URGENT: Bill Pending to OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING

[Xplorr7]

I apologize for the C&P. If you are skeptical, please look it up.

Please take action on this by calling and writing your House and Senate representatives.

This is not a typical issue, but as many people as possible need to find out about it and ACT NOW before it is too late.

Here is what’s going on: US House and Senate are about (in a week and a half) to vote on bill that will OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING (Bill HR 875). There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next 2 weeks before people realize what is happening.

Main backer and lobbyist is (guess who?) Monsanto, chemical and genetic engineering giant corporation. This 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”. 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 but only Monsanto genetically altered seeds that are now showing up with unexpected diseases in humans.

There is a video on the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thE54K3PaTY

And another one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeWVkTU1s1E

The name on this outrageous food plan is Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (Bill HR 875).

THIS IS REAL, PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS & CALL YOUR SENATE REPRESENTETIVES TODAY! Get on that phone and burn up the wires. Get anyone else you can to do the same thing. The House and Senate WILL pass this if they are not massively threatened with loss of their position…. They only fear your voice and your vote.

The best thing to do is go to www.house.gov/writerep all you have to do is put in your zip and it will give you your congress person and how to get in touch with them. When you call their office someone will answer the phone, just tell them (politely) that you are calling to express your views on HR 875. Tell them your views, they’ll take your name and address and pass your comments along to the congressperson. The following link http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm is a list of the U.S. senators and their contact info.

 

[JohnnySavage]

I read the bill and didn't see anything outlawing organic farming. Perhaps you can direct me to that section:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875

 

[Xplorr7]

I read the bill and didn't see anything outlawing organic farming. Perhaps you can direct me to that section:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875

I heard about this from a reliable source and wanted to get the word out, and so am just now reading the legislation. It is fairly subtle in how it is written i.e. does not directly outlaw organic farming. Provisions in the bill would make it cost prohibitive for organic and small farmers to comply, effectively turning over food sources to corporate farmers.

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.

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

 

[John Doe]

Death to the hippies!

 

[TurdFergeson]

You honestly think the Feds are going to be combing through peoples' backyard gardens?

For one, it's logistically impossible, there's not enough people to check existing farmlands, let alone every private greenhouse or garden in the USA.

Psst: they can't even keep millions of illegal aliens out.

But now they will be checking grandma's sweet potatoes for "food safety"?

Oooooookkkkkkkkk

 

[sufisaint]

Bury small farms with paper work, regulation enforcement and inspections, it seems the government must control every last thing so we are all safe...

 

[TurdFergeson]

Bury small farms with paper work, regulation enforcement and inspections, it seems the government must control every last thing so we are all safe...

Small farms can easily infect large farms...avian flu, and so many other livestock diseases and things.

Look at places with very little regulation, like China.



There are almost always outbreaks worldwide:

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/

 

[Ham Murabi]

Small farms can easily infect large farms...avian flu, and so many other livestock diseases and things.

Look at places with very little regulation, like China.



There are almost always outbreaks worldwide:

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/

So you're coming to the defense of big business now?
This measure is tilted to favor Monsanto, and it does put roadside fruit and vegetable stands at risk. The law is an intended response to the salmonella outbreak, but it has clearly expanded beyond that point to just another sop to a big donor.

 

[TurdFergeson]

So you're coming to the defense of big business now?
This measure is tilted to favor Monsanto, and it does put roadside fruit and vegetable stands at risk. The law is an intended response to the salmonella outbreak, but it has clearly expanded beyond that point to just another sop to a big donor.

Salmonella outbreaks really put those stands at risk. In Mexico or Bahamas you are warned to never eat local grown fruits or vegetables from roadside stands or vendors. Why? God knows what they used for fertilizer or where they were grown, etc.

 

[sufisaint]

Small farms can easily infect large farms...avian flu, and so many other livestock diseases and things.

Look at places with very little regulation, like China.



There are almost always outbreaks worldwide:

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/

So lets get rid of small organic farms...WTF.

 

[phrodeau]

(edited)
If this passes then NO more heirloom clean seeds but only Monsanto genetically altered seeds that are now showing up with unexpected diseases in humans.

Every food source, animal and vegetable, has been genetically modified through artificial selection for thousands of years already.

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

I heard about this from a reliable source and wanted to get the word out, and so am just now reading the legislation. It is fairly subtle in how it is written i.e. does not directly outlaw organic farming. Provisions in the bill would make it cost prohibitive for organic and small farmers to comply, effectively turning over food sources to corporate farmers.

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.

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

I'd say the problem here is that your source is full of shit.


I read the bill. Nowhere does it even imply regulating personal gardens or outlawing organic farming. It does establish much needed regulations for food processing facilities and packaging as well as stricter standards for food service facilities and restaurants.

The implication that this bill would force any grower to use specific fertilizers or insecticides is false. The only time pesticides are even mentioned in the bill they are talking about residue left on produce sent to market that could be potentially dangerous. meaning the storage and shipping facilities must ensure that produce has been properly cleaned and handled before shipment. Likewise with regards to fertilizer use.

It requires higher standards for monitoring our food supply and more frequent testing to prevent the sort of disaster that happened recently with tainted produce (peanuts) being packaged and shipped to schools and hospitals for human consumption.

From Organicconsumers.org

Internet Myth of the week:
Congress To Pass Bill That Will Outlaw Organic Farming?

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.


So their only real complaint with the bill is that it will regulate "farmer to consumer" and raw milk producers in the same way that larger producers are regulated, effectively holding them to a single standard. Of course they also want a mass transition to only organic farming too.



Basically, it makes anyone who produces food for sale:

1) register with the Dept of Health,

2) get food handlers cards and have their operation inspected, and

3) it creates a single agency to oversee food production instead of the 15 agencies we currently have.

Oh noes!!

 

[Le Jacquelope]

And if they can't GET the avian flu to actually happen in an organic farm, they'll MAKE it happen just to scapegoat them.

*headdesk*

 

[MechaBlade]

Every food source, animal and vegetable, has been genetically modified through artificial selection for thousands of years already.

Truth.

ETA: I love the video where Kirk Cameron talks about how bananas are proof of Creationism because they are easy to hold and peel, and eat. I don't know where to begin.