Well, I guess now that the bill has passed, we'll find out if this is really true: "Gardening about to be OUTLAWED!!!!"

And we'll find out if it's true that saving seed will be illegal, and if all small farmers will now go out of business.

If any of this is true, good luck, you bad guys out there, whoever you are, in trying to take out my banana patches. You could probably turn them under with a bulldozer and they'd grow back.

I definitely won't be waiting in suspense for all you bad guys to get here.

I'm not saying this bill is the greatest, only that a lot of the objections to the bill have been unfortunately overstated. If people had kept their objections on a more realistic level, they might have been happier with the outcome.

All of this inflammatory bullhockey. It wasn't too effective, was it?

Some people did stick to the real issues, and the result was the Tester amendment that exempts small farmers (under $500,000 annually). This may not have satisfied the critics; but so far, only Big Ag has claimed the Tester Amendment is not an improvement.

IMO, accuracy (truth) is always the best strategy, and it's often the only truly powerful weapon in the arsenal of the underdog. Thank goodness, truth is also the most powerful weapon!...if people only have the faith to use it.

It's very dissappointing when that's not the case. Surrendering the truth is surrendering the cause.

Well, it ain't over yet. Now will come the rule-making process mandated by this bill.

We can still act in our own best interests here. How shall we formulate our commentary in the rule-making process that requires our comments? Should we merely be pawns to inflammatory websites that profit from our support? Or are we ready to get down to business and address some of our real concerns head on?

What does food safety mean to us - besides having the freedom to grow our own healthy organic produce (a freedom that no one has threatened to take from us)? Well, I don't know about you, but to me it means a world with clean unpolluted water that doesn't require "treatment". It means a world free from soils contaminated by the waste products of animal torture and slaughter, and a world free of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. I'm surely not going to pass up an opportunity to say so.

But maybe it's not cool anymore to call for anything - even genetically engineered foods - to be illegal.

Whatever. I never care about cool. Cool just makes the world a little colder, Hey Jude.

We were successful with eliminating genetically engineered foods and poisonous chemicals from organic. I see no reason why we can't do something similar again. Unless we remain focused on mythology.

Genetically engineered foods are illegal in Europe. No reason why we couldn't do the same. Unless we'd rather not try.

Oh, I'm naive? Bet me my food won't still be growing in 5 years, without any bad guy interference. Go on, I dare ya!

One more comment (sorry):

Want to grow some food?

Do it.

Boy, I must be in a very ornery mood. Hope no one was offended.

Rab, you make some good points about the bill. I just think you should stick to those points - the ones you can defend with actual facts - and hammer them home.

Overall, I do agree that the bill doesn't provide for enough checks in the rule-making process. That's really the biggest issue in my opinion.

On the other hand, some food-processing facilities have been poisoning people. That's not good, and we should not stand for it. Food processing and distribution are really nothing like they've ever been in previous centuries. Lots of stuff (nonorganic stuff) is dipped, sprayed, and dyed with chemicals - anything to keep it from looking/smelling rotten. And when someone dies of food contamination, we should definitely be able to trace the food back to the facility so that lives can be saved. That can't be done without a paper trail, similar to the one already required of organic growers. I don't care to defend the right of unsafe facilities to poison people.

When our own farm was in business and certified organic, we were required to keep records and receipts of everything we added to our soil and applied to our trees. It wasn't a hassle at all. We didn't mind doing it, because it was evidence that our produce was the best in the world!

Those horrifying conventional farming practices.....Monsanto makes most of their money on just those very same practices. Definitely we could use some restraints on how much Monsanto Round-Up can be put into the soil. Monsanto's Round-Up is made of some of the same stuff that went into Agent Orange. Should anyone be able to pour as much of that stuff onto the planet as they want, while Monsanto is laughing all the way to the bank? Whose rights, whose freedoms are being defended here?

And the fertilizer...My understanding is that unlike Canada, anything can go into the fertilizer. Just a few years back, there was a local outcry over a discovery that fertilizer plants were adding hazardous waste for cheap bulk. That stuff went into the food, and wasn't discovered until the land it was applied to couldn't grow anything anymore. I don't think that's OK.

