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Showing posts with label HR 875/S425. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HR 875/S425. Show all posts

Friday, March 27, 2009

IMPORTANT ACTION ALERT: FLAWED FOOD SAFETY BILLS IN CONGRESS

Many of you have been hearing about HR 875, a food safety bill that has been introduced in Congress.  Although much of what has circulated the internet is not accurate, HR 875 does pose serious problems for sustainable farmers and their consumers. Unfortunately, there are already four other “food safety” bills that also pose serious problems:  HR 814, HR 759, S 425, and S 510.  HR 814 is essentially a mandatory NAIS bill, while the others focus on produce, processed foods and game under FDA jurisdiction.

Consumers who buy nutrient-dense foods from local, sustainable farmers can feel secure about the safety of their food.  The same is not true for the majority who buy their food in grocery stores from mass-production industrialized operations.  We understand the pressure that Congress faces to improve the safety of that mainstream system.  But it is critical that the laws not interfere with the right to choose local foods or with our farmers’ ability to raise safer, healthier foods!

Small sustainable farms are fundamentally different from factory farms, and should not be regulated the same way!  All of the proposed food safety bills suffer from a “one-size-fits-all” approach.  And even though the bills’ sponsors might intend for them to apply only to food crossing state lines, the federal agencies regularly take a broader view of their jurisdiction.  The FDA’s and USDA’s past actions clearly show that Congress must place strict limitations on these agencies, or they will impose burdensome and unfair regulations and enforcement actions on small farms.

We don’t know which of these bills will move forward to committee hearings — or perhaps another bill, not yet filed, will be the one to move forward.  So we encourage everyone to send a clear message: Protect our farms from bad regulation!

TAKE ACTION:  Call your U.S. Representative and Senators.  If you do not know who represents you, you can find out at www.congress.org or by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.  Ask to speak to the staffer who handles food safety issues.

Talk with the staffer about why you support local foods.  Tell them you oppose the five bills listed above.  Ask that they support a food safety bill that focuses on the real threats to food safety, such as uninspected imports from China and lax inspections of massive slaughterhouses and other factory processing, and ask that any new laws explicitly exempt small farmers. Explain that this issue cannot be left to the agencies’ discretion, and you want a clear focus on the broken factory farm system and not on small, sustainable farmers.

UPDATE: Congressional Hearing on NAIS

Last Wednesday, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry held a hearing on NAIS.  The questions and comments of several of the Subcommittee members revealed that they view NAIS as a food safety program and critical for animal health in case of a “catastrophic outbreak.”  One member said, in essence, that the costs to farmers financially and in loss of privacy must be weighed against the “cost in human life” if NAIS isn’t implemented.

Yet USDA continues to provide absolutely no scientific evidence to support the claim that NAIS will do anything at all to improve animal health or food safety!

What NAIS will do is impose government surveillance and significant expense on animal owners for no real benefit to the public.  The only ones who will benefit from NAIS are the meat packers and exporters, tag manufacturers, database managers and other large corporations.

TAKE ACTION #2:  You can send written testimony to the Subcommittee before Friday, March 20.  Send your testimony to the Hearing Clerk, Jamie Mitchell, at Jamie.Mitchell@mail.house.gov

Put “March 11 Hearing - Animal Identification Programs” in the subject line.  Keep your comments clear, polite, and concise.

And be sure to send a copy to your Representative and Senators!  A copy of your letter to the Subcommittee makes a great follow-up to the phone call we suggest above.

http://lafayette-wapf.com/2009/03/flawed-food-safety-bills-in-congress/

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

ROME IS BURNING, NERO IS FIDDLING

By Lynn Stuter

March 17, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

Did you know that the White House is being bombarded by “minutiae?” That the president’s personal aid is a “hunk”? That his speech writer has a “buzz cut?”

While America slides precipitously toward an all-out economic depression, while Also Known As (AKA) Obama continues to break every promise he made on the campaign trail, this is what the New York Times thinks is important for people to know!

Wow, aren’t you just really impressed?

And the lamestream media wonders why people are turning off their television sets, terminating their newspaper subscriptions, and using their computers to access alternative media sources and joining news loops to learn what is really going on in this nation.

