found them to be irrational, devoid of any evidence and certainly not grounded in any fact. What is left are only Conspiracy Theories or Media Processing Bias, where you make a pre-conceived conclusion and look for anything to support it in any interpretative way.
You are not basing your rebuttal on anything but feelings and emotions or one of the two above or both.
I think MB is right, you would sniff Obama's Jock Strap ::) Dude, I'm not being irrational. Facts are facts and when similar regulations hit places in the EU, Small guys dropped left and right. There is nothing irrational about what I'm saying. Can you tell me that Small farmers were not adversly affected in the EU by this type of regulation and enforcement? Please, by all means, prove me wrong if you can. You're the one being an irrational dem asslicker.
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HR875 Radio Show Caller Opinions and Questions Part 3 of 3 on the Thom Hartmann show 3/26/2009
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Debunking 6 viral myths about H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act 0f 2009.[/size]
Myths and Facts: H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act
MYTH: H.R. 875 "makes it illegal to grow your own garden" and would result in the "criminalization of the backyard gardener."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens. This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.
Fact: this isn't the part that worries me, they wouldn't have the logistics to do this even if they wanted to. Fact, it WILL regulate, penalize and probably shut down MANY SMALL farmers
MYTH: H.R. 875 would mean a "goodbye to farmers markets" because the bill would "require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would result in farmers markets being regulated, penalized any fines, or shut down. Farmers markets would be able to continue to flourish under the bill. In fact, the bill would insist that imported foods meet strict safety standards to ensure that unsafe imported foods are not competing with locally-grown foods.
FACT: Farmers markets would be greatly effected unless they're giving the food away and the last I checked they are not. Since most of the people who show up to farmers markets are the same small farmers that will be adversly effected by the bill in the first place, it's a freaking no shit shirlock ::)
MYTH: H.R. 875 would result in the "death of organic farming."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would stop organic farming. The National Organic Program (NOP) is under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Safety Modernization Act only addresses food safety issues under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
FACT! While there is no language that says they'll directly outlaw organic farming, there is language that opens the door to changing the parameters of what is and isn't allowed which will effectively destroy it. Oh I'm sure they'll still have products labeled organic, it just won't really be organichttp://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=271255.msg3816356#msg3816356
MYTH: The bill would implement a national animal ID system.
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would implement a national animal ID system. Animal identification issues are under the jurisdiction of the USDA. The Food Safety Modernization Act addresses issues under the jurisdiction of the FDA.
MYTH: The bill is supported by the large agribusiness industry.
FACT: No large agribusiness companies have expressed support for this bill. This bill is being supported by several Members of Congress who have strong progressive records on issues involving farmers markets, organic farming, and locally-grown foods (Barbara Lee, etc.). Also, H.R. 875 is the only food safety legislation that has been supported by all the major consumer and food safety groups, including:
FACT, I haven't seen anybody say that big ag openly supports this, of course they do not openly support this, no shit huh... That doesn't mean they didn't help write this thing and they probably did. This kind of relationship happens all the time and we DON'T usually know about it. Fact! As I said before, this would be the first time in history that the biggest players in an industry were silent on a bill that will create another agency to regulate them and fine the hell out of them... I mean wow, an industry silent on this? There you have the support right there TA. Find me the big ag companies against this? In fact most of them have given pretty heavy to the bill's sponsor and most of the cosponsors I've checked. hmmmm... Clearly there is a payoff... That's simple. Big Agri business benefited huge when similar regulation was put on EU farmers. The little guys dropped like crazy unable to keep up with requirements and standards that are a small investment to a large company but a major pain in the ass to a SMALL FARMER!...
Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Food & Water Watch
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Safe Tables Our Priority
Trust for America’s Health
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More from Thom Hartmann's show:
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http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/organic.asp
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http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/would_a_new_bill_in_congress_make.html
Talk about Internet hysteria. This bill, H.R. 875, introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), has sparked chain e-mails, blog postings and other exclamation-point-filled rants (like the one above), claiming that the legislation targets organic farmers, benefits manufacturers of genetically engineered seeds, and threatens to uproot backyard vegetable gardens across the country. It doesn't.
DeLauro introduced H.R. 875, called the Food Safety Modernization Act, on Feb. 4, and it was promptly referred to House committees. There's no indication as to when it may be brought to the floor for consideration, despite what some blog posts maintain. The stated purpose of the bill is “to establish an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to be known as the 'Food Safety Administration,' " which would oversee food safety and labeling in the U.S., creating a single government entity in charge of preventing food-borne illnesses. DeLauro's press release announcing the legislation, introduced after the peanut butter salmonella outbreak in the U.S., said that “FDA would be split into an agency responsible for food safety (the Food Safety Administration) and another responsible for regulation of drugs and devices. This move creates an agency solely focused on protecting the public through better regulation of the food supply.”
The bill has 41 cosponsors and has been endorsed by major food and consumer safety organizations, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Food & Water Watch, and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit organization that advocates for clean water and safe food and is headed by a woman who used to work for Public Citizen, the consumer group founded by Ralph Nader. It has posted a fact sheet on H.R. 875 on its site, disputing rumors about "food police."
The legislation stipulates that the new FSA (Food Safety Administration) would set safety regulations for food establishments and "food production facilities" and would be able to inspect such facilities. Its regulations also would pertain to imported foods. The e-mail posted above and others say that the definition of "food production facility" is so broad that it could include backyard gardens. The bill says: "The term 'food production facility' means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation." It seems quite a stretch to think that anyone's personal vegetable patch would be considered a "farm, ranch or orchard." First Lady Michelle Obama showed no signs of concern last week as she broke ground on a sizable 1,100-foot garden plot on the White House lawn. Organic, of course.
The e-mail above argues that DeLauro's bill "[e]ffectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic." We're not sure how exactly a bill would criminalize something it doesn't mention, but the e-mail is correct in that the word "organic" is nowhere to be found. Another Internet posting more alarmingly claims: "Bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to 'make sure there is no danger to the public food supply.' " But the quoted phrase isn't in this bill. Nor is there any mention of chemical versus organic fertilizers or "poisonous insect sprays," or, for that matter, pesticides in general.
The only mention of fertilizers we could find was this, requiring that the FSA create regulations to: "include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water." The idea that "fertilizer use" would not include organic fertilizers is pure speculation well beyond what the legislation calls for.
Also, organic farming is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under its "National Organic Program," not the FDA.
And It Gets Even More Hysterical
E-mails and blog postings claim that the agricultural giant Monsanto will benefit greatly from the bill; some say the often-protested company was the main lobbyist, and still others say DeLauro's husband "works for Monsanto." He doesn't.
DeLauro's spouse, Stanley Greenberg, is chairman and CEO of Greenberg-Quinlan Research Inc., a public issues research and polling firm. The company does surveys. And public relations work. Monsanto was one of the firm's clients. Greenberg is a pollster, not a lobbyist or a Monsanto employee, and he just released a memoir on his life as a pollster to five world leaders, including Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.
Also, there is nothing in the bill about "GPS tracking" of animals, as the e-mail above states, and not a peep about "seed banking."
Small Farm Concern
Small farmers, however, may well have concerns about this bill. Food & Water Watch's fact sheet acknowledges that there's always a worry that government regulation of food production will adversely affect small farms, which can't absorb the possible costs of abiding by regulation as easily as big food producers can. "The dilemma of how to regulate food safety in a way that prevents problems caused by industrialized agriculture but doesn’t wipe out small diversified farms is not new and is not easily solved," the site says. It goes on to say that other bills, not H.R. 875, that have been introduced could create problems for small operations, such as one that requires electronic record-keeping and registration fees with the FDA.
