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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Fw: S. 510: 12 Reasons Why The Food Safety Bill From Hell Could Be Very Dangerous Fo

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  • From: "John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Fw: S. 510: 12 Reasons Why The Food Safety Bill From Hell Could Be Very Dangerous Fo
  • Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:03:12 +0100


I passed on the article because I can see it coming true Paul. In fact we are getting new rules in our letterbox on average once a week and if we were to comply with all these new rules we would have to stop farming completely. This being Ireland there is a bit of leaway because nobody does much checking except on occasion and that is a very good thing too for I am not about to give up something I worked very hard at for 25 years.

If it should be coming (and I suppose it is possible to research what S.510 has to say) then I think it is imperative to start thinking what we can do about it. For instance there are still a few small and organic seed producers in my neighborhood that I deal with but they are definitely not complying with the going rules and if ever a bureaucrat falls over them they will have to stop doing what they are doing. For that reason I try to save all my own seed realising that it is only a matter of time before the seed that I can't save will mean that there are crops I can no longer grow.

Since it takes time to grow into doing this I don't think complacency is a good idea. As I said, there are masses of regulations already here and the only good thing is they are not enforced so far. But they might be tomorrow.
One example : A pig on a farm makes a lot of sense to get rid of excess produce. No human here is going to drink 5 gallons of buttermilk every week. (We are of course not allowed to make buttermilk without a licence either) However, it is expresly forbidden to feed a pig excess produce! The only thing you can legally use as feed is bought in stuff from a feed mill. Even the so called allowed food for organic pigs is not organic. And the only way to legally terminate a pig is by selling it to one of a very few outlets that pay very bad prices.
john


As you know I'm a small grower for farmers markets. I have as much concern for the subject as anyone. We know the agencies have failed to prevent food illness and properly regulate food growing and distribution. They have a job to do. How to do it right is the issue. We've seen what they did with organic standards, and it's so full of loopholes there's no way to tell if anything certified is pesticide free or free of chemicals of any kind. Yet in spite of that, small growers like myself have not been put out of business as the fearmongers warned. I believe the real threats come from a very different direction. And one of them is starvation.

That said, this piece has been circulating on the Internet long, long before Sept 27 of this year. Alarmist and exaggrated writing from Prison Planet does not help us to analyze and counter unwise or counterproductive legislation.

This is untrue on its face: "Well, big food corporations and big agriculture are actually very much in favor of this bill." Actually they've killed every effort to crack down on unsafe food handling. It's deceptive because the big boys use this fearmongering to kill any attempt to regulate THEM. Whatever passes eventually will be toothless and ineffective.

Just as misleading: "demand for organic food has skyrocketed". In fact the organic market has taken decades to reach six percent of the total and climbing very slowly, and the big producers and chains are carrying and coopting "organic" brands. Instead of being threatened they're taking over "organic".

It's called Yellow Journalism. That piece is full of "what ifs" instead of actual wording from the bill:
"how dangerous this bill potentially could be"
"could potentially"
"could be greatly curtailed"
"unprecedented discretion to regulate U.S. food"
"potentially a very, very dangerous law"
"will have their very existence threatened by this bill"
"how dangerous this bill potentially could be"
"It is feared that"
"Opponents of S. 510 believe that"

None of which tells us what the bill actually says.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 9/28/2010 at 8:55 PM John D'hondt wrote:

S. 510: 12 Reasons Why The Food Safety Bill From Hell Could Be Very
Dangerous For The U.S. Economy
The Economic Collapse
Sept 27, 2010

_http://www.prisonplanet.com/s-510-12-reasons-why-the-food-safety-bill-from-
hell-\
could-be-very-dangerous-for-the-u-s-economy.html_

(http://www.prisonplanet.com/s-510-12-reasons-why-the-food-safety-bill-from-hell-could-be-very-dangero
us-for-the-u-s-economy.html)

As you read this, there is a bill before the U.S. Senate that has the
potential to change the U.S. food industry more than any other law ever
passed
by the U.S. Congress. In the name of "food safety", the U.S. government
would be given an iron grip over the production, transportation and
sale
of all
food in the United States.
Hordes of small food producers and organic farmers could potentially be
put out of business.
If this bill becomes law, the freedom to grow what you want, eat what
you
want and to share food from your gardens with your neighbours could be
greatly curtailed.
It would give the FDA unprecedented discretion to regulate U.S. food
production. A version of this bill was already passed by the U.S. House
of
Representatives last summer, and now S. 510, also know as the FDA Food
Safety Modernization Act, is in front of the U.S. Senate and it is
expected to
pass easily.

Because of how vaguely it is written and because of how much discretion
it
gives to the FDA, it is potentially a very, very dangerous law.