This past week the Senate passed HR 1105, the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, complete with close to 9,000 earmarks, $410 billion in spending, the largest spending bill ever passed, appropriating money that the United States does not have. This on top of the $787 billion in pork (H.R. 1) passed by Congress and signed by AKA on February 17, 2009, appropriating money out of thin air to spend on favored projects like building a new overpass across Highway 520 in Redmond, Washington to ease congestion caused by Microsoft.

Payback to Bill Gates for his generous donations to the Obama campaign and inauguration party? Isn’t that the definition of pay-to-play — “You give me a donation and I’ll make sure you are compensated out of the coffers of the taxpayers?”

Every economist worth his salt and the American people told Congress not to pass either of these bills; they did it anyway. At a time when government needs to be seriously downsized and taxes need to be seriously cut, AKA’s answer to the economic situation is to grow government and increase taxes.

Hey, who cares if the government spends money it doesn’t have in the bank. If you or I did that, we would be headed for prison. But what’s good for the people obviously isn’t good for the government; a double standard that violates equal access and equal justice under rule of law.

And we haven’t even begun to talk about AKA’s $3.6 TRILLION proposed budget for 2010 while AKA proclaims,

“These kinds of irresponsible budgets — and inexcusable practices — are now in the past. For the first time in many years, my administration has produced a budget that represents an honest reckoning of where we are and where we need to go.”

Not to mention Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, who assisted the Russian Government from September 1992 through August 1993, who asserts the “[d]eficit [will be] $2 trillion higher this year and next because of [the] crisis we inherited.”

The way AKA is spending money, we have to ask, “What crisis? We don’t see no stinkin’ crisis!” If there were truly a crisis, wouldn’t they be spending less instead of more; wouldn’t they be downsizing government instead of growing government? AKA didn’t “inherit” a crisis, he helped create the crisis, while a Senator, by voting for bailout after bailout, and since becoming the usurper-in-chief, signing bill after bill spending money this country doesn’t have to spend!

And while promising the tax increases will be on “the rich”; don’t bet on it. AKA doesn’t dare bite the hand that feeds him; the rich have the means to do him in so he isn’t going after them; he’s going to go after the middle class, just as has always happened when more money was needed. The cap and trade agenda, based on global warming junk science, is but one way that will happen. Watch for skyrocketing energy prices as carbon taxes and offsets come into play.

Not long in the White House, it is reported that AKA and company are holding extravagant parties on a weekly basis. Wagyu beef steaks costing $100 a pound (is there beef worth that kind of money?) are just the tip of the iceberg, it seems. Not long on the job, it seems AKA and company are “lonely,” absent the night life afforded them by the Chicago underworld.

“My fellow Americans, [pause for effect] while we wine and dine at your expense [pause for effect] while you are losing your jobs, homes, cars [pause for effect] truly [pause for effect] read my lips [pause for effect] we feel your pain [pause for effect] you have to believe that! [pause for effect] That’s what hope and change are all about.” [pause for applause]

With apparently a lot of time on their hands, maybe a course in how not to insult visiting heads of state would be a worthwhile investment of time! “Prime Minister Brown: We, the American people, wish to apologize for the impudence displayed by the White House …”

But then, maybe insulting the leaders of other nations is AKA’s idea of the “new era of responsibility,” fitting right in with the lewd, crude, coarse Alinsky style of community organizing? Look out, Congress, if you don’t bow to AKA’s agenda, those pledging their support on AKA's brown-shirt website may well conduct a sit-in in your bathrooms in support of their “messiah” and his Marxist mentor, Saul Alinsky!

While the lamestream media yawned, AKA appointed “American Taliban” member John Walker Lindh’s defense attorney, Tony West, as assistant attorney general in charge of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Division. Of course, the fact that Mr West raised $65 million for AKA had nothing to do with his appointment, you understand!

This is in keeping with the stream of corrupt, tax dodging, conflict of interest nominees, including those forbidden lobbyists, that just keep cropping up like bad pennies in the AKA administration that was going to have none of that sort of thing going on. But hey, the Marxist pool of talent is so limited, don’t you know?

And lest pornography be left out of the equation, the senate last week confirmed David Ogden to the second-ranking position of deputy-attorney general; Ogden best known for his defending those accused of pornography. Maybe he can do something about those pornographic pictures that appear to be Stanley Ann Dunham circulating on the internet!