Another group called the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which supports "sustainable farming and direct farm-to-consumer transactions," raises several concerns about DeLauro's legislation and how it could affect small farms and in particular, producers of raw milk, which the FDA has declared to be unfit for consumption. But the group states that "much of what has circulated the internet is not accurate," and nowhere in its criticism of the legislation does it say organic farming would be outlawed or home gardeners would face regulations.
We suppose in the grand realm of all that's possible, or more likely a futuristic B movie, federal bureaucrats could decide that public safety calls for inspections of every backyard garden in the nation, leading everyday citizens to surreptitiously cultivate tomato plants in a closet with a sunlamp, lest they get busted by the cops. But we kinda doubt it.
– by Lori Robertson
Full disclosure: The author has an organic vegetable garden.
Sources
111th Congress, 1st session. H.R. 875.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn). “DeLauro Assails Full-Scale Breakdown of Food Safety System and Introduces New FDA Reform Legislation,” press release, 4 Feb. 2009.
Food & Water Watch. Background on H.R. 875, accessed 26 March 2009.
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. HR 875 – The Federal Take-Over of Food Regulation, 13 March 2009.
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Flawed Food Safety Bills in Congress, accessed 26 March 2009.
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http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=271255.msg3962517#msg3962517
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Julian Rose exposes the scandal of EU's deliberate policy to get rid of family farms for the benefit of the corporations and gives a personal account of his battle with the GMO dragon that threatens to devastate rural Poland.
by Julian Rose
(ISIS.org)
Poland is accustomed to fighting rearguard actions to throw off unwelcome invaders. Throughout the 19th century period of “The Partitians” - occupation by Russia and then Austria – the Poles kept in their hearts a longing for a day when they could be freed from the yoke of repression and find genuine independence. After finally succeeding in 1918 to rid themselves of the invaders, they were soon engulfed in conflict again, this time with the invading Nazi Germany. They responded with the 1939-45 resistance movement that sprouted up in the fields, small towns and main cities.
As many will know, the Poles fought alongside the British throughout the Second World War - a time when Poland’s government in exile had its head quarters in London. I remember quite well when I was a boy a Polish exile who lived in our village (Whitchurch-on-Thames) coming regularly to my family home and diligently cleaning the chimneys. He spoke little, but did a very thorough job.
It was only in 1989 that Poland finally threw off the last repressive regime of occupation in their land, the Russian communists. So, the last nineteen years of freedom have been been the longest historical period of non-occupation in a very long time.
The Nobel prize winning author Thomas Mann, who fled Nazi Germany before World War Two, was reported to have remarked just before his death in 1969 that although the Nazis had been defeated, he feared that fascism had not: “I am concerned about the weak position of freedom in post world war Europe and North America,” he said.
We can surely identify with his concern. ‘The weak position of freedom’ is evident throughout our increasingly pacified Orwellian society, and has recently come to undermine the long standing traditions of the Polish countryside, particularly the independence of the peasant and family farms, and the huge biodiversity of the Polish countryside of which they are the prime trustees.
The communists failed to quell the small Polish peasant farmers into submission during their period of occupation, which left the Country with a rich, if rather confusing, legacy of approximately one and a half million small scale family farms (average size 18 acres) dotted around the Polish Provinces, but particularly prevalent in the south and east.
“The European Union is simply not interested in small farms”
When I was first invited in November 2000 by Jadwiga Lopata, founder of The International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside, to come to Poland as a co-director of this newly established non governmental organisation, the Country was preparing itself, or more correctly, being prepared for entry into the European Union. Opinions were strongly divided concerning the merits of such an action and those most against included the farmers.
One of our first tasks, as I saw it, was to warn the Poles just what ‘joining the EU’ would mean for the farming population, for rural communities and for the renowned biodiversity of the countryside.
Through the auspices of a senior civil servant in Warsaw, Jadwiga and I were able to address a meeting with the Brussels-based committee responsible for negotiating Poland’s agricultural terms of entry into the EU. It proved to be an ominous foretaste of things to come.
The first thing that struck us was the fact that out of the twelve people sitting in the room at the European Commission, not one was Polish. I explained to the attendant body that in a Country where 22 percent of the working population are involved in agriculture, and the majority on small farms, it would not be a good idea to follow the same regime as had been operated in the UK and other EU member countries, in which ‘restructuring’ agriculture had involved throwing the best farmers off the land and amalgamating their farms into large scale monocultural operations designed to supply the predatory supermarket chains. You could have heard a pin drop.
After clearing her throat and leaning slowly forward, the chair-lady said: “I don't think you understand what EU policy is. Our objective is to ensure that farmers receive the same salary parity as white collar workers in the cities. The only way to achieve this is by restructuring and modernising old fashioned Polish farms to enable them to compete with other countries agricultural economies and the global market. To do this it will be necessary to shift around one million farmers off the land and encourage them to take city and service industry jobs to improve their economic position. The remaining farms will be made competitive with their counterparts in western Europe.”
There in a nutshell you have the whole tragic story of the clinically instigated demise of European farming over the past three decades. We protested that with unemployment running at 20 percent how would one provide jobs for another million farmers dumped on the streets of Warsaw? This was greeted with a stony silence, eventually broken by a lady from Portugal, who rather quietly remarked that since Portugal joined the European Union, 60 percent of small farmers had already left the land. “The European Union is simply not interested in small farms,” she said.
What happens when a nation joins the EU
A month or so later, we were invited to the Polish parliament to address the government’s agricultural committee. I gave a speech entitled, “Don’t Follow Us”, in which I explicitly warned of the fate in store for the Polish countryside if Poland joined the EU. I gave some vivid examples of what had happened in the UK over the past two decades: the ripping up of 35 000 miles of hedge rows; the loss of 30 percent of native farmland bird species; 98 percent of species-rich hay meadows, thousands of tonnes of wind and water eroded top-soil, and around fifteen thousand farmers driven off the land every year, accompanied by a rapid decline in the quality of food.
That night, Respospolita, a leading national broadsheet, carried a portion of this speech under the intended heading “Don’t Follow Us”. The piece appeared in exactly half the editions, in the other half was an article praising the merits of Poland joining the EU. That was in the autumn of 2001.
Poland joined the EU in 2004 after an intense publicity campaign calling on Poles to “Say Yes to the EU!” The propaganda machine went into overdrive with brash promises of “pots of gold” being showered on Poland and farmers being offered generous agricultural subsidies and free advice, provided they played by the rules of the game...
That ’game’ was all too familiar to me. Spend hours out of your working day filling in endless forms, filing maps and measuring every last inch of your fields, tracks and farmsteads; applying for ‘passports’ for your cattle and ear tags for your sheep and pigs; re-siting the slurry pit and putting stainless steel and washable tiles on the dairy walls; becoming versed in HASAP hygiene and sanitary rules and applying them where any food processing was to take place; and living under the threat of convictions and fines should one put a finger out of place or be late in supplying some official details.
Losing out to corporate serfdom
Throughout this time, I clearly remember the sense of losing something intangible beyond recall; losing something more valuable than that which was gained on the eventual arrival of the subsidy cheque.
