HELP STOP BILL TO OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING!

Group: The Dream

Written by sam Sneed on Apr 3, 2009 1:19 pm

The US House and Senate are about to vote on a bill that will OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING (HR 875).

There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next 2 weeks before the public realizes what is happening. The main backer and lobbyist is the Monsanto Corporation (along with Cargill, ADM, and about 35 other related chemical and genetic engineering 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 sale. If this passes there will be NO more heirloom clean seeds but only Monsanto's genetically-altered seeds.

    The name on this outrageous food plan is Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (Bill HR 875). Please contact your local Congressional Representative by phone or e-mail and express your concern about HR 875.

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When you go on line to check this out, Snopes and other hoax watchers are conspicuously silent, and an array of bloggers are universally confused.
The trick here is that the drafters of this bill know how public opinion and the internet works and have limited this bill, for the most part, to some administrative niceties such as some FDA restructuring, reporting requirements for all farmers and foreign food imports that are "needed" for government efficiency and public safety. Additionally HR 875 then "innocuously" opens the door to all of the things that  appear in the above email, that well intentioned people are concerned about regarding the genetic alteration and  artificial chemicalization of all of our foods and ultimately putting an end to the wonderful expansion and acceptance of organic farming as we know it.  This cunning strategy then causes the well intentioned and those that know that this bill does pass the smell test to look foolish when they warn others of its consequences - because,  " they " argue - those consequences are not yet in place.
In fact HR 875 can only be understood when read in conjunction with several other apparently harmless pieces of pending legislation that most everyone concerned with HR 875 seem to know nothing about:
1-HR 875: The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, 2-HR 759: The Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009, 3-HR 1332: Safe FEAST Act of 2009, 4-
HR 814: Tracing and Recalling Agricultural Contamination Everywhere Act of 2009 and more where these came form.
This is the all new legislative process which is : make it confusing, legislators wont read it, the public will find it too difficult to follow and  "our" law will pass virtually unopposed and unaltered - this process has risen to a new art form with the Bailouts and Stimulus Packages of the last few months.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we don't need all of this help from our government and I propose that each of you join me and tell your  Representative (and your Senators and the President as well) to vote no on at least all of the above mentioned bills and just allow you to have whatever organic food you decide to have for yourself and your family and please allow the already seriously regulated , local organic farmers to not have all of this backbreaking regulation added to their lives which may interfere with your having them each week at your local Farmer's Market with their tasty and healthy organic produce.
Go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/ to enter in your zip code and find your Congressional Representative.

Below is an Idea for the letter you should send to your congressman Send this on to everyone you know Dont let the Gov control the food source or your right to Choose

Dear (Congressman/Senator),

I want to express my concern over and opposition to four bills due to come out of committee now:
HR 875: The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 / S 425
HR 759: The Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009
HR 1332: Safe FEAST Act of 2009
HR 814: Tracing and Recalling Agricultural Contamination Everywhere Act of 2009

I mention all these bills together because their full impact is designed to be achieved in concert. To wit, to genetically alter and chemicalize all of our food and end all independent farming and gardening except for factory farms. It will literally put all independent farmers and food producers out of business due to the huge amounts of money it will take to conform to factory farming methods. If people choose to farm without industry standards such as chemical pesticides and fertilizers they will be subject to a variety of harassment from this completely new agency that has never before existed. That's right, a whole new government agency is being created just to police food, for our own protection, of course.

Have you personally read any of these bills yet? If so, what is your position? (Please do take the time to read these bills. Just because other representatives don’t read bills before voting is no reason you should.)

These bills seem to be part of a new legislative process dreamed up by vested interests (Monsanto along with Cargill, ADM, and about 35 other related chemical and genetic engineering giants): Make it so confusing, legislators won’t read it, so confusing the public won’t be able to understand it and so invisible that it will pass virtually unopposed and unaltered. This cunning strategy causes well intentioned people to look foolish when they warn others of the consequences - because they haven’t happened yet. But HR 875 / S 425 for example,
   * 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 sale.
   * If this passes there will be NO more heirloom clean seeds but only Monsanto's genetically altered seeds.
   * Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic.
* Affects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but only consuming it.
* Affects anyone producing meat of any kind including processing wild game for personal consumption.
* Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal. There are no specifics, which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.
     * Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation. It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation. (Who do you think they are going to side with?)
     * Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities. The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
     * Section 207 requires that the state's agriculture dept. acts as the food police and enforce the federal requirements. This takes away the state’s power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.

I ask that you vote against this Monsanto backed legislation and that you stand firm in your efforts to ensure that we and our families are free to enjoy wonderful organic food whether from our gardens or our local Farmer's Markets.

Please vote and lobby against this effort and then widely promote that you have done so. This will demonstrate perception and responsibility that is rare in government these days. Save us and use it to elevate your platform.

Thank you,