This is really important. I had no idea this was going on. I am not sure what to do about this but I am bringing the info to a farmers market meeting tomorrow. I don't know how to post web sites but if you go to: hr875 AND HR 875 you will get different articles. I liked hr875 best.
owl

This is a link I found on HR875.

http://www.govtrack.us/congres...xt.xpd?bill=h111-875

Just out of curiosity, please post the reference in that bill that refers to "no more organic seeds."

I read it carefully, and that just doesn't appear anywhere in the bill.

I've also seen posts elswhere that claims this bill outlaws backyard gardens and organic farms. It seems to me the scaremongers are at work again.

Please correct me if I'm wrong with specific references in the bill.

Thank you.

Wayne

The thread on 'over the fence' lists two states and sorta hints at this being a federal bill.

Ya' know I'm not going to search, or to the links. If anybody actually comes up with a federal or a state HB or HR and a link to it I'll go look at that. At the state or federal site.

I think I'm being told fairy tails.

They'll get my seeds when they pry them from my cold dead hands!

quote:

Originally posted by Tom C zone 4/5:

Ya' know I'm not going to search, or to the links. If anybody actually comes up with a federal or a state HB or HR and a link to it I'll go look at that. At the state or federal site.

HR875

S.425

Wayne

Wayne, both your links lead to HR 875. The Senate bill contains language that requires people who transport their produce over state lines (i.e., to a farmers market in the next state) to attach a means of identifying and tracking the individual pieces of produce. And it requires additional bookkeeping.

quote:

Originally posted by wd8izh:
Wayne, both your links lead to HR 875.

The second one seems to work for me. It leads to the PDF file of S.425, the Senate version of HR 875.

Wayne

quote:

Originally posted by Dirt Pit:
They'll get my seeds when they pry them from my cold dead hands!

Yep! And if gardens are outlawed, only outlaws will have gardens!

--J--

Maybe I am over reating to this bill. I admitt I have been reading alot of chatter and opinions and from posters. I have beed very busy so I didn't read the bill and should have before I posted this message. The part that I read that botherd me the most is that Monsanto is slightly changing the seeds and then getting a patton on them. Their goal is to patton all seeds. I tried to copy and paste some of the things I was reading but I guess I don't know how. Sorry- I will be more careful next time.
owl

I admit I am a lazy reader sometimes. But I did try to read some of whay you posted Wayne, and by the way, thank you for your diligence in providing information to us.

Which article/bill has the thing about home gardening? From what I did read about what was under S,425... That is going to be a bear to enforce. Do you think those people picking produce outside to the US is going to keep those kind of records?

Is this going to impact folks who grow produce for the farmer's market? If it is like everything else in this crazy country... the only people who will be effected will be the honest hard working small farmers... the big guys will just make up records.. but they won't change anything about how they collect or process the produce/food. If the big juys get caught... it would be their preference to pay the fines rather than try to keep records as precise as that bill advocates.

Here is an OCA posting that even Wayne would applaud:

This week, we received numerous calls and emails from OCA supporters who came across alarming YouTube videos and emails circulating on the internet that claimed a new food safety bill (HR 875) introduced in Congress would make "organic farming illegal." Although the Bill certainly has its shortcomings, it is an exaggeration to say that is a secret plot by Monsanto and the USDA to destroy the nation's alternative food and farming system. In actuality, HR 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, is a limited-vision attempt by moderate Democrats and Republicans to craft food safety legislation to address the out-of-control filth and contamination that are inherent in our industrialized, now globalized, "profit-at-any-cost" food system.

This being said, OCA does not support HR 875 in its present form, given the fact that, if the Bill's regulations were applied in a one-size-fits-all manner to certified organic and farm-to-consumer operations, it could have a devastating impact on small farmers, especially raw milk producers who are already unfairly targeted by state food-safety regulators.

Although the OCA deems this Bill as somewhat well-intentioned, we are calling on Congress to focus its attention on the real threats to food safety: globalized food sourcing from nations such as China where food safety is a joke and domestic industrial-scale and factory farms whose collateral damage includes pesticide and antibiotic-tainted food, mad cow disease, E.coli contamination and salmonella poisoning.

And, of course, Congress and the Obama Administration need to support a massive transition to organic farming practices.

Thanks for posting that, Bill. Perhaps it will help the discussion by taking the wind out of the sails of government-haters and the tin foil hat crowd and let it focus on real concerns of those who may actually be affected and the benefits it may have on food safety in our country.

Wayne

From what I read... This bill wouldn't be too bad for us consumers.. From what I read.. it would be a good idea to know where your food comes from.. So how many people care about whre their food comes from in January when they have a craving for Strawberries, tomatoes, etc. etc.

Like I said... the bill has is faults. I can't see getting big companies to abide by the regulations.

Perhaps we will all have to live like we did when we were "younguns".. Eat what your family put up during the summer. We will all have to eat a lot more greens to get our daily requirements.

The big problem is for anyone who takes produce across state lines for sale (i.e., I sell at a farmers market in Indiana while I live in Michigan). According to S425, as "Interstate Commerce", I can be required to label each "food unit" (i.e., each bean pod, each tomato, each ear of corn, etc) and keep records of the acquisition and disposal (purchase, or growth, and sale) on a unit-by-unit basis. This is esscentially meaning I have to have a serial number for each item I sell and will have to list this in my bookkeeping. Anybody care to do all that labeling and bookkeeping for me? for free (I do my own bookkeeping right now and don't pay myself for it because I don't make THAT much money)?