What we were losing was our independence and our freedom; the slow rural way of life shared by traditional farming communities throughout the world. You cannot put a price on this immeasurably important quality. It is a deep, lasting and genuinely civilised expression of life.
So now the Poles, with their two million family farms (half a million of them bigger than the small family farms mentioned earlier), were going to be subjected to the same fate, and Jadwiga and I felt desperate to try and avert this tragedy. An uphill struggle ensued, which involved swimming strongly against the tide and risking the wrath of the agribusiness and seed corporations who were gleefully moving-in behind the EU free trade agreements while a bought-out government stood aside.
What these corporations want (I use the present tense as the position remains the same to-day) is to get their hands on Poland’s relatively unspoiled work force and land resources. They want to establish themselves on Polish soil, acquire their capital cheaply and flog the end products of Polish labour to the rest of the world for a big profit.
Farmers, however, stand in the way of land acquisitions; so they are best removed. Corporations thus join with the EU in seeing through their common goals and set about intensively lobbying national government to get the right regulatory conditions to make their kill.
Farmers, once having fallen for the CAP subsidy carrot, suddenly find themselves heavily controlled by EU and national officialdom brandishing that most vicious of anti-entrepreneurial weapons: ‘sanitary and hygiene regulations’ - as enforced by national governments at the behest of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union. These are the hidden weapons of mass destruction of farmers and the main tool for achieving the CAP’s aim of ridding the countryside of small- and medium-sized family farms and replacing them with monocultural money-making agribusiness.
Already by 2005, 65 percent of regional milk and meat processing factories had been forced to close because they ‘failed’ (read couldn’t afford) to implement the prescribed sanitary standards. Some 70 percent of small slaughter houses have also suffered the same fate. Farmers increasingly have nowhere to go to sell their cattle, sheep, pigs and milk. Exactly as has happened to UK farmers, Polish farmers are now being forced out of business by the covert and overt destruction of the infrastructure which supports their profession. The rural economy thus implodes and farming communities are scattered to the wind. All that emerges on the green fields they have left behind are Tesco superstores and other hypermarket clones.
The European Union’s CAP and sanitary and hygiene weapons have been re-honed to slash their way through Romanian family farms - whose extraordinary diversity and peasant farming skills rival Poland’s - and Turkey is next in line.
The so-called global food economy is in reality the instrument of a relatively small number of very wealthy transnational corporations. It is a small club that nevertheless harbours very big ambitions. One of its members is Monsanto (USA), whose recent marriage with the Cargill corporation makes it the biggest seed and agrichemical merchant in the world. Poland has been on the radar screen of Monsanto corporation as well as fellow seed operatives Dupont, Pioneer and Syngenta for some time now. However, in 2004, the same year that Poland joined the EU, Monsanto started a major lobbying drive on senior figures in the Polish government for a relaxation of national GMO precautionary laws and a government commitment to supporting the development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as a symbol of the modernisation of traditional Polish farming.
GMO-free Poland
We at ICPPC got wind of these developments and decided to devote our meagre, overstretched resources into fighting this new and immensely threatening dragon. Thus began an amazing campaign that, over the space of a year and a half, managed to help galvanise the boards of every province in Poland (there are 16) to declare themselves a ‘GMO Free Zone’, so that by September 2005 the whole country could declare itself ‘GMO Free’.
The chair of each province wrote to the prime minister demanding national legislation to recognise their new status by law. At first nothing happened, but then, much to everyone’s surprise - and Monsanto’s fury - Jaroslaw Kaczynski (the then prime minister) announced that legislation would be passed to ban the import and sale of GMO seeds and plants in Poland. This was followed a little later by a similar announcement declaring that GM animal feed would also be banned as of 2008.
Europe and the rest of the world were amazed. Seemingly out of nowhere, a country passed national legislation to ban GM seeds and animal feeds, an illegal act in the eyes of the European Commission. Only Greece and Austria had come close to achieving such a ban. It seemed that Poland was to make history and perhaps lead the rest of Europe towards a new moratorium, if not outright ban, of GMO. But this fairy tale ending is yet to be.
Back at the ranch, bemused Polish farmers could hardly grasp the significance of this event, already deeply perplexed by the strange new world of western capitalism and shell shocked by the complexities and apparent two-facedness of the CAP, and the need to absorb the seemingly unfathomable ‘science’ and propaganda surrounding GMO.
Aware of this dangerously exploitable situation, we embarked on a countrywide awareness-raising campaign armed with the documentary film against GMO, Life Running out of Control, dubbed into Polish, and recorded onto CD.
We ran into considerable flack, especially wherever university professors of agriculture were invited to lead public debates. Often, on such occasions, Jadwiga and I were the only voices critical of GMO up against half a dozen professors armed with power point presentations and lecturing straight from the Monsanto manual. However, the distinctly intuitive Polish public nearly always came down on our side, offering much needed encouragement. It was an important tour in which we addressed some thirty different meetings in village halls, clubs, farmers institutions and Council offices.
Newspapers, television and to a lesser extent radio, were, and remain, pretty much gagged from reporting the truth. As we discovered, much of the Polish media is in foreign hands or largely held by outside interests. The GMO lobby had already won over the main Polish farmers union, and the new government, under Donald Tusk, kept an increasingly silent position on the future of the anti GMO legislation enacted by his predecessor Kaczynski.
Kaczynski’s team had already appeared to stall when confronted by the dual threat of a fine from the European Commission for instituting an ‘illegal’ blanket ban on GMO (under EU law no country is allowed to overstep ‘free trade’ dictats by outright banning of GMO) and the huge corporate backlash resulting from the ban.
Now that a new government with a distinctly modernising agenda was in charge, we were forced to work even harder in order to keep the anti GMO momentum alive. Faced by this denouement, we decided to help create a new national organisation: ‘The Coalition for a GMO Free Poland’ and to draw upon as wide a cross section of society as possible to promote its aims. There are now 180 organisations and key individuals on the books and we have made some headway with the wary media.
Among those who have joined up are colleagues fighting another predatory US invader, Smithfield, the giant pig factory farming multinational (UK subsidiary Danish Crown, East Anglia) which moved onto Polish soil (or should I say concrete) in the late 1990s and, with a strong link to Monsanto’s North American GM soya export trade, established their perverse animal factories with the aid of a cheap Polish work force and corrupt government officials. The thousands of GM-soya fattened pigs that now flood the market have helped to undercut the prices and destroy the livelihood of many hundreds of already hard pressed traditional pig farmers throughout Poland and far beyond.
Smithfield and other industrial farming units operating out of Poland don’t like the idea of a GM animal feed ban (due to come into force this year) and have used the current high price of conventional animal feeds to put pressure on the government to postpone the ban to 2009 or beyond. A great opportunity will be lost if this postponement is agreed, and it will be harder to ensure that companies such as Smithfield can be prevented from further exploiting the market place’s demand for cheap pork.
How ironic it is that the hell bent US development of biofuels has played into the hands of the proponents of cheap GMO feed for meat production by forcing up the price of conventional feeds, such as barley based products, through displacing cereals from millions of acres planted with GM maize to produce fuel for motor-cars and trucks. Now GM soya and maize, previously avoided by most European animal feed importers, suddenly look like the only cheap option available. We have consistently lobbied for government to encourage farmers to grow their own traditional feed products, but in a world hooked on the global trade of cheap proteins, such advice has fallen on deaf ears.
