The Proposal to Outlaw the Home Garden - HR 875 and S 425

[feldon30]

Again my biggest concern is that it will define de facto standards that all farms and farmer's markets might need to follow some day.

After the scares with Salmonella in the Peppers (orig Tomatoes) and E.Coli in the Spinach, I was surprised there weren't moves to push for the elimination of animal manure and move entirely to chemical fertilizers.

Sound ridiculous? Think about how much the average American person knows about where our food comes from. Some people probably think that chemicals are safer than animal products. Use the right scare tactics and you can convince people of anything.

[organichris]

Originally Posted by BattleOfBennington

Chris -

They are covering this bill on Glenn Beck right now, and his research / Legal team are saying that there are major issues in the bill.

I don't have cable, but I'll check to see whether someone puts it up on YouTube and check it out when I get a chance. If anyone finds it before I do, please post a link.

Thanks, Battle.

[BattleOfBennington]

Organichris -

It was on the radio this am.

Supposed to cover it also at the 5pm Fox News show he has.

Originally Posted by organichris

I don't have cable, but I'll check to see whether someone puts it up on YouTube and check it out when I get a chance. If anyone finds it before I do, please post a link.

Thanks, Battle.

[lumierefrere]

Someone voted these people into office. Many of them for multiple terms. How long has Robert Byrd been in office? If we want things to change we have to vote differently. And get people to vote who don't vote because they don't think their vote matters. It matters. It's too late to do anything once they're this far along on a bill. And once it goes through, we'll never get rid of it.

[HakaiRah]

We posted about this on our gardening blog and had this link dropped into the comments. While it doesn't replace writing to your representatives in congress and the senate or calling them, every little bit of extra pressure helps.

http://www.leavemyfoodalone.org/

As far as I can see this is just another bold and brazen attempt by allies of Monsanto to beat down the organic and local CSA movement in favor of GMO industrial agriculture. If you haven't read it Seeds of Destruction will probably make your blood boil like it does mine. Buy and grow local.

[organichris]

My understanding is that, because of U.S. membership in the U.N., we fall under the oversight of the W.H.O. and therefore Codex Alimentarius. But Congress has never authorized it, so its not legally binding as far as we are concerned. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's my understanding. Unless Congress signs onto the agreement it can only be enforced if our national sovereignty is overridden.

[stormymater]

"will try and privatize everything our taxes currently are supposed to pay for"
Happening all the time everyday in US society.

[dice]

I would drop S 425 in a heartbeat (electronic recordkeeping
is a ridiculous requirement for small farmers and Co-ops that
has nothing to do with food safety). If they want to restrict it
to only apply to corporations or to enterprises with a certain
minimum volume of annual sales, that might work.

As for the De Lauro bill, the problem is that if the rules are too
specific, then that leaves loopholes that get little attention
from the press and thus take forever for fixes that close them
to even get considered by Congress, while if the rules are too
general, that leaves an opening for some corporate thug
appointed by a future administration to reimplement them
for the benefit of multinational agricultural and chemical
corporations at the expense of small farmers, Co-ops, and
hobby gardeners.

(Ask Ralph Nader for recommendations for head of the agency.)

The De Lauro bill might work if Congress has the resolution
to be sure that whatever system is implemented by a public
servant under the general rules and then debugged over the
next couple of years is cast in stone with specific law before
the next presidential election, just in case.

[stormymater]

S 425 is simply an extension of the scam inflicted on the medicine industry - some digging would likely exhume the brother-in-law of a legislator's buddy who was "in on the ground floor" of the "electronic record keeping industry".

[WVTomatoMan]

Originally Posted by BattleOfBennington

They are covering this bill on Glenn Beck right now, and his research / Legal team are saying that there are major issues in the bill.

I agree and have major issues with the bill.

Originally Posted by BattleOfBennington

Yes the bill grants power to control even small home gardens if the government wants to use that power.

No, that is not correct. It only applies for food that is to be offered for retail sale. Okay now let me get this straight. The current administration doesn't have the resources to inspect and subsequently shut down an admitted pig stye peanut processing plant and this new administration is going to have the resources to inspect every home garden in America? Hogwash.

