Reposted from Sharrhan's facebook page

[www.topix.com]

I am scared of you U.S.A.

This is not a surprise. Just look at the former Warsaw pact, individuals were forbidden to own land. I saw their life, it was the most miserable life you can imagine. Yet, people survived.
So, if I live in a remote location, on a mountain, will they send inspectors to burn my orchards there? Let's hope that it will not happen, and if it does, we will have to deal with it then.

Do you live on a remote mountain location though? I don't. Just me and my little backyard and the heritage seed companies I can order from. I am scared witless by this and that's no joke. I gotta pull myself together and think what to do. As a Canadian I have no power over who gets elected in the States and our powers that be live in your elected offical's pockets it seems. I repeat, I am scared.

I would have thought this bill is unworkable. I think there would be riots if they tried anything like it in UK.

It is scary that something like this would even be proposed. I don't image it could possibly pass but then again, if the ones pushing for it have enough money to line the pockets of law makers, who knows. I can just image having to arrest someone for an illegal tomato patch in their backyard. As a LE officer I can guarantee I would NEVER enforce such a ridiculous law even if at the expense of my job.

You'd lose your job and then someone desperate for work would take it and do as they are told.
The thing is, all they have to do is control the companies selling seeds. That would wipe out a vast majority of hobby gardeners. I know there are some who seed save but... I hope I can't see it happening, I hope people would get up and fight this. I just see so much apathy when it comes to real action. Joining a facebook group just doesn't cut it. Sorry to say that most people are slactivists these days, thinking their virtual signature on a petition has actually done something.

You know, my first reaction to this sort of post was one of utter disbelief, that there would simply be no way. No way to enforce it, no way people would abide by such ridiculous laws. But as more time passes and I see how little people are actually willing to do to facilitate change, to protest wrongs, the less sure I am.

Still scared.

At this time, I think they are focused at people selling the food - organic growers, farmers of all kind. I read the proposal and it seems to be aimed at controlling food traffic. If this works, probably the next step, serveral years down the line, will be easier as most of the farmers will be gone, and it would be easy to forbid any kind of growing as there will be just a small number of individual growers left.

Destruction of farming in countries has happened before in history. Eastern, communist block has seen this - millions of farms and farmers were destroyed. Same happened in China, unde Mao. Also, India has seen a big destruction in 70's when 150 000 farmers commited suicide after the "green plan" by the government was implemented (pesticides). It is simple - who controls food, controls people.

Vegans and raw fooders are a minority, nobody is going to listen to such a small group of people. Most of the people who live in cities do not care what happens to farmers. So, politically, it is easy to pass a law like this.

I will move out of the controlled zones, if this happens. I have no intention to waste my energy on fighting something that is far stronger than me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2010 05:35PM by rab.

I would simply continue to grow (if seeds where even available) and deal with the consequences.

coco,

Thanks for linking to this, but . . . I read the last version of the bill(and wrote my Congresscritter about it) and it could conceivably be used to over-regulate small growers. But I don't think that the object is to target the private home grower; the beauracracy required would make Mao go mad. Rather, it is probably designed to hamper small commercial operations that compete with Big Agra.

I found the knee jerk reactionism of some of the comments more disturbing than the bill itself, sadly. The Tin Foil Hat Brigade is out in force on that site. Hysterics cripple critical thinking skills, right? And no one can turn our civilization into a real life version of the movie "The Road" as long as we maintain control of our reason, IMO.

I didn't read the comments, I did however try to read the actual bill (impossible to understand). My fear is that very thing, that small growers will be put right out of business. Seed companies too, ack, scary!

im scared too hehe .. i started saving seeds the last 2 years and im gonna ramp it up big time these next few years !