The next Polish peasant uprising
Poland has all the potential for a full blown peasant revolt to recapture the right to grow, eat and trade their superb farmhouse foods; thus freeing themselves from the bureaucratically perverse sanitary and hygiene regulations imposed upon them. With one and a half million largely subsistence-based small family farms still in operation, it is something we should not rule out. But perhaps the strongest force militating against such an action is the fact that a fair proportion of farmers have already signed up to the ‘pot of gold’ held tantalisingly in front of their noses by the Brussels bureaucrats; that ultimately delivers just a few crumbs of financial support to farms of five to seven hectares, but rewards large farms with substantial offerings.
Money can indeed buy-out the seeds of revolution, but the heart of the peasants will not be appeased; neither will the hearts of caring individuals who know and love the working countryside. In a world where genuine independence is seen as a threat to the controlling influence of transnational and national power brokers, a watchful eye will be kept on any potentially rebellious leaders, and covert efforts made to ensure that placidity reigns supreme. But they will be up against a poisoned and polluted nature in rebellion, and those waking up to the stark choices that confront all of us: capitulate to the forces of ‘total control’ or wrest back control of life and work to rejuvenate your local communities to do the same.
Poland is well-versed in the art of survival. Provided the next generation of farm owners has the will to carry forward the traditions inherited along with the land, there is great hope for this proud and brave nation to come through the chaos with its soul and seed unspoilt.
This is an edited version of an article in the latest edition of Quarterly Review, a UK-based journal devoted to ideas and culture drawing upon penetrating socio-political insights.
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=594164
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http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/would_a_new_bill_in_congress_make.html
Talk about Internet hysteria. This bill, H.R. 875, introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), has sparked chain e-mails, blog postings and other exclamation-point-filled rants (like the one above), claiming that the legislation targets organic farmers, benefits manufacturers of genetically engineered seeds, and threatens to uproot backyard vegetable gardens across the country. It doesn't.
DeLauro introduced H.R. 875, called the Food Safety Modernization Act, on Feb. 4, and it was promptly referred to House committees. There's no indication as to when it may be brought to the floor for consideration, despite what some blog posts maintain. The stated purpose of the bill is “to establish an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to be known as the 'Food Safety Administration,' " which would oversee food safety and labeling in the U.S., creating a single government entity in charge of preventing food-borne illnesses. DeLauro's press release announcing the legislation, introduced after the peanut butter salmonella outbreak in the U.S., said that “FDA would be split into an agency responsible for food safety (the Food Safety Administration) and another responsible for regulation of drugs and devices. This move creates an agency solely focused on protecting the public through better regulation of the food supply.”
The bill has 41 cosponsors and has been endorsed by major food and consumer safety organizations, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Food & Water Watch, and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit organization that advocates for clean water and safe food and is headed by a woman who used to work for Public Citizen, the consumer group founded by Ralph Nader. It has posted a fact sheet on H.R. 875 on its site, disputing rumors about "food police."
The legislation stipulates that the new FSA (Food Safety Administration) would set safety regulations for food establishments and "food production facilities" and would be able to inspect such facilities. Its regulations also would pertain to imported foods. The e-mail posted above and others say that the definition of "food production facility" is so broad that it could include backyard gardens. The bill says: "The term 'food production facility' means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation." It seems quite a stretch to think that anyone's personal vegetable patch would be considered a "farm, ranch or orchard." First Lady Michelle Obama showed no signs of concern last week as she broke ground on a sizable 1,100-foot garden plot on the White House lawn. Organic, of course.
The e-mail above argues that DeLauro's bill "[e]ffectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic." We're not sure how exactly a bill would criminalize something it doesn't mention, but the e-mail is correct in that the word "organic" is nowhere to be found. Another Internet posting more alarmingly claims: "Bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to 'make sure there is no danger to the public food supply.' " But the quoted phrase isn't in this bill. Nor is there any mention of chemical versus organic fertilizers or "poisonous insect sprays," or, for that matter, pesticides in general.
The only mention of fertilizers we could find was this, requiring that the FSA create regulations to: "include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water." The idea that "fertilizer use" would not include organic fertilizers is pure speculation well beyond what the legislation calls for.
Also, organic farming is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under its "National Organic Program," not the FDA.
And It Gets Even More Hysterical
E-mails and blog postings claim that the agricultural giant Monsanto will benefit greatly from the bill; some say the often-protested company was the main lobbyist, and still others say DeLauro's husband "works for Monsanto." He doesn't.
DeLauro's spouse, Stanley Greenberg, is chairman and CEO of Greenberg-Quinlan Research Inc., a public issues research and polling firm. The company does surveys. And public relations work. Monsanto was one of the firm's clients. Greenberg is a pollster, not a lobbyist or a Monsanto employee, and he just released a memoir on his life as a pollster to five world leaders, including Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.
Also, there is nothing in the bill about "GPS tracking" of animals, as the e-mail above states, and not a peep about "seed banking."
Small Farm Concern
Small farmers, however, may well have concerns about this bill. Food & Water Watch's fact sheet acknowledges that there's always a worry that government regulation of food production will adversely affect small farms, which can't absorb the possible costs of abiding by regulation as easily as big food producers can. "The dilemma of how to regulate food safety in a way that prevents problems caused by industrialized agriculture but doesn’t wipe out small diversified farms is not new and is not easily solved," the site says. It goes on to say that other bills, not H.R. 875, that have been introduced could create problems for small operations, such as one that requires electronic record-keeping and registration fees with the FDA.
Another group called the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which supports "sustainable farming and direct farm-to-consumer transactions," raises several concerns about DeLauro's legislation and how it could affect small farms and in particular, producers of raw milk, which the FDA has declared to be unfit for consumption. But the group states that "much of what has circulated the internet is not accurate," and nowhere in its criticism of the legislation does it say organic farming would be outlawed or home gardeners would face regulations.
We suppose in the grand realm of all that's possible, or more likely a futuristic B movie, federal bureaucrats could decide that public safety calls for inspections of every backyard garden in the nation, leading everyday citizens to surreptitiously cultivate tomato plants in a closet with a sunlamp, lest they get busted by the cops. But we kinda doubt it.
– by Lori Robertson
Full disclosure: The author has an organic vegetable garden.
Sources
111th Congress, 1st session. H.R. 875.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn). “DeLauro Assails Full-Scale Breakdown of Food Safety System and Introduces New FDA Reform Legislation,” press release, 4 Feb. 2009.
Food & Water Watch. Background on H.R. 875, accessed 26 March 2009.
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. HR 875 – The Federal Take-Over of Food Regulation, 13 March 2009.
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Flawed Food Safety Bills in Congress, accessed 26 March 2009.
-
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/would_a_new_bill_in_congress_make.html
Talk about Internet hysteria. This bill, H.R. 875, introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), has sparked chain e-mails, blog postings and other exclamation-point-filled rants (like the one above), claiming that the legislation targets organic farmers, benefits manufacturers of genetically engineered seeds, and threatens to uproot backyard vegetable gardens across the country. It doesn't.
DeLauro introduced H.R. 875, called the Food Safety Modernization Act, on Feb. 4, and it was promptly referred to House committees. There's no indication as to when it may be brought to the floor for consideration, despite what some blog posts maintain. The stated purpose of the bill is “to establish an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to be known as the 'Food Safety Administration,' " which would oversee food safety and labeling in the U.S., creating a single government entity in charge of preventing food-borne illnesses. DeLauro's press release announcing the legislation, introduced after the peanut butter salmonella outbreak in the U.S., said that “FDA would be split into an agency responsible for food safety (the Food Safety Administration) and another responsible for regulation of drugs and devices. This move creates an agency solely focused on protecting the public through better regulation of the food supply.”
