Posted on 07/23/2009 5:11:36 AM PDT by FromLori
HR 2749 is being rushed through Congress, and the house may look to suspend the rules and fast track the bill at Obama’s request. Just what can we expect from this legislation? A lot more of the following:
Dick Peixoto planted hedges of fennel and flowering cilantro around his organic vegetable fields in the Pajaro Valley near Watsonville to harbor beneficial insects, an alternative to pesticides.
He has since ripped out such plants in the name of food safety, because his big customers demand sterile buffers around his crops. No vegetation. No water. No wildlife of any kind.
“I was driving by a field where a squirrel fed off the end of the field, and so 30 feet in we had to destroy the crop,” he said. “On one field where a deer walked through, didn’t eat anything, just walked through and you could see the tracks, we had to take out 30 feet on each side of the tracks and annihilate the crop.”
In the verdant farmland surrounding Monterey Bay, a national marine sanctuary and one of the world’s biological jewels, scorched-earth strategies are being imposed on hundreds of thousands of acres in the quest for an antiseptic field of greens. And the scheme is about to go national. (Lochhead, C. )
The question that must be asked is, do we really want to destroy our local organic farming industry by poisoning ponds, bulldozing crops and killing wildlife all in the name of food safety?
Recently someone asked why I thought that the current food safety legislation would jeopardize organic farming. This is why! People who have no idea what it is to farm, and are in collusion with large corporate food producers, buyers, and sellers, draft legislation that is intolerable to the environment and our health, all in the name of food safety, in order to promote corporate profit.
Recently someone asked why I thought that the current food safety legislation would jeopardize organic farming. This is why! People who have no idea what it is to farm, and are in collusion with large corporate food producers, buyers, and sellers, draft legislation that is intolerable to the environment and our health, all in the name of food safety, in order to promote corporate profit.
Not one instance in “16 years of handling nearly every major food-borne illness outbreak in America, has Seattle trial lawyer Bill Marler had a case where it’s been linked to a farmers’ market” (Marler, B.). Yet, farmer’s markets and local organic food growers who sell at these markets are included in this legislation, and factory farming scorched earth methods are forced on them.
The Scorched Earth Policy
It is impossible to sanitize the earth. When slash and burn methods are used to supposedly control pathogens in our food supply, nature’s natural balance is destroyed, and with it our health. “Sanitizing American agriculture, aside from being impossible, is foolhardy,” said UC Berkeley food guru Michael Pollan. (Lochhead, C.)
Invisible to a public that sees only the headlines of the latest food-safety scare – spinach, peppers and now cookie dough – ponds are being poisoned and bulldozed. Vegetation harboring pollinators and filtering storm runoff is being cleared. Fences and poison baits line wildlife corridors. Birds, frogs, mice and deer – and anything that shelters them – are caught in a raging battle in the Salinas Valley against E. coli O157:H7, a lethal, food-borne bacteria. (Lochhead, C.)
In fact, in the fierce battle to sanitize the earth, one thing has been overlooked:
Some science suggests that removing vegetation near field crops could make food less safe. Vegetation and wetlands are a landscape’s lungs and kidneys, filtering out not just fertilizers, sediments and pesticides, but also pathogens. UC Davis scientists found that vegetation buffers can remove as much as 98 percent of E. coli from surface water. UC Davis advisers warn that some rodents prefer cleared areas. (Lochhead, C.)
Food Safety Fraud Culprits
So who is behind this massive attack on our food supply? You guessed it – giant food retailers, agri-business, and anyone with a bankroll larger than the state of Texas. It seems that paying “more than $100 million in court settlements and verdicts in spinach and lettuce lawsuits” (Lochhead, C.) as well as realizing a loss in sales is galvanizing these corporate giants to lead the charge in instituting a “quasi-governmental program of new protocols for growing greens safely, called the “leafy greens marketing agreement.””
A proposal was submitted last month in Washington to take these rules nationwide.” (Lochhead, C.) And just what is this proposal? HR 2749 Food Safety Enhancement Act.
A food safety bill sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, passed this month in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It would give new powers to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate all farms and produce in an attempt to fix the problem. The bill would require consideration of farm diversity and environmental rules, but would leave much to the FDA. (Lochhead, C.)
The requirements of this bill would put small farmers out of business entirely, but this is not the only threat to the little guy.
Large produce buyers have compiled secret “super metrics” that go much further. Farmers must follow them if they expect to sell their crops. These can include vast bare-dirt buffers, elimination of wildlife, and strict rules on water sources. To enforce these rules, retail buyers have sent forth armies of food-safety auditors, many of them trained in indoor processing plants, to inspect fields. (Lochhead, C.)
Most of these inspectors have little to no experience other than inside four walls. Take for example Ken Kimes, who owns New Natives Farms in Santa Cruz County. He was told that “no children younger than five can be allowed on his farm for fear of diapers” (Lochhead, C.)
