Organic Outlaws
The Food Safety Modernization Act (HR875 and S 425) was introduced to Congress as a way to "protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness." If passed, the bill would establish the Food Safety Administration, which would maintain food safety standards and certify imported foods with "enforcement tools such as mandatory recalls and civil penalties." Despite its stated purpose, the FSMA could actually endanger the food supply and violate consumers' rights by excluding local organic farmers who can't afford the exorbitant cost to participate.
According to nourishedkitchen.com, "HR 875 mandates that anyone who produces food of any kind . . . and transports that food for sale be subject to warrantless government inspection of their farms and food production records." This creates opportunities for federal agents to abuse power if they get to decide what animals are fed and how fields are managed. More importantly, the "draconian restrictions . . . could mean the end of organic, biodynamic, and sustainable agricultural practices" if they are deemed "unsafe." It also creates a "pay to play" farming system: the cost to register a farm with the Food Safety Administration is $1,000,000 and the cost to deny a federal agent access to a farm is $1,000,000.
Only agribusiness giants, often the worst violators of food safety standards, could afford to operate in this system, so it should come as no surprise that the main backer and lobbyist of the bill is Monsanto. In fact, the congresswoman who introduced the bill, Rosa Delauro, is married to one of Monsanto's politcal consultants, Stanley Greenberg. Although their ties may be coincidental, it is no coincidence that the Food Safety Modernization Act would criminalize small-scale local organic farmers and hurt farmers' markets and Co-ops nationwide. Protect your access to safe organic foods by contacting your local representatives and continuing to grow your own food.
image: "Christina's (PostModern) World" by Motherpie on Flickr courrtesy of Creative Commons licensing.
- 3-24-09
- Erin Shaw's blog
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OH WOW
Obama=Hemp Pic:
http://www.blacklightintheattic.com/images/hemp.jpg
Scary indeed...
Sancho, I definitely agree... interesting, however, that the Obamas are getting ready to plant a vegetable garden on the White House lawn. Seems somewhat contradictory.
Backyard vegetable gardening seems to be really taking off these past few years. While looking to buy plug-trays for seed starting at my local Agway, the employee told me that they were sold out, and demand was through the roof for all home gardening supplies. People are really starting to come around.
I'm also a member at a local CSA, and there are a lot of people on their waiting list as well, which leads me to believe that demand for locally-grown food is skyrocketing. Of course the huge industrial agribusiness corporations like Monsanto and their ilk aren't going to roll over and take this lightly. They have one of the most powerful lobbying forces in the world. It comes as no surprise that they are trying to strong-arm this bill through Congress without much attention from the MSM, if any.
If this bill passes, it seems that the powers-that-be will have a very difficult time cracking down on backyard gardens, but CSAs, co-ops, and Farmers Markets might be in a lot of trouble.
Well, the bill states that
So why...
Good question...
I think people are slowly starting to wake up to the great fiction of government benevolence (thanks largely to the recent explosion of information from the internet, actually).
If a revolution of sorts is to become viable (because so many people are at odds with the government) I don't think worker strikes are the right way to go about it. That would just hurt everybody. The best way to do it, I think, would be to engage in widespread tax revolts.
Why?
very true
The bill is aimed only at those who transport their goods to sell, but the thought of warrantless searches by federal agents is really chilling!
I can only hope that HR 875 backfires and sparks interdependence among food growers like Homegrown Revolution - if the renewed interest in victory gardens keeps going, the FSMA would be impossible to enforce once communities start bartering homegrown foods.
yes....
Not so fast, Wahkeena!
It's not passed yet! You have no reason to lose your trust in the White House over THIS (other reasons, yes, but not this). This bill is still just a bill! Don't like it? Write your representatives!
Michael Garfield (live painter & avant-guitarist)
Hypocrisy?
deep breath, stop the panicking
There's a lot of hysteria about this bill that is simply that - hysteria. Here's a recent write-up from a well-informed blog voice in the organic community on the most recent Congressional hearing, there you can get a sense of what they are thinking about:
http://www.lavidalocavore.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=1241
Short version: There's a group called NICFA and a woman named Linn Cohen-Cole who are the ones spreading all of these lies abot HR 875. They are NOT TRUE. Monsanto is NOT behind the bill. Also, the time frame given for ANY bill is "in the next few months" not immediately.
Last, check out this interview with Collin Peterson, chair of the ag committee. He does NOT want the FDA to have ANYTHING to do with farms.
http://www.lavidalocavore.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=1254
Don't sell out our children's health
Actually, you have to go back to the Bioterrorism Act and the FDA to see about the selling vs. home garden issue.