The bill has 41 cosponsors and has been endorsed by major food and consumer safety organizations, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Food & Water Watch, and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit organization that advocates for clean water and safe food and is headed by a woman who used to work for Public Citizen, the consumer group founded by Ralph Nader. It has posted a fact sheet on H.R. 875 on its site, disputing rumors about "food police."
The legislation stipulates that the new FSA (Food Safety Administration) would set safety regulations for food establishments and "food production facilities" and would be able to inspect such facilities. Its regulations also would pertain to imported foods. The e-mail posted above and others say that the definition of "food production facility" is so broad that it could include backyard gardens. The bill says: "The term 'food production facility' means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation." It seems quite a stretch to think that anyone's personal vegetable patch would be considered a "farm, ranch or orchard." First Lady Michelle Obama showed no signs of concern last week as she broke ground on a sizable 1,100-foot garden plot on the White House lawn. Organic, of course.
The e-mail above argues that DeLauro's bill "[e]ffectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic." We're not sure how exactly a bill would criminalize something it doesn't mention, but the e-mail is correct in that the word "organic" is nowhere to be found. Another Internet posting more alarmingly claims: "Bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to 'make sure there is no danger to the public food supply.' " But the quoted phrase isn't in this bill. Nor is there any mention of chemical versus organic fertilizers or "poisonous insect sprays," or, for that matter, pesticides in general.
The only mention of fertilizers we could find was this, requiring that the FSA create regulations to: "include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water." The idea that "fertilizer use" would not include organic fertilizers is pure speculation well beyond what the legislation calls for.
Also, organic farming is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under its "National Organic Program," not the FDA.
And It Gets Even More Hysterical
E-mails and blog postings claim that the agricultural giant Monsanto will benefit greatly from the bill; some say the often-protested company was the main lobbyist, and still others say DeLauro's husband "works for Monsanto." He doesn't.
DeLauro's spouse, Stanley Greenberg, is chairman and CEO of Greenberg-Quinlan Research Inc., a public issues research and polling firm. The company does surveys. And public relations work. Monsanto was one of the firm's clients. Greenberg is a pollster, not a lobbyist or a Monsanto employee, and he just released a memoir on his life as a pollster to five world leaders, including Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.
Also, there is nothing in the bill about "GPS tracking" of animals, as the e-mail above states, and not a peep about "seed banking."
Small Farm Concern
Small farmers, however, may well have concerns about this bill. Food & Water Watch's fact sheet acknowledges that there's always a worry that government regulation of food production will adversely affect small farms, which can't absorb the possible costs of abiding by regulation as easily as big food producers can. "The dilemma of how to regulate food safety in a way that prevents problems caused by industrialized agriculture but doesn’t wipe out small diversified farms is not new and is not easily solved," the site says. It goes on to say that other bills, not H.R. 875, that have been introduced could create problems for small operations, such as one that requires electronic record-keeping and registration fees with the FDA.
Another group called the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which supports "sustainable farming and direct farm-to-consumer transactions," raises several concerns about DeLauro's legislation and how it could affect small farms and in particular, producers of raw milk, which the FDA has declared to be unfit for consumption. But the group states that "much of what has circulated the internet is not accurate," and nowhere in its criticism of the legislation does it say organic farming would be outlawed or home gardeners would face regulations.
We suppose in the grand realm of all that's possible, or more likely a futuristic B movie, federal bureaucrats could decide that public safety calls for inspections of every backyard garden in the nation, leading everyday citizens to surreptitiously cultivate tomato plants in a closet with a sunlamp, lest they get busted by the cops. But we kinda doubt it.
– by Lori Robertson
Full disclosure: The author has an organic vegetable garden.
Sources
111th Congress, 1st session. H.R. 875.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn). “DeLauro Assails Full-Scale Breakdown of Food Safety System and Introduces New FDA Reform Legislation,” press release, 4 Feb. 2009.
Food & Water Watch. Background on H.R. 875, accessed 26 March 2009.
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. HR 875 – The Federal Take-Over of Food Regulation, 13 March 2009.
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Flawed Food Safety Bills in Congress, accessed 26 March 2009.
-
TA, you have to be the most naive person ever to post here. You really are... All you do is parrot the party line with little to no original thought. I'm sorry, but I'm just not impressed by the fact that you still have your last e-mail account from your volunteer work with a candidate and still laugh that you provided that like it was some kind of political certificate of knowing... lol... TA, proudly posting neonazi pics, spouting the benefits of your cheesyburger and icecream diet and flashing your campaign e-mail... lol...
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Snopes.com calls bunk on your whole conspiracy theory.
www.snopes.com/politics/business/organic.asp
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Are you going to use a fucking original thought and reply to my reply or just keep posting other people's thoughts? I'm all for providing material from sources, but that's really all you do. That's all I ever see you do... lame lame lame...
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TA, you have to be the most naive person ever to post here. You really are... All you do is parrot the party line with little to no original thought. I'm sorry, but I'm just not impressed by the fact that you still have your last e-mail account from your volunteer work with a candidate and still laugh that you provided that like it was some kind of political certificate of knowing... lol... TA, proudly posting neonazi pics, spouting the benefits of your cheesyburger and icecream diet and flashing your campaign e-mail... lol...
uh, Factcheck.org and Snopes do not have an agenda or a party line. Do you think they are part of the cover-up and conspiracy also?
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snopes... snopes... bla bla bla... You're suck a fucktwit...
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uh, Factcheck.org and Snopes do not have an agenda or a party line. Do you think they are part of the cover-up and conspiracy also?
I don't give a shit you fucking douchebag.... address my post or fucking die.
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Debunking 6 viral myths about H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act 0f 2009.[/size]
Myths and Facts: H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act
MYTH: H.R. 875 "makes it illegal to grow your own garden" and would result in the "criminalization of the backyard gardener."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens. This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.
Fact: this isn't the part that worries me, they wouldn't have the logistics to do this even if they wanted to. Fact, it WILL regulate, penalize and probably shut down MANY SMALL farmers
MYTH: H.R. 875 would mean a "goodbye to farmers markets" because the bill would "require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would result in farmers markets being regulated, penalized any fines, or shut down. Farmers markets would be able to continue to flourish under the bill. In fact, the bill would insist that imported foods meet strict safety standards to ensure that unsafe imported foods are not competing with locally-grown foods.
FACT: Farmers markets would be greatly effected unless they're giving the food away and the last I checked they are not. Since most of the people who show up to farmers markets are the same small farmers that will be adversly effected by the bill in the first place, it's a freaking no shit shirlock ::)
MYTH: H.R. 875 would result in the "death of organic farming."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would stop organic farming. The National Organic Program (NOP) is under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Safety Modernization Act only addresses food safety issues under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
FACT! While there is no language that says they'll directly outlaw organic farming, there is language that opens the door to changing the parameters of what is and isn't allowed which will effectively destroy it. Oh I'm sure they'll still have products labeled organic, it just won't really be organichttp://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=271255.msg3816356#msg3816356
MYTH: The bill would implement a national animal ID system.
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would implement a national animal ID system. Animal identification issues are under the jurisdiction of the USDA. The Food Safety Modernization Act addresses issues under the jurisdiction of the FDA.