Originally Posted by BattleOfBennington

Yes the bill grants power of what seeds are legal, fertilizer etc if the government wants to use that power.

Wrong again. The word seed does not appear in the bill at all. Here is the text concerning fertilizer:
...include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use...
It says minimum standards related to fertilizer use NOT what fertilizer to use. That is the only place in the bill that has the word fertilizer.

I have issues with the bill for the right reasons, not a bunch of hysteria and hype based on misconstruing the intent of the bill.

Randy

[BattleOfBennington]

WV -

Those were not my opinions, but those of the researchers and legal team that Glenn Beck Consulted.

Originally Posted by WVTomatoMan

I agree and have major issues with the bill.


No, that is not correct. It only applies for food that is to be offered for retail sale. Okay now let me get this straight. The current administration doesn't have the resources to inspect and subsequently shut down an admitted pig stye peanut processing plant and this new administration is going to have the resources to inspect every home garden in America? Hogwash.


Wrong again. The word seed does not appear in the bill at all. Here is the text concerning fertilizer:
...include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use...
It says minimum standards related to fertilizer use NOT what fertilizer to use. That is the only place in the bill that has the word fertilizer.

I have issues with the bill for the right reasons, not a bunch of hysteria and hype based on misconstruing the intent of the bill.

Randy

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by WVTomatoMan

Here is the text concerning fertilizer:
...include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use...

It says minimum standards related to fertilizer use NOT what fertilizer to use.

How are those not the same thing?

At some point down the road, some committee will define a de facto federal government standard for what is and is not acceptable fertilizer. The bill gives carte blanche to some committee or government agency to decide what you can and can't use in growing food. They might decide that poultry manure, or cow manure, or bat guano, or seaweed, or some other product is suspect and cannot be used under any circumstance and that would apply nationwide regardless of availability of suitable fertilizers to ALL farmers large and small.

This bill is a complete overreaction to the food crises of the last 10 years. We've had food tampering, Mad Cow, Salmonella, E.Coli, etc. and this bill will do nothing to prevent them because the existing legislation already empowered the government to deal with those situations and they didn't.

This bill will keep the new food safety administration so swamped looking at individual farms that they will not have the resources to keep an eye on the real problems.
Apologies for all the latin btw.

[organichris]

Originally Posted by mx4inpa

It's legally binding as all treaties are, and like I said those trump federal law. The US has already been sued by WHO and lost a few times over various issues. Congress doesnt have to authorize it, it's pretty much a loophole to bypass national sovereignty. I think the bills theyre trying to pass are just designed to ease the population fears of Codex Alimentarius. That way the politicians can say "look we already have laws like this anyway, dont worry your pretty little head...Codex is just here to help"

We lost national sovereignty in 1913 with the federal reserve act. We went bankrupt 20 years later, in 1933. Thats when the bankers had the federal govt collect our gold...

We're really not in disagreement. Its just that I was emphasizing the fact that Codex Alimentarius is unconstitutional and therefore illegal, not unlike the Federal Reserve Act, which is illegal and unconstitutional for different reasons.

[WVTomatoMan]

Originally Posted by lumierefrere

Someone voted these people into office. Many of them for multiple terms. How long has Robert Byrd been in office? If we want things to change we have to vote differently. And get people to vote who don't vote because they don't think their vote matters. It matters. It's too late to do anything once they're this far along on a bill. And once it goes through, we'll never get rid of it.

This is what led me to say, "we live in a dysfunctional republic". Unless they commit murder or some sex offense they will likely get re-elected. I don't like the way things are, so I vote against the incumbent. So, I guess for the most part people like the way things are going.

Randy

[WVTomatoMan]

Originally Posted by BattleOfBennington

WV -

Those were not my opinions, but those of the researchers and legal team that Glenn Beck Consulted.

Oh I realize that. What I'm saying is they are wrong. All you have to do to realize they are wrong is to look at the bill and do a search for the word "seed" and the word "fertilizer".

Randy