Action Alert: 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 some of the Internet reports are not completely accurate, HR 875 does pose serious problems for small 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.
Congress faces a lot of pressure to improve the safety of the mainstream food supply. But these bills all take a "one-size-fits-all" approach and would create significant burdens on small farms, which are not the source of the food safety problems. Congress needs to focus on solving the real problems, not simply expanding agencies! The federal agencies' past actions clearly show that, unless Congress places strict limits, 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 call their Congressmen with 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 S425, S510, HR 814, HR 759, and HR 875. Ask that they support a food safety bill that focuses on the real threats to food safety, such as uninspected imports from China and lack of inspections of massive slaughterhouses and other factory processing.

Tell them you want any food safety bill to explicitly exempt small farmers. Explain that this issue cannot be left to the agencies' discretion, and you want new regulations expressly limited to the large factory farms and processing facilities, not small and local producers.

Go to http://farmandranchfreedom.org...food_safety_bills_09 for more information on the food safety bills.

If you are a producer, get this info to your customers. There are not enough farmers and ranchers to keep this legislation from passing. It will take a grass roots uprising of all of our committed customers and other interested consumers to keep it from happening. Thank you for getting involved."

HR759 Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009
http://www.govtrack.us/congres...ll.xpd?bill=h111-759
S425 Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act
HR875 Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009
HR814 TRACE Act of 2009

Give us a legitimate link. I tried you link and I couldn't get there from here.

Like I said.. if the government plans to take away our ability to provide for ourselves.. they have got their hands full.

Can you produce a legitimate quote from the bills that would directly effect United States Farmers? Organic Farmers? folks that "Grow their Own"?

You need to know a lot about "Enforcement"...
I'm talking about folks I know that were descendents of the "Whiskey Rebellion".. you know in George Washington's day...


Like I said before... I've worked for the government... I know it's limitations. I know that the government only likes to walk on concrete. So........ Read some Kurt Vonnegut (SP?) novels....

"None of the bills recognize the fundamental differences in food safety between the industrial, centralized food system and the sustainable, local food system."

Farm And Ranch Freedom Alliance
Food Safety Bills in Congress

http://farmandranchfreedom.org...food_safety_bills_09

"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."

http://www.rense.com/general85/seeds.htm

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...ncy.cgi?qnum=oen7467

What are they going to do, throw us all in jail, along with all the marijuana smokers? According to an article in this past Sunday's Parade magazine (I know, such a shining beacon of journalism), the U.S. imprisons 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly 5x the world's average. Let's see if we can double that.

--J--

J.---Nope, they won't be jailing us unless the jails need gardners. Some law enforcement and political entities are much more interested in our land and this will give them one more way to take it away "legally" if we don't goose-step to their drummers. My grandpappy and my daddy were hemp farmers. How many of those critters roam free today?

quote:

Reply

No, they will leavy heavy fines that will drive us out of business and force our land to sale at the highest bidder. (and who has money these days to buy such land, mmm? )

quote:

Can you produce a legitimate quote from the bills that would directly effect United States Farmers?

Sec 206 of HR 875 regulates farms. From that:

quote:

(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 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, 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 fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water;

(4) include, with respect to animals raised for food, minimum standards related to the animal’s health, feed, and environment which bear on the safety of food for human consumption;

(5) provide a reasonable period of time for compliance, taking into account the needs of small businesses for additional time to comply;

(6) provide for coordination of education and enforcement activities by State and local officials, as designated by the Governors of the respective States; and

(7) include a description of the variance process under subsection (d) and the types of permissible variances which the Administrator may grant under such process.;

quote:

Originally posted by yetanotherfarmer:
.... shall promulgate regulations to establish science-based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities.

Somewhere you must have read a definition of "food production facilities."

Please provide that information as defined by U.S. Codes.

As defined in HR 875, the bill would establish an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to be known as the Food Safety Administration. This new agency would regulate food safety and be given draconian police powers and regulatory authority.

Section 3 of the bill defines what type of establishments would be subject to regulations in this bill. It defines a food production facility as the following:
The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.

It defines a food establishment as the following:
The term ‘food establishment’ means a slaughterhouse (except those regulated under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or the Poultry Products Inspection Act), factory, warehouse, or facility owned or operated by a person located in any State that processes food or a facility that holds, stores, or transports food or food ingredients.

These terms and others defined in the definitions section of the bill are so broadly defined that it would potentially subject home gardeners and organic farmers to many unnecessary government regulations under the guise of keeping the food supply safe.

The Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA) has a good summary concerning the latest Food Bills:

"HR 814, HR 759, S 425, and S 510. HR 814 all take a "one-size-fits-all" approach and would create significant burdens on small farms, which are not the source of the food safety problems. Congress needs to focus on solving the real problems, not simply expanding agencies! The federal agencies' past actions clearly show that, unless Congress places strict limits, they will impose burdensome and unfair regulations and enforcement actions on small farms."

Here's information I got about "banning" organic farming

http://www.washingtonwatch.com...111_HR_875.html#toc1

We need to help kill this proposed legislation!

Can you believe that they are trying to pass a bill REQUIRING use of CHEMICALS on all cultivated soils to protect the public. It seems that the sponsor's husband is on Monsanto's payroll; no surprise. Read on to see what we can do to stop this bill with 40 sponsors from becoming a law none of us want.


Please read through the following information. When you're finished, please make the calls and send this to everyone including small local farms that you know. This is really frightening and substantially takes away our crucial rights. We must do all we can to ensure that something like this is never allowed to happen.
US House and Senate are about (in a week and a half) to vote on a bill that OUTLAWS ORGANIC FARMING (Bill HR 875). The name on this outrageous food plan is Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 ... And, there is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next 2 weeks before people realize what is happening.
This bill must have been handled in a really stealthy manner, since it came out of nowhere in the last week. No doubt, the way it's backers, "the Agri-Giants" wanted it. Perhaps a coincidence with "Spring Break" and many people out of town in the weeks before. With enough congressmen signing bills without reading them, there's no time to sleep on this one. How do you organize all these small farmers to fight the big guys? Spread it far and wide my friends.

Make a noise.
The main backer and lobbyist is Monsanto - chemical and genetic engineering giant corporation (and Cargill, ADM, and about 35 other related agri-giants). This bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by a newly formed agency to "make sure there is no danger to the public food supply". This will include backyard gardens that grow food only for a family and not for sales.

If this passes then NO more heirloom clean seeds will be allowed, but only Monsanto genetically altered seeds that are now showing up with unexpected diseases in humans.

Again, the best thing to do is go to https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml all you have to do is put in your zip and it will give you your congressperson and how to get in touch with them.

quote:

Originally posted by 1organicgirl:

Can you believe that they are trying to pass a bill REQUIRING use of CHEMICALS on all cultivated soils to protect the public. It seems that the sponsor's husband is on Monsanto's payroll; no surprise.

I'm hoping you are the one that can actually document your claims. I've given up on the cut and past artist to actually do so.

Simple requests:

First: please point to the text within the bill "REQUIRING use of CHEMICALS on all cultivated soils" as you have determined it to read. Please do not refer us to other websites that simply parrot your claims. Point to the actual section of the bills as introduced.

Second. Representative Rosa DeLauro's husband's firm had Monsanto as a client in the past. Please provide factual information concerning his current status, demonstrating that he is "on Monsanto's payroll" as you catagorically state. Please outline his current duties including his last date of employment with the company. I ask this because both Rep, Delauro and her husband, Stanley Greenberg, have both stated that Monsanto has not been a client of his for over 10 years. Please post your evidence to the contrary.

Thank you.

Wayne

Whether any of these Food Bills individually or collectively outright outlaw organic farming methods they certainly do NOT support organic farming and will price them out of business.

Below is Organic Consumers Association's stand on one of the Bills:

HR 875 Update:
Will the Real "Monsanto Bill" Please Stand Up?

News of a "Monsanto Bill to Criminalize Organic Farming" has been speeding around the internet. B]The Organic Consumers Fund, OCA's lobbying partner in Washington, DC, analyzed the bill and determined that we could not support food safety legislation like this that could be applied in a one-size-fits-all manner to all farms, including organic and farm-to-consumer operations -- especially a bill that references the National Animal Identification System[/B](a voluntary USDA animal tagging program that some influential members of Congress are trying to make mandatory for every owner of even a single farm animal). With these concerns, we put out this alert on March 12.

Nevertheless, we were alarmed by the misleading headlines attached to anti-HR 875 alerts. Even if this bill were passed as is today, it wouldn't criminalize organic farming. The bill would require farms to have a food safety plan, allow their records to be inspected, and comply with food safety regulations. To say this is tantamount to criminalization doesn't give organic farmers enough credit.

Worse, linking this bill to Monsanto (for no other reason than because the bill's sponsor Rosa DeLauro is married to political operative Stan Greenberg, who lists Monsanto as a past client) obscures the real damage Monsanto is doing in Congress. This past week, Monsanto got a bill passed in committee that forces GMOs on Africa.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob168.htm