And to round out the debauchery, it seems that AKA now has his sights set on veterans. He thinks it would be a grand idea if, after they get shot up, blown up, and injured while fighting illegal “police actions” in far off places, that their health care needs be taken care of by private insurance. What a swell guy! Veterans should feel privileged that AKA shows such appreciation for their service to this country!! You just gotta believe he truly feels your pain!

And lest we forget, AKA has set about to reward unions for supporting his candidacy. On February 6, 2009, AKA signed executive order 13502 “encouraging” government contracts over $25 million include costly project labor agreements (PLA’s). PLA’s require that contractors and subcontractors agree to recognize that the union represents their employees. As 84% of all construction workers do not belong to a labor union, such actually represents a windfall to the unions at taxpayer expense, increasing the cost of construction projects substantially. But hey, what’s a few million here and a few million there. No problem, the taxpayers can afford it!

AKA also believes in the First Amendment guaranteeing free speech so long as it is he speaking freely and everyone else listens. When people speak out against his Marxist ideology, that isn’t free speech, that’s destructive to progress and those people must be held accountable. AKA, you understand, doesn’t believe in discrimination! And I have a bridge to nowhere I’ll sell real cheap!

And just so no one is left out, AKA is working diligently to socialize healthcare so you only get the care the government decides you need, forbids alternative medicine, vitamins, minerals and supplements that would undoubtedly be far more beneficial. Having your healthcare completely under government control means you will conform to the Marxist line or be denied life-saving healthcare.

The same applies to food. AKA is moving to destroy small farms, organic farms and your right to have your own garden (HR 875 and S 425), all under the guise of “food safety.” The goal is not food safety, which is truly a problem with commercial concerns, but controlling your ability to eat. If you want to eat, you will conform to the Marxist philosophy.

If, by this point in the AKA debauchery, people have not figured out that this man is a liar who couldn’t tell the truth if it would serve him better; an empty suit dangling from puppeteers strings; a snake oil salesman; a smooth talking con man; then there is no hope for change!

Americans are watching as AKA, with the help of the Democrat-controlled Congress and the Progressive Caucus, spends money like it was water running from a tap at a time when Americans are losing their jobs, homes and ability to feed themselves; throws extravagant parties while the American people suffer; and works feverishly to implement laws in the name of helping people that do nothing but further oppress the people.

It is becoming increasingly clear to all but the most ardent obamanoids that AKA is a narcissistic Marxist who lusts after power and cares not one iota for the plight of the people of this country. In short, he is dangerous to the continued freedom, liberty and justice afforded the American people by our Constitution and Bill of Rights. While playing to the poor, the downtrodden, the minorities, they are being used by AKA to get what he wants. And if he gets what he wants, which is absolute power, he will laugh at their gullibility in believing he would help them just as Hitler laughed at the downtrodden, poor and minorities who helped him gain absolute power.

Some, looking at AKA’s obvious excesses since moving into the White House — the spendthrift bills that will push this country into a full-blown depression, his extravagant partying at the expense of the people, his insulting of foreign heads of state, wonder if this is just a man out of his element or if this is deliberate.

Make no mistake, while AKA is obviously a man out of his element, his actions with regard to running this country into the ground are deliberate.

Any individual who has worked for a living knows that you cannot spend more than you make and get ahead of the game; that writing checks with no money in the bank to cover them is a one-way street to bankruptcy; that living beyond your means is a fools game.

Yet that is exactly what AKA is doing. And he is being aided in that by Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

AKA was, and may still be, a member of the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA) New Party; a membership that both he and the New Party have attempted to deny.

AKA hates everything this nation stands for. He is a Marxist, through and through, right down to those he associates with, including William Ayres and Bernadine Dohrn. People are known by the company they keep, even when they try to deny that relationship after twenty years of attending a church where anti-American hate is spewed from the pulpit and the victimology of Black Liberation Theology is the course served up exclusively.

And while AKA told the people that he was about “hope” and “change”, he has filled his administration with the same old anti-American, pro-globalist crowd from the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg group. The more things change, the more they stay the same!