If one is honest in filling out the form to see if they must register with the FDA, they had better never grow a tomato, toss it on a sandwhich and then head off their property for a picnic - and forget about handing off one of the little gems to a neighbor.
Food must be both grown and CONSUMED on the same property and never leave, or you have to register already. This bill takes that and adds up to $1M in fines, up to 10 years in jail, AND any other penalties that "may be available" to the mix.
http://www.directfarmbusiness.org/fda-registration/
Be sure to click the link at the bottom to see if you qualify for exemption - and be honest. Completely honest. Try it a couple different ways, too.
Further, the FDA testimony regarding the inclusion of home-grown items states that while it was not the intent of that bill, they were going to leave the question open for future legislation.
So - while technically home gardens are not included - based on existing law, they are also NOT excluded. Further, in respect to 875 - NAIS, the National Animal Identification System (which will NOT work, is not needed, and is in violation of at least THREE Constitutional Amendments) is cited as existing law. This is categorically untrue.
While certain states have mandated the program, NAIS is NOT a federally mandated program, and should never be.
I would encourage everyone to read ALL of the following bills at the Thomas Register: HR 875, 814, 759, 1332 - and - S 425
Realize not one of these bills would have prevented a single person from getting sick or dying in the recent recalls (would not have TRIGGERED the recalls either!!!). Not one would prevent animal disease. Not one would protect any individual from anything whatsoever - other than wholesome food.
What they DO accomplish is destruction of American family farms, organic production, local food movements, farm-to-school programs and personal food production.
They also consolidate commercial food production into the hands of corporate agricultural concerns which are already causing untold health problems for plants, animals AND humans.
I encourage everyone to read each of these bills (and there are more to come), call your state and federal legislators (many states also have similar bills and laws on the books - and state legislators can and will contact their federal counterparts) and DEMAND CHANGE, intelligent solutions to the current problems, the death of each and every one of the bills above, and ACTION to protect and preserve our right to quality, affordable food for our families.
Whether or not this bill is
Whether or not this bill is a direct threat to local farmers and growers, I think the unspoken idea running through this thread is that what we actually need is a bill that protects small farmers and homegrowers from ANY sort of regulations by outer authorities. I think for communities to regulate their food distribution practices according to their own edict is just a fine idea, because then you have real, on-the-ground decision making happening(well, ideally) and the feedback loops are much tighter then when the consumer is being supplied by a distant, corporoate entity that does not respond well to it's consumers.
How can we go about drafting a bill and getting it introduced?
I think that is what we should focus more on. What already existing organizatio might even have something written up already but had just given up on pushing it through long ago? Which groups already have people who know how to grease the wheels in state and federal governments, who know how to setup phone banks, send flowers to a senator, and have lunch with committee working groups? What else can be done to get this idea more into the national dialogue?
I would say that 875 makes itself open enough to be applied to any farmer's market, if the law so chooses to. They definitely didn't exclude it so it's safe to think that our freedoms may be in danger on this one. No reason for panic but still, this isn't exactly a step in the right direction, to be sure.
If any political agenda aside from the cannabis issue should be pressed by this crowd, it should be food protection. Protecting and encouraging local food sources should be HIGH priority for everyone of us and the towns/cities we live in. You know? It's just so fundamental and often taken for granted, but really our food is a very key part of our life that has slowly become usurped by corporations/government. I sure didn't make this mac 'n cheese. . .
www.blacklightintheattic.com
Pure evil
on the other hand.
Correct me if I'm wrong...
...but don't the great majority of food health and safety problems occur in the processing plants, not the dirt where the plants are grown? Shouldn't it be the food-processing plants who commodify our food for us who need watching, not so much the farmers who are puttin in and pullin up the plants from the ground? I mean, chemical fertilizers and all aside...
"When they say, 'What is it like when the clouds open up before the moon?' tell them, 'Like this--' and, one by one, undo the buttons on your robe..." I think it's Rumi
Really speaking I am one of
Really speaking I am one of those who are quite fond of making great recipes. But since I have come to know the immense benefits of agave being a natural sweetener and really helping you cut on calories and other fats I have been just noting all those different recipes that I can make using pure agave. Believe me if you want to bring a change to your kitchen and how your family eats then you must try using agave and once you have the knowledge of the benefits of using agave you'll probably be hitting urself as to why u did not use it earlier.
Brande,
Agave sweetener