I also honestly have to say that I don't think this bill will automatically result in the removal of all of the freedoms suggested here on this thread. Are we just a bunch of ninnies?

I'll be sending in my comments on food safety concerns. Whatever concerns others might have, I hope we'll all remember to include demands that genetic engineering and Round-Up be outlawed, that the meat industry be held accountable for their role in food-borne illnesses and animal cruelty, and that all fertilizers be restricted to some semblance of safety.

Here's some info that needs to be addressed in comments regarding food safety. I think it's possible to turn the tables and make this bill work for us. We don't have to be a bunch of helpless ninnies waiting for the sky to fall. Our written comments will be part of the public record on this bill. We need to speak loudly and clearly on at least these very real issues:

Toxic fertilizers: [www.pirg.org]

Toxic food processing: [www.avianweb.com]

Toxic herbicides: [www.guardian.co.uk]

Toxic herbicides: [www.organicconsumers.org]

Toxic meat industry: [www.organicconsumers.org]

Toxic GMOs: [www.globalresearch.ca]

Even if we eat only organic and do our best to avoid all of the above, these toxins are in our environment, they're entering the food chain, and they affect all of us.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2010 10:15AM by suncloud.

suncloud--Bless you, dear!

"One more comment (sorry):

Want to grow some food?

Do it."

Very well said. I am learning, and I started - as clumsy as I am with these things, I planted some red mulberry trees and ate my first tomatoes this year. In the spring, a massive attack on the garden by me

Good for you rab! Gosh, I love mulberrries and fresh garden tomatoes. I think you will have a wonderful garden this year, and I hope you will keep us posted!

Hi friend Tamukha.

Gabriel Cousens' Article Opposing the Food Safety Bill -

HIDDEN FDA AGENDA BEHIND FOOD SAFETY BILL S510

[www.gabrielcousens.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2010 01:36AM by KidRaw.

Interesting article from Gabriel Cousins, including statements like this: "as of April 11th, the EU has voted to make all herbs and supplements illegal as well as the teaching and practice of natural healing."

Doesn't it seem strange that the "College of Natural Medicine UK" hasn't heard they'll be closing soon? They're currently accepting applications for the Spring semester.

[www.naturopathy-uk.com]

Here's another school that would appear to be completely in the dark:

[www.nceurope.net]

And here's a list of a few more:
[www.dmoz.org]

Seems like they would have heard the news.

But then again, even someone with a great rep within the natural health community - like Gabriel Cousens (who I personally really like) - can make a mistake. We're all human.

Come April, I guess we'll find out. Just about 4 months away.

Thanks again, suncloud. You really are invaluable

i dare anyone to step foot on my property and confiscate my garden .. i hope their arse can outrun lead and 2 really angry lhaso apso's

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

LOL!

Poor Monsanto. Too many gardens. Too many gardeners. Too many brave organic (and guerrilla) gardeners like Jgunn!

(Growing the gardens and trees is probably the simplest and most effective means of keeping the gardens and trees!)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2010 07:22PM by suncloud.

A friend posted this on facecrack, got my attention. Suncloud, interested to hear your take on this in particular, I'm trying not to get too freaked out.
[www.naturalnews.com]

coco,

As you know, I am not a farmer, I just support local farming. Most of what Mike Adams(whom I generally agree with) talks about in this memo is, note, not footnoted or linked to any part of the bill. C'mon, man, if it's that dire, show us the actual text that says what you are claiming. The passages about how the bill does nothing to regulate imported produce were particularly interesting(and more or less true)--this is a main problem now, and has been for many years. This is why Monsanto has so many operations abroad--because their produce could never get by regulators if grown stateside, but if the same chemical-riddled frankenfood is coming from Monsanto or Syngenta affiliated concerns in Equador or India, it passes muster. Natural News has talked about this before.

I do not see any provision in the bill requiring the dismantling of organic or "family" farmed produce operations, nor anything feasible which can be reasonably expected to result in such. The potential for abuse in this thing is a matter of course; such is the nature of monolithic bureaucracy. But I am confident that everything is not about to go all to hell. As I have said before, the widespread confiscation or destruction of organic farms and their produce is just not practicable.

That's my word. Back to reading my Orwell.