The people have requested AKA prove his eligibility to the office he holds. While claiming his administration would be “transparent” and “open”, he has refused, spending hundreds of thousands if not millions on attorneys to keep that information from being made public. In this endeavor, the courts have been complicit, right down the line, offering various excuses — from standing, to the cases being “moot” after the fact, to being frivolous, to the eligibility issue being the duty of Congress. Congresses says the courts must decide the issue; the courts say it’s the duty of Congress. The same old blame game we’ve seen so many times before.

The evidence that AKA is not natural born, is not even an American citizen, is over-whelming to all but ardent obamanoid worshippers who run on the mantra “don’t confuse me with the facts.”

AKA is what he is and if the American people plan on saving this nation, they better come to the realization of what he is and give him the boot; sooner rather than later.

The emperor truly has no clothes!

© 2009 Lynn M. Stuter - All Rights Reserved

Activist and researcher, Stuter has spent the last fifteen years researching systems theory and systems philosophy with a particular emphasis on education as it pertains to achieving the sustainable global environment. She home schooled two daughters. She has worked with legislators, both state and federal, on issues pertaining to systems governance, the sustainable global environment and education reform. She networks nationwide with other researchers and a growing body of citizens concerned with the transformation of our nation from a Constitutional Republic to a participatory democracy. She has traveled the United States and lived overseas.

Web site: www.learn-usa.com

E-Mail: lmstuter@learn-usa.com 

http://www.newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter147.htm

HR 875/S425: Lose your property for growing food?

GROUND CONTROL

Big Brother legislation could mean prosecution, fines up to $1 million

Posted: March 16, 2009
8:56 pm Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Some small farms and organic food growers could be placed under direct supervision of the federal government under new legislation making its way through Congress.

Food Safety Modernization Act

House Resolution 875, or the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in February. DeLauro's husband, Stanley Greenburg, conducts research for Monsanto – the world's leading producer of herbicides and genetically engineered seed.

DeLauro's act has 39 co-sponsors and was referred to the House Agriculture Committee on Feb. 4. It calls for the creation of a Food Safety Administration to allow the government to regulate food production at all levels – and even mandates property seizure, fines of up to $1 million per offense and criminal prosecution for producers, manufacturers and distributors who fail to comply with regulations.

Michael Olson, host of the Food Chain radio show and author of "Metro Farm," told WND the government should focus on regulating food production in countries such as China and Mexico rather than burdening small and organic farmers in the U.S. with overreaching regulations.

"We need somebody to watch over us when we're eating food that comes from thousands and thousands of miles away. We need some help there," he said. "But when food comes from our neighbors or from farmers who we know, we don't need all of those rules. If your neighbor sells you something that is bad and you get sick, you are going to get your hands on that farmer, and that will be the end of it. It regulates itself."

The legislation would establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services "to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes."

Federal regulators will be tasked with ensuring that food producers, processors and distributors – both large and small – prevent and minimize food safety hazards such as food-borne illnesses and contaminants such as bacteria, chemicals, natural toxins or manufactured toxicants, viruses, parasites, prions, physical hazards or other human pathogens.


Under the legislation's broad wording, slaughterhouses, seafood processing plants, establishments that process, store, hold or transport all categories of food products prior to delivery for retail sale, farms, ranches, orchards, vineyards, aquaculture facilities and confined animal-feeding operations would be subject to strict government regulation.

Government inspectors would be required to visit and examine food production facilities, including small farms, to ensure compliance. They would review food safety records and conduct surveillance of animals, plants, products or the environment.

"What the government will do is bring in industry experts to tell them how to manage all this stuff," Olson said. "It's industry that's telling government how to set these things up. What it always boils down to is who can afford to have the most influence over the government. It would be those companies that have sufficient economies of scale to be able to afford the influence – which is, of course, industrial agriculture."

Farms and food producers would be forced to submit copies of all records to federal inspectors upon request to determine whether food is contaminated, to ensure they are in compliance with food safety laws and to maintain government tracking records. Refusal to register, permit inspector access or testing of food or equipment would be prohibited.

"What is going to happen is that local agriculture will end up suffering through some onerous protocols designed for international agriculture that they simply don't need," Olson said. "Thus, it will be a way for industrial agriculture to manage local agriculture."