Reaping the Consequences
It is this type of micro-management that our entire nation can look forward to if HR 2749 passes. These are rules no-one can comply with other than large factory operations. Not only do they conflict with common sense, but with organic and environmental standards as well. They are causing what they propose to eliminate, and that is, a dangerous, contaminated food supply controlled by no one but the biggest corporations. And what can we expect to reap from this harvest? Higher prices due to increased costs to implement the measures and ship the food, nothing but factory-produced food that has travelled for miles to get on the shelf, increased pesticide use, the elimination of organic standards and the family farm, and the rape and desecration of nature itself.
The consequences of California’s draconian measures which are scheduled to go nationwide with the implementation of HR 2749 are already resulting in irreparable harm. …trees have been bulldozed along the riparian corridors of the Salinas Valley, while poison-filled tubes targeting rodents dot lettuce fields. Dying rodents have led to deaths of owls and hawks that naturally control rodents. (Lochhead, C.)
The Fear Factor
Why is the public going along with this? “It’s all based on panic and fear, and the science is not there,” said Dr. Andy Gordus, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Game. Preliminary results released in April from a two-year study by the state wildlife agency, UC Davis and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that less than one-half of 1 percent of 866 wild animals tested positive for E. coli O157:H7 in Central California.
Frogs are unrelated to E. coli, but their remains in bags of mechanically harvested greens are unsightly, Gordus said, so “the industry has been using food safety as a premise to eliminate frogs.”
Farmers are told that ponds used to recycle irrigation water are unsafe. So they bulldoze the ponds and pump more groundwater, opening more of the aquifer to saltwater intrusion, said Jill Wilson, an environmental scientist at the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board in San Luis Obispo.
Wilson said demands for 450-foot dirt buffers remove the agency’s chief means of preventing pollution from entering streams and rivers. Jovita Pajarillo, associate director of the water division in the San Francisco office of the Environmental Protection Agency, said removal of vegetative buffers threatens Arroyo Seco, one of the last remaining stretches of habitat for steelhead trout. (Lochhead, C.)
The Real Problem
The problem does not lie squarely in the lap of the farmer, where this legislation places it. It lies in the processing that happens after the produce leaves the farm. This legislation pronounces a death sentence on all small farmers, organic growers, and our nation’s very health as well, yet fails to address the real problem. “Industry rules won’t stop lawsuits or eliminate the risk of processed greens cut in fields, mingled in large baths, put in bags that must be chilled from packing plant to kitchen, and shipped thousands of miles away” (Marler, B).
Mass-production is the culprit, not my neighbor down the road who grows strawberries and sells them at the local farmer’s market. Yet the cause of the problem – mass-produced, industrialized food production methods are supported, while the innocent victims – family farmers, organic producers, and neighbors selling fruit at the local farmer’s market – are punished and quite literally put out of business.
I sure agree about the illegal aliens sickening.
Call and write our congressmen and say no to HR 2749! I did! It is draconian.
We are not talking about hybrids here. Hybrids are when you take two varieties and allow them to cross pollinate naturally getting a hybrid. It is like taking a Herford cow and breeding her to an Angus bull to get a black-whiteface calf.
What we are dealing with here is that Monsanto has gone into the DNA of these seeds and spliced in genes from other plants, animals, bacteria and who knows what to create genetic mutations. These new genetic mutations may carry special proteins that kill corn insects so that they dont need to spray, but they also kill honeybees that gather pollen. We are talking about some serious stuff here that if allowed to get into Monsantos control will violate all the anti trust laws and monopoly laws on the books. Waxman doesnt care about that, it is all about control.
>>> Ping to the Weekly Gardening list.
Thought this would be of interest. <<
They never give up in the never ending power grab.. Thank you for the heads up on this little piece of HE**.
here is the open congress link :
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2749/show
# Rep. John Dingell [D, MI-15]
# and 5 Co-Sponsors
* Rep. Diana DeGette [D, CO-1]
* Rep. Frank Pallone [D, NJ-6]
* Rep. Bart Stupak [D, MI-1]
* Rep. Betty Sutton [D, OH-13]
* Rep. Henry Waxman [D, CA-30]
Monsanto...
Monsanto’s Agent Orange:
The Persistent Ghost from the Vietnam War
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/agentorange032102.cfm
Well, for STARTERS...I’d move the ‘Ef’ out of California, LOL!
Thre’s going to be such a DELICIOUS Economic Underground created here. I can’t WAIT to be a part of it. :)
“Anyone need eggs or zucchini? I’ve got plenty these days. What ya got to trade me?”
See how easy it’s going to be when we cut Government OUT of the picture? ;)
No question, there are many onerous aspects of the proposed NAIS plan that should have never seen the light of day.
There is a real concern for readiness by our state’s animal health officials and APHIS for a bioterroristic attack of something like Hoof and Mouth Disease which would devastate animal agriculture should it ever rear its ugly head on US soil.
For example, the impact and cost of Newcastle Disease upon poultry producers a few years ago was borne by a backyard fighting chicken CA operation. This disease spread cost untold millions of dollars to the industry and the federal govt to check its advance.