MYTH: The bill is supported by the large agribusiness industry.
FACT: No large agribusiness companies have expressed support for this bill. This bill is being supported by several Members of Congress who have strong progressive records on issues involving farmers markets, organic farming, and locally-grown foods (Barbara Lee, etc.). Also, H.R. 875 is the only food safety legislation that has been supported by all the major consumer and food safety groups, including:
FACT, I haven't seen anybody say that big ag openly supports this, of course they do not openly support this, no shit huh... That doesn't mean they didn't help write this thing and they probably did. This kind of relationship happens all the time and we DON'T usually know about it. Fact! As I said before, this would be the first time in history that the biggest players in an industry were silent on a bill that will create another agency to regulate them and fine the hell out of them... I mean wow, an industry silent on this? There you have the support right there TA. Find me the big ag companies against this? In fact most of them have given pretty heavy to the bill's sponsor and most of the cosponsors I've checked. hmmmm... Clearly there is a payoff... That's simple. Big Agri business benefited huge when similar regulation was put on EU farmers. The little guys dropped like crazy unable to keep up with requirements and standards that are a small investment to a large company but a major pain in the ass to a SMALL FARMER!...
Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Food & Water Watch
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Safe Tables Our Priority
Trust for America’s Health
-
Debunking 6 viral myths about H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act 0f 2009.[/size]
Myths and Facts: H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act
MYTH: H.R. 875 "makes it illegal to grow your own garden" and would result in the "criminalization of the backyard gardener."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens. This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.
Fact: this isn't the part that worries me, they wouldn't have the logistics to do this even if they wanted to. Fact, it WILL regulate, penalize and probably shut down MANY SMALL farmers
MYTH: H.R. 875 would mean a "goodbye to farmers markets" because the bill would "require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would result in farmers markets being regulated, penalized any fines, or shut down. Farmers markets would be able to continue to flourish under the bill. In fact, the bill would insist that imported foods meet strict safety standards to ensure that unsafe imported foods are not competing with locally-grown foods.
FACT: Farmers markets would be greatly effected unless they're giving the food away and the last I checked they are not. Since most of the people who show up to farmers markets are the same small farmers that will be adversly effected by the bill in the first place, it's a freaking no shit shirlock ::)
MYTH: H.R. 875 would result in the "death of organic farming."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would stop organic farming. The National Organic Program (NOP) is under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Safety Modernization Act only addresses food safety issues under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
FACT! While there is no language that says they'll directly outlaw organic farming, there is language that opens the door to changing the parameters of what is and isn't allowed which will effectively destroy it. Oh I'm sure they'll still have products labeled organic, it just won't really be organichttp://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=271255.msg3816356#msg3816356
MYTH: The bill would implement a national animal ID system.
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would implement a national animal ID system. Animal identification issues are under the jurisdiction of the USDA. The Food Safety Modernization Act addresses issues under the jurisdiction of the FDA.
MYTH: The bill is supported by the large agribusiness industry.
FACT: No large agribusiness companies have expressed support for this bill. This bill is being supported by several Members of Congress who have strong progressive records on issues involving farmers markets, organic farming, and locally-grown foods (Barbara Lee, etc.). Also, H.R. 875 is the only food safety legislation that has been supported by all the major consumer and food safety groups, including:
FACT, I haven't seen anybody say that big ag openly supports this, of course they do not openly support this, no shit huh... That doesn't mean they didn't help write this thing and they probably did. This kind of relationship happens all the time and we DON'T usually know about it. Fact! As I said before, this would be the first time in history that the biggest players in an industry were silent on a bill that will create another agency to regulate them and fine the hell out of them... I mean wow, an industry silent on this? There you have the support right there TA. Find me the big ag companies against this? In fact most of them have given pretty heavy to the bill's sponsor and most of the cosponsors I've checked. hmmmm... Clearly there is a payoff... That's simple. Big Agri business benefited huge when similar regulation was put on EU farmers. The little guys dropped like crazy unable to keep up with requirements and standards that are a small investment to a large company but a major pain in the ass to a SMALL FARMER!...
Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Food & Water Watch
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Safe Tables Our Priority
Trust for America’s Health
-
Debunking 6 viral myths about H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act 0f 2009.[/size]
Myths and Facts: H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act
MYTH: H.R. 875 "makes it illegal to grow your own garden" and would result in the "criminalization of the backyard gardener."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens. This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.
Fact: this isn't the part that worries me, they wouldn't have the logistics to do this even if they wanted to. Fact, it WILL regulate, penalize and probably shut down MANY SMALL farmers
MYTH: H.R. 875 would mean a "goodbye to farmers markets" because the bill would "require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would result in farmers markets being regulated, penalized any fines, or shut down. Farmers markets would be able to continue to flourish under the bill. In fact, the bill would insist that imported foods meet strict safety standards to ensure that unsafe imported foods are not competing with locally-grown foods.
FACT: Farmers markets would be greatly effected unless they're giving the food away and the last I checked they are not. Since most of the people who show up to farmers markets are the same small farmers that will be adversly effected by the bill in the first place, it's a freaking no shit shirlock ::)
MYTH: H.R. 875 would result in the "death of organic farming."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would stop organic farming. The National Organic Program (NOP) is under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Safety Modernization Act only addresses food safety issues under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
FACT! While there is no language that says they'll directly outlaw organic farming, there is language that opens the door to changing the parameters of what is and isn't allowed which will effectively destroy it. Oh I'm sure they'll still have products labeled organic, it just won't really be organichttp://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=271255.msg3816356#msg3816356
MYTH: The bill would implement a national animal ID system.
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would implement a national animal ID system. Animal identification issues are under the jurisdiction of the USDA. The Food Safety Modernization Act addresses issues under the jurisdiction of the FDA.
MYTH: The bill is supported by the large agribusiness industry.
FACT: No large agribusiness companies have expressed support for this bill. This bill is being supported by several Members of Congress who have strong progressive records on issues involving farmers markets, organic farming, and locally-grown foods (Barbara Lee, etc.). Also, H.R. 875 is the only food safety legislation that has been supported by all the major consumer and food safety groups, including:
FACT, I haven't seen anybody say that big ag openly supports this, of course they do not openly support this, no shit huh... That doesn't mean they didn't help write this thing and they probably did. This kind of relationship happens all the time and we DON'T usually know about it. Fact! As I said before, this would be the first time in history that the biggest players in an industry were silent on a bill that will create another agency to regulate them and fine the hell out of them... I mean wow, an industry silent on this? There you have the support right there TA. Find me the big ag companies against this? In fact most of them have given pretty heavy to the bill's sponsor and most of the cosponsors I've checked. hmmmm... Clearly there is a payoff... That's simple. Big Agri business benefited huge when similar regulation was put on EU farmers. The little guys dropped like crazy unable to keep up with requirements and standards that are a small investment to a large company but a major pain in the ass to a SMALL FARMER!...
Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Food & Water Watch
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Safe Tables Our Priority
Trust for America’s Health
-
Are you going to use a fucking original thought and reply to my reply or just keep posting other people's thoughts? I'm all for providing material from sources, but that's really all you do. That's all I ever see you do... lame lame lame...
Why would you rather have me make evidence up? That makes no sense. What I am doing is taking the Facts and Evidence and positioning them against your fictitious and unsubstantiated rants.
So let me get this straight, you want me to manufacture evidence and then make an argument based off of thin air? I am basing my argument off of facts and evidence. I don`t understand what you want me to do?