So who is actually in favor of it?

Well, big food corporations and big agriculture are actually very much
in
favor of this bill.


Why?

Is it because they are so concerned about food safety?

No.

In fact, virtually every major case of food contamination in recent U.S.
history has come from large-scale industrial agriculture or large-scale
industrial food production.

The real reason why they are backing S. 510 is because it will devastate
their primary competition - small food producers and organic farmers.

In recent years, the demand for organic food has skyrocketed as the
American people have learned the truth about how our food is actually
made. Big
agriculture and the giant food producers are losing profits as Americans
increasingly vote with their wallets.

So now the food giants are using **food safety** as a way to get market
share back. It is an open secret that many of those involved in drafting
this
bill and in pushing it through Congress have ties to food industry
giants.

Thousands of small food producers and organic farmers will have their
very
existence threatened by this bill. It imposes a bureaucratic nightmare
on
all food producers that the big corporations will be able to handle
easily
but that will cripple much smaller operations.

Already, many farmers can see the writing on the wall. One small farmer
recently described the mood among her fellow small farmers to the Wall
Street
Journal..

**I know people who have been small farmers for 25 to 30 years who are
looking to get out of the business because food safety is becoming so
alarmist.**

But the bureaucratic nightmare is just the tip of the iceberg. To get an
idea of just how dangerous S. 510 could potentially be to the already
staggering U.S. economy, just check out the following quote from one
opponent of
this bill..

**If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public's right to grow, own,
trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature
makes. It
will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade
and consumption of food and agricultural products of one's choice. It
will
be
unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will
of
God.**

-Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistle blower


It would be hard to understate how dangerous this bill potentially could
be.
This bill gives the FDA the ability to exercise a ton of discretion. The
FDA could end up exercising that discretion in a very reasonable way, or
they could use it to shut down small food producers left and right.


When it comes to S. 510, the question that you need to ask yourself is
this..

Do you trust the FDA?

If not, then there are some very real reasons for you to be concerned.


The following are 12 reasons why S. 510 could be absolutely disastrous
for
small food producers and for the U.S. economy............

#1 All food production facilities in the United States will be required
to
register with the U.S. government. No food will be allowed to be grown,
distributed or sold outside this bureaucratic framework unless the FDA
allows
it.


#2 Any food that is distributed or sold outside of U.S. government
control
will be considered illegal smuggling.


#3 The FDA will hire an army of new inspectors to enforce all of the new
provisions in the bill.


#4 The FDA will be mandated to conduct much more frequent inspections of
food processing facilities.


#5 The fees and paperwork requirements will be ruinously expensive for
small food producers and organic farms.


#6 S. 510 would place all U.S. food and all U.S. farms under the
Department of Homeland Security in the event of a major *contamination*
or an
*emergency*.
What exactly would constitute a *contamination* or an *emergency* is
anyone's guess.


#7 S. 510 mandates that the FDA facilitate harmonization of American
food
laws with Codex Alimentarius.


#8 S. 510 imposes an annual registration fee on any facility that holds,
processes, or manufactures food. It also includes draconian fines for
paperwo
rk infractions of up to $500,000 for a single offense. Just one penalty
like that would drive a small food producer out of business.


#9 S. 510 would give the FDA tremendous discretion to regulate how crops
are grown and how food is produced in the United States. Basically,
small
farmers and organic farmers will now be forced to farm exactly how the
federal government tells them to. It is feared that the U.S. government
would
soon declare that many organic farming methods are "unsafe" and would
outlaw
them. In addition, there is the very real possibility that at some point
the
U.S. government could decide that the only *safe* seed for a particular
crop is genetically modified seed and would require all farmers to use
it.


#10 S. 510 will give the FDA the power to impose a quarantine on a
specific geographic area. Basically the FDA would have the power to
stop
the
movement of all food in an area where a *contamination* has been
identified.
This would be very close to being able to declare martial law.


#11 S. 510 will give the FDA the power to conduct warrantless searches
of
the business records of small food producers and organic farmers, even
if
there has been no evidence at all that a law has been broken.


#12 Opponents of S. 510 believe that it would eliminate the right to
clean
and store seed. Therefore, control of the U.S. seed supply would be
further centralized in the hands of Monsanto and other multinational
corporations.


As mentioned above, this bill gives the FDA a ton of discretion. It is
written very broadly and very vaguely. It opens the door for all kinds
of
abuses, but that doesn't mean that the FDA will behave unreasonably.


So should we trust the FDA?

Is there a viable future for small food producers and organic farmers
in
America?

Or is the handwriting already on the wall?


**If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what
medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as
are
the
souls of those who live under tyranny.**

-Thomas Jefferson



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