Many producers argue that NAIS is 1) Too costly, 2) Impacts confidentiality and 3) heightens fear of liability. Having said that, I would agree that they are within their rights to express their concerns. However, there is an incredible amount of misinformation that is being churned out by many of the websites like the one you referenced.
It would be foolhardy and shortsighted for anyone to assume that that the risk of an foreign animal disease is zero or that the present methods of resolving a trace back or forward in a timely manner are adequate. If a significant disease situation were to arise where time is precious, would our respective state animal health and APHIS officials have adequate information and the tools to contain it in a timely fashion with a minimal impact on our nation’s food supply, trade restrictions, etc?
In general, our society is being further removed from the realities of present day food production. Long term, I am fearful of the impact of increasing regulation on the ability of many of our nation’s food producers to stay in business. Personally, I am concerned what could happen if there is a short term shortage of food because of a variety of plausible scenarios that might unfold?
I apologize for my long post. I deal with this issue first hand on a daily basis.
My two cents.
MFO
These are the same idiots that restrict the growth of real sugar - sugar cane but yet, corn syrup permeates almost all of our foods, therefore, why do we have a lot of obesity, diabetes. Along with it, a coming disorder - fatty liver. It is because of the big money from the big corporate farms. Just like the war on trans fats, we need to have war on corn syrup. Not too many people know but corn syrup is hard on the liver !Fatty liver use to just come from excessive drinking but it is coming from poor diet as well - a lot of food with corn syrup.
The new agriculture regulations in this bill should help make America into a Robert Mugabe-style agricultural paradise (/sarc).
Perhaps.
I see more of a 1920’s Ukraine type famine in the near future.
Bookmark
The Real Problem
The problem does not lie squarely in the lap of the farmer, where this legislation places it. It lies in the processing that happens after the produce leaves the farm.
This legislation pronounces a death sentence on all small farmers, organic growers, and our nation’s very health as well, yet fails to address the real problem. “Industry rules won’t stop lawsuits or eliminate the risk of processed greens cut in fields, mingled in large baths, put in bags that must be chilled from packing plant to kitchen, and shipped thousands of miles away” (Marler, B).
Good points, but taxing the producers out of existence with these regulations isnt going to increase anyones revenue either.
Farmers haven’t ‘saved’ seed from previous crops for decades now. Seed is specially grown, with stains being cross pollinated for very precise seed quality crops.
That’s why yields have more than doubled in the past 50 years.
My tagline isn’t just an idle boast of the American Famer, it’s been true for more than 50 years.
Perhaps by farming half the land that big operators/investors/non farmer groups that have purchased land and put into CRP or formerly soil bank under the guise of wetlands. Amazing how nice it is to get a check from Uncle Same for each acre that is pulled out of activity. Funny thing, drie through Iowas and look at CRP ground that is not utilized but nowhere near water or even close to a flood plain.
Production? 1970’s a 100 bushel acre corn crop was exceptional. Today, farmers worry if they don’t hit the 200 bushel/acre rate, and competitors have already crossed the 300 bushel mark. Amazing ... the food shortage, food quality, deficiency of mineral is of the sam ilk as global warming.
“The sky is falling and we must tell the king.” Waikey up ameeerika .... you are now a country of chicken littles. ( Icall them “chicken*****” ...well you get the idea)
You farm a lot?
We still save seed for replanting. It is the Monsantos of the industry that has driven the prices of seed up to where 100 bu yields wont pay the costs for raising the crop, and 200 will barely. Dont harp about the farmers, look at Monsanto and Pioneer and those people who drive the price of $3 worth of seed to over $100.
That specially grown seed is the genetic mutations that Monsanto is working so hard to protect. If they get this through, then Monsanto will tell you what you can eat.
We’re not talking about large corporate enterprises, here, we’re talking about small farmers and, in this particular case, the guy I was talking to was from a small farm of around 200 acres in S. Texas.
We aren’t talking about crop YIELDS, we’re talking about expensive requirements the federal government is placing on these farmers that have to do with adding costs to the farmer that they can’t get back at market because the market won’t bear the prices.
I farmed in MN until 1986 when I sold to my share to my brothers.
The only seed we ever saved and planted were soybeans and small grains, and after better soybean seed came out we bought.
We never planted saved corn seed, as the difference was so great. Maybe 30 or 40 bushels for saved seed, 90 to 140 bushels per acre with commercially produced corn seed. I can’t recall anyone ever planting their own corn seed since I can remember back to the 50’s.
Any idea how this could impact home vegetable gardens? I forsee when there are food shortages and home gardeners will be labeled “selfish”.
If they pass this, they'll do the same thing to "Food".
Urbanites don't comprehend that food of all kinds (Food, or Food's food) comes from a dirty, bloody, infested world - and to sterilize/sanitize/purify all of it is to eliminate it, and us.
Every kid needs to farm & hunt at some point to understand this fact.
It won’t be any big deal, we already use food as fuel in our vehicles. The country will bend over backwards to carry out the federal government’s bidding.
I’m thinking it’s already too late.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.