Under the act, every food producer must have a written food safety plan describing likely hazards and preventative controls they have implemented and must abide by "minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water."

"That opens a whole can of worms," Olson said. "I think that's where people are starting to freak out about losing organic agriculture. Who is going to decide what the minimum standards are for fertilization or anything else? The government is going to bring in big industry and say we are setting up these protocols, so what do you think we should do? Who is it going to bring in to ask? The government will bring in people who have economies of scale who have that kind of influence."

DeLauro's act calls for the Food Safety Administration to create a "national traceability system" to retrieve history, use and location of each food product through all stages of production, processing and distribution.

Olson believes the regulations could create unjustifiable financial hardships for small farmers and run them out of business.

"That is often the purpose of rules and regulations: to get rid of your competition," he said. "Only people who are very, very large can afford to comply. They can hire one person to do paperwork. There's a specialization of labor there, and when you are very small, you can't afford to do all of these things."

Olson said despite good intentions behind the legislation, this act could devastate small U.S. farms.

"Every time we pass a rule or a law or a regulation to make the world a better place, it seems like what we do is subsidize production offshore," he said. "We tell farmers they can no longer drive diesel tractors because they make bad smoke. Well, essentially what we're doing is giving China a subsidy to grow our crops for us, or Mexico or anyone else."

Section 304 of the Food Safety Modernization Act establishes a group of "experts and stakeholders from Federal, State, and local food safety and health agencies, the food industry, consumer organizations, and academia" to make recommendations for improving food-borne illness surveillance.

According to the act, "Any person that commits an act that violates the food safety law … may be assessed a civil penalty by the Administrator of not more than $1,000,000 for each such act."

Each violation and each separate day the producer is in defiance of the law would be considered a separate offense and an additional penalty. The act suggests federal administrators consider the gravity of the violation, the degree of responsibility and the size and type of business when determining penalties.

Criminal sanctions may be imposed if contaminated food causes serious illness or death, and offenders may face fines and imprisonment of up to 10 years.

"It's just frightening what can happen with good intentions," Olson said. "It's probably the most radical notions on the face of this Earth, but local agriculture doesn't need government because it takes care of itself."

Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act


Another "food safety" bill that has organic and small farmers worried is Senate Bill 425, or the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act, sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Brown's bill is backed by lobbyists for Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland and Tyson. It was introduced in September and has been referred to the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. Some say the legislation could also put small farmers out of business.

Like HR 875, the measure establishes a nationwide "traceability system" monitored by the Food and Drug Administration for all stages of manufacturing, processing, packaging and distribution of food. It would cost $40 million over three years.

"We must ensure that the federal government has the ability and authority to protect the public, given the global nature of the food supply," Brown said when he introduced the bill. He suggested the FDA and USDA have power to declare mandatory recalls.

The government would track food shipped in interstate commerce through a recordkeeping and audit system, a secure, online database or registered identification. Each farmer or producer would be required to maintain records regarding the purchase, sale and identification of their products.

A 13-member advisory committee of food safety and tracking technology experts, representatives of the food industry, consumer advocates and government officials would assist in implementing the traceability system.

The bill calls for the committee to establish a national database or registry operated by the Food and Drug Administration. It also proposes an electronic records database to identify sales of food and its ingredients "establishing that the food and its ingredients were grown, prepared, handled, manufactured, processed, distributed, shipped, warehoused, imported, and conveyed under conditions that ensure the safety of the food."

It states, "The records should include an electronic statement with the date of, and the names and addresses of all parties to, each prior sale, purchase, or trade, and any other information as appropriate."

If government inspectors find that a food item is not in compliance, they may force producers to cease distribution, recall the item or confiscate it.

"If the postal service can track a package from my office in Washington to my office in Cincinnati, we should be able to do the same for food products," Sen. Brown said in a Sept. 4, 2008, statement. "Families that are struggling with the high cost of groceries should not also have to worry about the safety of their food. This legislation gives the government the resources it needs to protect the public."


Recalls of contaminated food are usually voluntary; however, in his weekly radio address on March 15, President Obama announced he's forming a Food Safety Working Group to propose new laws and stop corruption of the nation's food.