-
Debunking 6 viral myths about H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act 0f 2009.[/size]
Myths and Facts: H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act
MYTH: H.R. 875 "makes it illegal to grow your own garden" and would result in the "criminalization of the backyard gardener."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens. This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.
Fact: this isn't the part that worries me, they wouldn't have the logistics to do this even if they wanted to. Fact, it WILL regulate, penalize and probably shut down MANY SMALL farmers
MYTH: H.R. 875 would mean a "goodbye to farmers markets" because the bill would "require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would result in farmers markets being regulated, penalized any fines, or shut down. Farmers markets would be able to continue to flourish under the bill. In fact, the bill would insist that imported foods meet strict safety standards to ensure that unsafe imported foods are not competing with locally-grown foods.
FACT: Farmers markets would be greatly effected unless they're giving the food away and the last I checked they are not. Since most of the people who show up to farmers markets are the same small farmers that will be adversly effected by the bill in the first place, it's a freaking no shit shirlock ::)
MYTH: H.R. 875 would result in the "death of organic farming."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would stop organic farming. The National Organic Program (NOP) is under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Safety Modernization Act only addresses food safety issues under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
FACT! While there is no language that says they'll directly outlaw organic farming, there is language that opens the door to changing the parameters of what is and isn't allowed which will effectively destroy it. Oh I'm sure they'll still have products labeled organic, it just won't really be organichttp://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=271255.msg3816356#msg3816356
MYTH: The bill would implement a national animal ID system.
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would implement a national animal ID system. Animal identification issues are under the jurisdiction of the USDA. The Food Safety Modernization Act addresses issues under the jurisdiction of the FDA.
MYTH: The bill is supported by the large agribusiness industry.
FACT: No large agribusiness companies have expressed support for this bill. This bill is being supported by several Members of Congress who have strong progressive records on issues involving farmers markets, organic farming, and locally-grown foods (Barbara Lee, etc.). Also, H.R. 875 is the only food safety legislation that has been supported by all the major consumer and food safety groups, including:
FACT, I haven't seen anybody say that big ag openly supports this, of course they do not openly support this, no shit huh... That doesn't mean they didn't help write this thing and they probably did. This kind of relationship happens all the time and we DON'T usually know about it. Fact! As I said before, this would be the first time in history that the biggest players in an industry were silent on a bill that will create another agency to regulate them and fine the hell out of them... I mean wow, an industry silent on this? There you have the support right there TA. Find me the big ag companies against this? In fact most of them have given pretty heavy to the bill's sponsor and most of the cosponsors I've checked. hmmmm... Clearly there is a payoff... That's simple. Big Agri business benefited huge when similar regulation was put on EU farmers. The little guys dropped like crazy unable to keep up with requirements and standards that are a small investment to a large company but a major pain in the ass to a SMALL FARMER!...
Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Food & Water Watch
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Safe Tables Our Priority
Trust for America’s Health
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Debunking 6 viral myths about H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act 0f 2009.[/size]
Myths and Facts: H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act
MYTH: H.R. 875 "makes it illegal to grow your own garden" and would result in the "criminalization of the backyard gardener."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens. This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.
Fact: this isn't the part that worries me, they wouldn't have the logistics to do this even if they wanted to. Fact, it WILL regulate, penalize and probably shut down MANY SMALL farmers
MYTH: H.R. 875 would mean a "goodbye to farmers markets" because the bill would "require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would result in farmers markets being regulated, penalized any fines, or shut down. Farmers markets would be able to continue to flourish under the bill. In fact, the bill would insist that imported foods meet strict safety standards to ensure that unsafe imported foods are not competing with locally-grown foods.
FACT: Farmers markets would be greatly effected unless they're giving the food away and the last I checked they are not. Since most of the people who show up to farmers markets are the same small farmers that will be adversly effected by the bill in the first place, it's a freaking no shit shirlock ::)
MYTH: H.R. 875 would result in the "death of organic farming."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would stop organic farming. The National Organic Program (NOP) is under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Safety Modernization Act only addresses food safety issues under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
FACT! While there is no language that says they'll directly outlaw organic farming, there is language that opens the door to changing the parameters of what is and isn't allowed which will effectively destroy it. Oh I'm sure they'll still have products labeled organic, it just won't really be organichttp://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=271255.msg3816356#msg3816356
MYTH: The bill would implement a national animal ID system.
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would implement a national animal ID system. Animal identification issues are under the jurisdiction of the USDA. The Food Safety Modernization Act addresses issues under the jurisdiction of the FDA.
MYTH: The bill is supported by the large agribusiness industry.
FACT: No large agribusiness companies have expressed support for this bill. This bill is being supported by several Members of Congress who have strong progressive records on issues involving farmers markets, organic farming, and locally-grown foods (Barbara Lee, etc.). Also, H.R. 875 is the only food safety legislation that has been supported by all the major consumer and food safety groups, including:
FACT, I haven't seen anybody say that big ag openly supports this, of course they do not openly support this, no shit huh... That doesn't mean they didn't help write this thing and they probably did. This kind of relationship happens all the time and we DON'T usually know about it. Fact! As I said before, this would be the first time in history that the biggest players in an industry were silent on a bill that will create another agency to regulate them and fine the hell out of them... I mean wow, an industry silent on this? There you have the support right there TA. Find me the big ag companies against this? In fact most of them have given pretty heavy to the bill's sponsor and most of the cosponsors I've checked. hmmmm... Clearly there is a payoff... That's simple. Big Agri business benefited huge when similar regulation was put on EU farmers. The little guys dropped like crazy unable to keep up with requirements and standards that are a small investment to a large company but a major pain in the ass to a SMALL FARMER!...
Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Food & Water Watch
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Safe Tables Our Priority
Trust for America’s Health
-
Debunking 6 viral myths about H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act 0f 2009.[/size]
Myths and Facts: H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act
MYTH: H.R. 875 "makes it illegal to grow your own garden" and would result in the "criminalization of the backyard gardener."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens. This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.
Fact: this isn't the part that worries me, they wouldn't have the logistics to do this even if they wanted to. Fact, it WILL regulate, penalize and probably shut down MANY SMALL farmers
MYTH: H.R. 875 would mean a "goodbye to farmers markets" because the bill would "require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would result in farmers markets being regulated, penalized any fines, or shut down. Farmers markets would be able to continue to flourish under the bill. In fact, the bill would insist that imported foods meet strict safety standards to ensure that unsafe imported foods are not competing with locally-grown foods.
FACT: Farmers markets would be greatly effected unless they're giving the food away and the last I checked they are not. Since most of the people who show up to farmers markets are the same small farmers that will be adversly effected by the bill in the first place, it's a freaking no shit shirlock ::)
MYTH: H.R. 875 would result in the "death of organic farming."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would stop organic farming. The National Organic Program (NOP) is under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Safety Modernization Act only addresses food safety issues under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
FACT! While there is no language that says they'll directly outlaw organic farming, there is language that opens the door to changing the parameters of what is and isn't allowed which will effectively destroy it. Oh I'm sure they'll still have products labeled organic, it just won't really be organichttp://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=271255.msg3816356#msg3816356
MYTH: The bill would implement a national animal ID system.
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would implement a national animal ID system. Animal identification issues are under the jurisdiction of the USDA. The Food Safety Modernization Act addresses issues under the jurisdiction of the FDA.
MYTH: The bill is supported by the large agribusiness industry.
