Please tell everyone who wants organic foods.....
US House and Senate are about (in a week and a half) to
vote on bill that will OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING (bill HR 875).
There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the
next 2 weeks before people realize what is happening.

Main backer and lobbyist is Monsanto – chemical and
genetic engineering giant corporation (and Cargill, ADM, and
about 35 other related agri-giants). This bill will require
organic farms to use specific
fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the
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 sales.

If this passes then NO more heirloom clean seeds but only
Monsanto genetically altered seeds that are now showing up
with unexpected diseases in humans.

There is a video on the subject.
[www.youtube.com]

And another one:
[www.youtube.com]

The name on this outrageous food plan is:
Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (bill HR 875).
THIS IS REAL, FOLKS! PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL CONCERNED ON
YOUR MAILING LISTS & CALL YOUR SENATE REPRESENTETIVES
TODAY!
Get on that phone and burn up the wires. Get anyone else
you can to do the same thing. The House and Senate WILL pass
this if they are not massively threatened with loss of their
position.... They only fear your voice and your vote.
The best thing to do is go to www.house.gov/writerep
all you have to do is put in your zip and it will give you
your congressperson and how to get in touch with them. When
you call their office someone will answer the phone, just
tell them (politely) that you are calling to express your
views on HR 875.
Tell them your views, they'll take your name and
address and pass your comments along to the congressperson.

The following link is a list of the U.S. senators and their
contact info:
[www.senate.gov]

The organic consumers association has posted a few articles about this bill. If you go to organicconsumers.org and search for "875", you can see them all. In essence, they have some issues with some of the specifics in the bill, but are generally in favor of it. They are particularly concerned that some of the panic about the bill will make organic consumers appear to be opposed to food safety, which hurts our credibility with legislators.

I wonder if the medical association and the undertakers association support this bill ?

I can't help wondering if the two big organic associations that are in favor of the bill are perhaps associated mainly with very large organic farming operations, in which case they may have some rather sinister motives. Remember that organics has come of age, and there are huge factory farms that are now growing organic food. And I remember awhile back when Horizon Organics came under fire for using practices that are not up to organic standards.

Also, big companies like Kraft have bought out some of the smaller organic food processing companies, so that products like Muir Glen organic tomato sauce, for instance, are no longer produced by a small family farm company.

So I guess what I'm saying is, we need to be sure we know who's REALLY on the side of the small organic farmers, and who's not, and it's not so easy to tell these days.

I'd rather err on the side of caution and call my Representative and tell them to steer clear of H.R. 875. Call the free 1-800-828-0498 Congressional switchboard number and ask for your state Representative's office #.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

I do trust the Organic Consumers Association. They were one of the groups leading the charge against the fake organic dairies. Their assessment of this bill is that like a lot of agriculture bills, they feel it goes after the little guy too much and the agro-business farms not enough, but that otherwise it's more-or-less okay.

I haven't found any evidence that the bill does the scary things that are claimed above that it does, though I confess that I only glanced through the beginning of the bill itself, so I'm not an expert. The danger that the OCA warns about makes a lot of sense to me. If we call up our representatives and tell them that the bill does something horrible that it doesn't do, we risk coming across in the future as crackpots. Like the groups who are screaming that Barack Obama is going to create a special being-white tax, or require women who don't want them to have abortions - we would come out looking like twits. Who will listen to us then?

If someone actually does find language in the bill that would destroy organic agriculture, please point it out! If true, it would give us better ammunition for when we do call our representatives.

I've read the bill, and it is not explicit on these matters. Again, it's the typical convolutions and redundancies one sees in documents like this, and what coco fears is possible, but improbable, considering the bureaucratic entanglements that would entail.

That being said, I have come to the realization, after watching yesterday's ABC special Earth 2100, that under slightly different circumstances, I might yet become an eco-terrorist.[sigh]

This has me so very angry; Can't government keep their slimy tentacles out of anything?!?!? One more reason to think like Joyce Riley... (The Power Hour)

Problem is, with all the lobbyists, special interest groups and other dishonest entities, it would get pushed through if they really want it to. It's all about the money, nothing else matters...

I have to go back and look at that bill again. It seemed to me it had a lot of provisions -- like the ones that would require special seed cleaning machines ($$$) -- that would be a real hardship for the local farmers. It's deliberately vague, some believe, in order to leave the door wide open for the worst possible type of interpretation by lawmakers in the coming years after it's passed.

Or maybe not! It's maddening that they can't be straightforward and we are left with nagging worries and doubts.

>Problem is, with all the lobbyists, special interest groups and other dishonest entities<

Right, that is the problem. We've never had as many lobbyists and corporate special interests pushing their agendas and muscling in on Congress to get what they want as we have now.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]