The group will review, update and enforce food safety laws, which Obama said "have not been updated since they were written in the time of Teddy Roosevelt."

The president said outbreaks from contaminated foods, such as a recent salmonella outbreak among consumers of peanut products, have occurred more frequently in recent years due to outdated regulations, fewer inspectors, scaled back inspections and a lack of information sharing between government agencies.

"In the end, food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your president but as a parent," Obama said. "No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch just as no family should have to worry that the medicines they buy will cause them harm."

The blogosphere is buzzing with comments on the legislation, including the following:

  • Obama and his cronies or his puppetmasters are trying to take total control – nationalize everything, disarm the populace, control food, etc. We are seeing the formation of a total police state.
  • Well ... that's not very " green " of Obama. What's his real agenda?
  • This is getting way out of hand! Isn't it enough the FDA already allows poisons in our foods?
  • If you're starving, no number of guns will enable you to stay free. That's the whole idea behind this legislation. He who controls the food really makes the rules.
  • The government is terrified of the tax loss. Imagine all the tax dollars lost if people actually grew their own vegetables! Imagine if people actually coordinated their efforts with family, friends and neighbors. People could be in no time eating for the price of their own effort. ... Oh the horror of it all! The last thing the government wants is for us to be self-sufficient.
  • They want to make you dependent upon government. I say no way! already the government is giving away taxes from my great great grandchildren and now they want to take away my food, my semi-auto rifles, my right to alternative holistic medicine? We need a revolution, sheeple! Wake up! They want fascism ... can you not see that?
  •  The screening processes will make it very expensive for smaller farmers, where bigger agriculture corporations can foot the bill.
  • If anything it just increases accountability, which is arguably a good thing. It pretty much says they'll only confiscate your property if there are questions of contamination and you don't comply with their inspections. I think the severity of this has been blown out of proportion by a lot of conjecture.
  • Don't waste your time calling the criminals in D.C. and begging them to act like humans. This will end with a bloody revolt.
  • The more I examine this (on the surface) seemingly innocuous bill the more I hate it. It is a coward's ploy to push out of business small farms and farmers markets without actually making them illegal because many will choose not to operate due to the compliance issue.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92002

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION TODAY AND KEEP THE PRESSURE ON TO STOP FACTORY FARMING AND GMO'S!

Monday, March 9, 2009

ACTION ALERT: BEWARE THE FOOD POLICE!

HR 875/S425 WOULD NATIONALIZE FARMING, DESTROY ORGANICS, ATTACK YOUR PRIVATE GARDEN!

The New Administration is pushing Farm Control that will drive Organic Farms out of Business: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epXNJNjYBvw

Buried in the bills are fine print that will force farmers to buy and use pesticides and to comply with severely onerous red tape (ostensibly to "protect consumers") or be driven out of business by gigantic fines.

It is "claimed" and being presented to establish a "Food Safety Administration" with in the Department of Health and Human Services to "protect" the public from food born illnesses... but as usual, nothing that happens in DC is actually the way it seems on the surface- its all smoke and mirrors- all LIES!!!

Congresswoman Rosa De Lauro (D-CT) deserves burial by phone call, fax, email and irate personal visits for sponsoring the slimiest piece of legislation I've seen in a very long time: HR 875 The (So Called) Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-875

This bill aleady has 31 cosponsors who most likely never read anything more than the PREAMBLE to the bill which seems reasonable enough, but as usual, the DEVIL is in the DETAILS. Peter Defazio (D-OR) is even cosponsoring this. He needs to REMOVE HIS NAME, and I think he will once he realizes whats actually in this bill. He is normally on our side against huge corporate powers like Monsanto, but in this case he's clearly making a mistake.

Whats driving this despicable P.O.S. was the recent contaminated Peanut Plant in Georgia http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,497425,00.html

As usual, Monsanto's lobbyists are up to no good, however, and they've stuck language into this puppy that needs to be yanked outa there PRONTO- and we're all going to have to do some work to make that happen!

If we don't, you can say goodbye to all that nice organic produce that you buy at your health food store, in the organics section of your supermarket, from farmers markets, and you can even expect to have the Fedstapo show up on your DOORSTEP to FINE you for growing a garden in your own YARD- THAT is how overly broad the bill language in this thing is!