FACT: No large agribusiness companies have expressed support for this bill. This bill is being supported by several Members of Congress who have strong progressive records on issues involving farmers markets, organic farming, and locally-grown foods (Barbara Lee, etc.). Also, H.R. 875 is the only food safety legislation that has been supported by all the major consumer and food safety groups, including:
FACT, I haven't seen anybody say that big ag openly supports this, of course they do not openly support this, no shit huh... That doesn't mean they didn't help write this thing and they probably did. This kind of relationship happens all the time and we DON'T usually know about it. Fact! As I said before, this would be the first time in history that the biggest players in an industry were silent on a bill that will create another agency to regulate them and fine the hell out of them... I mean wow, an industry silent on this? There you have the support right there TA. Find me the big ag companies against this? In fact most of them have given pretty heavy to the bill's sponsor and most of the cosponsors I've checked. hmmmm... Clearly there is a payoff... That's simple. Big Agri business benefited huge when similar regulation was put on EU farmers. The little guys dropped like crazy unable to keep up with requirements and standards that are a small investment to a large company but a major pain in the ass to a SMALL FARMER!...
Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Food & Water Watch
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Safe Tables Our Priority
Trust for America’s Health
-
You are losing your mind here. Calm down. Are you REALLY that much of a baby when you are confronted with facts? You are acting like the fundamentalists when confronted with fossilized evidence. :D
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Why would you rather have me make evidence up? That makes no sense. What I am doing is taking the Facts and Evidence and positioning them against your fictitious and unsubstantiated rants.
So let me get this straight, you want me to manufacture evidence and then make an argument based off of thin air? I am basing my argument off of facts and evidence. I don`t understand what you want me to do?
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I'll keep posting it, you seem absolutely dead set on not debating me. Can you not actually see my reply posted boldy in red... I suspect you're actually just to much of a fucking pundit to have an original thought.
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http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/would_a_new_bill_in_congress_make.html
Talk about Internet hysteria. This bill, H.R. 875, introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), has sparked chain e-mails, blog postings and other exclamation-point-filled rants (like the one above), claiming that the legislation targets organic farmers, benefits manufacturers of genetically engineered seeds, and threatens to uproot backyard vegetable gardens across the country. It doesn't.
DeLauro introduced H.R. 875, called the Food Safety Modernization Act, on Feb. 4, and it was promptly referred to House committees. There's no indication as to when it may be brought to the floor for consideration, despite what some blog posts maintain. The stated purpose of the bill is “to establish an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to be known as the 'Food Safety Administration,' " which would oversee food safety and labeling in the U.S., creating a single government entity in charge of preventing food-borne illnesses. DeLauro's press release announcing the legislation, introduced after the peanut butter salmonella outbreak in the U.S., said that “FDA would be split into an agency responsible for food safety (the Food Safety Administration) and another responsible for regulation of drugs and devices. This move creates an agency solely focused on protecting the public through better regulation of the food supply.”
The bill has 41 cosponsors and has been endorsed by major food and consumer safety organizations, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Food & Water Watch, and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit organization that advocates for clean water and safe food and is headed by a woman who used to work for Public Citizen, the consumer group founded by Ralph Nader. It has posted a fact sheet on H.R. 875 on its site, disputing rumors about "food police."
The legislation stipulates that the new FSA (Food Safety Administration) would set safety regulations for food establishments and "food production facilities" and would be able to inspect such facilities. Its regulations also would pertain to imported foods. The e-mail posted above and others say that the definition of "food production facility" is so broad that it could include backyard gardens. The bill says: "The term 'food production facility' means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation." It seems quite a stretch to think that anyone's personal vegetable patch would be considered a "farm, ranch or orchard." First Lady Michelle Obama showed no signs of concern last week as she broke ground on a sizable 1,100-foot garden plot on the White House lawn. Organic, of course.
The e-mail above argues that DeLauro's bill "[e]ffectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic." We're not sure how exactly a bill would criminalize something it doesn't mention, but the e-mail is correct in that the word "organic" is nowhere to be found. Another Internet posting more alarmingly claims: "Bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to 'make sure there is no danger to the public food supply.' " But the quoted phrase isn't in this bill. Nor is there any mention of chemical versus organic fertilizers or "poisonous insect sprays," or, for that matter, pesticides in general.
The only mention of fertilizers we could find was this, requiring that the FSA create regulations to: "include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water." The idea that "fertilizer use" would not include organic fertilizers is pure speculation well beyond what the legislation calls for.
Also, organic farming is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under its "National Organic Program," not the FDA.
And It Gets Even More Hysterical
E-mails and blog postings claim that the agricultural giant Monsanto will benefit greatly from the bill; some say the often-protested company was the main lobbyist, and still others say DeLauro's husband "works for Monsanto." He doesn't.
DeLauro's spouse, Stanley Greenberg, is chairman and CEO of Greenberg-Quinlan Research Inc., a public issues research and polling firm. The company does surveys. And public relations work. Monsanto was one of the firm's clients. Greenberg is a pollster, not a lobbyist or a Monsanto employee, and he just released a memoir on his life as a pollster to five world leaders, including Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.
Also, there is nothing in the bill about "GPS tracking" of animals, as the e-mail above states, and not a peep about "seed banking."
Small Farm Concern
Small farmers, however, may well have concerns about this bill. Food & Water Watch's fact sheet acknowledges that there's always a worry that government regulation of food production will adversely affect small farms, which can't absorb the possible costs of abiding by regulation as easily as big food producers can. "The dilemma of how to regulate food safety in a way that prevents problems caused by industrialized agriculture but doesn’t wipe out small diversified farms is not new and is not easily solved," the site says. It goes on to say that other bills, not H.R. 875, that have been introduced could create problems for small operations, such as one that requires electronic record-keeping and registration fees with the FDA.
Another group called the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which supports "sustainable farming and direct farm-to-consumer transactions," raises several concerns about DeLauro's legislation and how it could affect small farms and in particular, producers of raw milk, which the FDA has declared to be unfit for consumption. But the group states that "much of what has circulated the internet is not accurate," and nowhere in its criticism of the legislation does it say organic farming would be outlawed or home gardeners would face regulations.
We suppose in the grand realm of all that's possible, or more likely a futuristic B movie, federal bureaucrats could decide that public safety calls for inspections of every backyard garden in the nation, leading everyday citizens to surreptitiously cultivate tomato plants in a closet with a sunlamp, lest they get busted by the cops. But we kinda doubt it.
– by Lori Robertson
Full disclosure: The author has an organic vegetable garden.
Sources
111th Congress, 1st session. H.R. 875.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn). “DeLauro Assails Full-Scale Breakdown of Food Safety System and Introduces New FDA Reform Legislation,” press release, 4 Feb. 2009.
Food & Water Watch. Background on H.R. 875, accessed 26 March 2009.
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. HR 875 – The Federal Take-Over of Food Regulation, 13 March 2009.
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Flawed Food Safety Bills in Congress, accessed 26 March 2009.
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bump for TA
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bump for TA
Can we say, Self-Owning!
You were paranoid Conspiracy Theorist a year ago (as evidenced by this thread). Oh well.
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Can we say, Self-Owning!
You were paranoid Conspiracy Theorist a year ago (as evidenced by this thread). Oh well.
Once again TA is caught dodging the question.
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Once again TA is caught dodging the question.
exactly, as usual... and then he has the balls to point the finger at others and say the ownage is on them. ::)