permaculture

[Gasper Family Farm <farmer1@gasperfarm.com>]

Attempts such as this by OCA are deceptive and contain much
misinformation. The detractors are much closer to the truth on this issue.

See below.

rafter t. sass wrote:
> Source
>
> 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." 
Actually, specific language in several sections would not only give the
authority to make organic farming practices illegal, the language
implies that they should be made 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. 
Actually, the husband of the Congresswoman who introduced this works for
Monsanto. Monsanto and other big ag corps are working to control every
aspect of farming; we know this. We also know there is a revolving door
between these corps and the USDA/FDA. If you give the feds total control
over how food is grown (which this bill DOES do), then you also give
that control to the corps.

> In actuality, HR 875, the Food  
> Safety Modernization Act of 2009, is a limited-vision attempt by  
>   
Nothing limited-vision about this. This statement is deceptive at best.
This bill gives the authority to regulate every minute detail of how
every food is produced, to track all food and livestock, and to inspect
farms.

> 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.
>   
But instead of dealing with the problem, this bill extends regulation to
all farms. The only reason we have the problems in the industrial system
we do is because federal regulation of dairies and butchers drove all
the small operators out of business. Those regs were put in place in
response to previous food safety scares. All they did was entrench the
current dirty players. The same ones who backed those bills then.

Again today, the dirty interests back these bills; but the farmers do not!

> 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  
> attentions on the real threats to food safety: globalized food  
> sourcing from nations such as China where food safety is a joke,  
> 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 to support a  
> massive transition to organic farming practices.
>
> Click here to learn more and take action:
> http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17194.cfm
>
>
>
> rafter t. sass
> The Liberation Ecology Project
> liberationecology.org
> 518-567-7407
> skype: raughter
>
>
>
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