Check it out: Full Text: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:h875:

HERE IS WHATS SPECIFICALLY WRONG AND WHAT YOU CAN DO:

This bill is sitting in committee and I am not sure when it is going to hit the floor.  One thing I do know is that very few of the Representatives have read it.  As usual they will vote on this based on what someone else is saying.  Urge your members to read the legislation and ask for opposition to this devastating legislation.  Devastating for everyday folks but great for factory farming ops like Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo and Tyson to name a few.

I have no doubt that this legislation was heavily influenced by lobbyists from huge food producers.  This legislation is so broad based that technically someone with a little backyard garden could get fined and have their property siezed.   It will effect anyone who produces food even if they do not sell but only consume it.  It will literally put all independent farmers and food producers out of business due to the huge amounts of money it will take to conform to factory farming methods. 

If people choose to farm without industry standards such as chemical pesticides and fertilizers they will be subject to a vareity of harassment from this completely new agency that has never before existed.  That's right, a whole new government agency is being created just to police food, for our own protection of course. 

DO NOT TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, READ THIS LEGISLATION FOR YOURSELF.

The more people who read this legislation the more insight we are going to get and be able to share. 

Post your observations and insights below. 

Urge your members to read this legislation and to oppose the passage of this legislation.

Pay special attention to:

Section 3 which is the definitions portion of the bill-read in it's entirety.
Section 103, 206 and 207- read in its entirety.

Red flags I found and I am sure that there are more:

Legally binds state agriculture depts to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the States’ power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.

Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic.

Affects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.

Affects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game.

Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal.  There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.   

Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation. It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation. Who do you think they are going to side with?

Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities. The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more

Section 207 requires that the State's agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements. This takes away the State’s power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.

There are many more but by the time I got this far in the legislation I was so alarmed that I wanted to bring someone's attention to it

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s425:

During times of Stalin’s regime, the nationalization of farming methods took place. This enabled his administration to gain control over the food supply. He used food rations to control the population.

Last word. Legislate religion, and enforce gag orders on ministers, controlling what can and can't be said in the pulpit, instituting regulations forcing people to rely fully on the government, control the format of money (cash, plastic or digital), seeds and food.

I haven't read any of the Senate's version of the bill as I have been pouring through the House's version. Here is the link and I hope some of you can take a look and post your observations and insights below.

S 425 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s425: 

Theres also a chance that as this bill moves through Congressman Waxman's Energy and Commerce Committee, he could use it as a vehicle for attacking the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act of 1994 which defends our access to dietary supplements. Waxman is DSHEA's biggest opponent in Congress and he's never had more power than he has now. IAHF is especially monitoring this aspect of the bill, but the rest is very bad as it is!

Things you can do:

Contact your members at 202-224-3121 (Capital Switchboard) and ask them to oppose HR 875 and S 425. While you are at it ask them if they personally have read the legislation and what their position is? If they have not read the legislation ask them to read it and politely let them know that just because other representitives are not reading the legislation and voting on it does not mean they can do the same  

Get in touch with local farmers and food producers by attending a local farmers market and asking them how you can understand further the implications that this will have on them

Attend a local WAPF meeting, as a good start to learning about what is going on in farming and local & state initiatives .  The website is http://www.westonaprice.org/localchapters/index.html

Check out the Farmers Legal Defense Fund at http://www.ftcldf.org/index.html

Find out who sits on your State’s agriculture and farming committee and contact them with your concerns

Continue to contact your elected officials and let them know your position on legislation and why

Get active at the local and State levels as this is the quickest way to initiate change.

I will be out of my office for a week, leaving Wednesday to work with a client in California, but I sure would appreciate if you forwarded this widely! Anyone can be on the IAHF list by signing up at www.iahf.com

Donations make it possible for me to do this Health Freedom work. If you appreciate this timely heads up, please consider sending a donation to IAHF via paypal at http://www.iahf.com/index1.html or by sending a check or money order to IAHF 556 Boundary Bay Rd., Point Roberts WA 98281 USA

For Health Freedom, John C. Hammell, President International Advocates for Health Freedom 556 Boundary Bay Road Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702 USA http://www.iahf.com jham@iahf.com 800-333-2553 N.America 360-945-0352 World