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

coconuts,

I still don't think the bill is that great a threat, because interpreting/enforcing it on a micro level would be well nigh impossible. Saving seeds and growing most of our own food, or at least some in season, is prudent. I mean, considering the travesty in the Gulf of Mexico right now, it is more possible that fuel could suddenly become so destabilized a commodity, that shipment of food from growing climates could be discontinued suddenly. This would have a more immediate effect on our ability to feed ourselves than the Codex GMO rules. That there is no back-up plan for getting food from one end of the country to the other, should sourcing fuel become a problem, is more pressing a motivation for food independence to me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2010 12:47PM by Tamukha.

i worry about them hampering or worse tampering the seed supplies
id hate to think you would really have to worry that deeply about where your seeds are coming from but in all honesty i wouldnt put it past them

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Jodi,

As long as Seeds of Change exists, I think we'll be OK : )

Just heard from someone on another forum that she now can't buy unpasturized milk or honey even direct from the Amish farmer she's been getting it from for years. He gives it to them now and they pay him for hammering a nail into their fence but my fear is that soon it will be illegal for him to give it away, or even have it! Not that I want any milk or honey, just that it seems like it's more and more things, more and more of a natural lifestyle being erradicated by forceful means.

Big Brother? More like Big Bully. Sheesh.

coco,

Is this in Canada?

Nope, in the US.

Hey guys!
I'm the guilty party who posted the article Coco read on Facebook, so I'd better weight in here! ;-p

My friend Erik on FB posted this, and I just took it and ran with it, so to speak. Later I read it again and decided I wasn't too concerned that they were going to target private gardeners. Here's what I'm doing about this: I've been growing food at a community garden for awhile now (this is our 3rd year), I'm starting to think about saving seeds, and I'm comforted to know that some of the other gardeners in my group are also beginning to save seeds, as well. And I'm looking into how to grow food in my apartment. It's really small, so my husband thinks I'm crazy, but I could see growing tomatoes, greens, and herbs, or whatever.

I'm not worried yet, but I am constantly watching for signs of further interference with our food supply and personal rights.

XOXO

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

I guess they are afraid the doctors would have no more patients if the latter will no longer consume the fruits and vegetables filled with the crap meant to make us sick.

I just posted a new topic in the 'Organic Gardening' forum list on seed saving. Just a little note for those interested in starting to save their own seed. If you like I can continue that thread there with more information.

Just heard from someone on another forum that she now can't buy unpasturized milk or honey even direct from the Amish farmer she's been getting it from for years.

Raw honey is available in a store near me. Maybe it's a state thing. Do you know what state that person is from, coco?

We can get raw honey in Canada too, I don't know where she is exactly. She might have mentioned but honestly, I don't know how you keep all those states straight! I only know where maybe 5 of them are.

About the Amish--some of them moved (PA to OH, maybe?) because they were getting hassled by the Feds for refusing to microchip or tag their cows. Their religion/lifestyle strictly prohibits contact or participation in the "worldly" government and I can see why! It really riled me that "they" are trying to destroy this natural way of living but it makes me all the more determined to have it as the overriding goal of my life. I have been researching online about living off the grid. I recently watched a fascinating video by a man who talks about how you can buy cheap land (a few acres for 1K or less!), solar panels, an inexpensive house-building kit and propane gas and have no mortgage payments, no utility payments...

Can we move in with you? I'm getting more than a little fed up with this typical lifestyle. You can be near it without being in it and it's driving me kinda crazy!

Resistance:

[www.truthout.org]

A new earthquake" is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto's seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation's presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.

rab,

Monsanto is the Devil. It is both inspiring and saddening that the starving Haitian farmer has more awareness and ethics than do ours . . .

What puzzles me is that whoever does this must be aware that the whole human kind is in danger, the food sources could be destroyed all over the world. I can't believe that this is about profit, as I don't see any profit in the starvation of the world.
Monsanto is backed by governments, banks, virtually every single powerful entity in the world. It is impossible to fight it. But in a way, Monsanto unites us like nothing else in the current world.

I think that positive action is the only way. I do not like fighting AGAINST, I like fighting FOR, like these people did in India ("How to Save the World":

[www.youtube.com]

All of us need to do our best to spread the good word. Saving ourselves through eating raw organic food may not be enough.

This video explains how the new laws will cause a disaster for small farmers.

[www.youtube.com]

rab,

I've read interviews with her in ODE magazine[without which I'd be an idiot]. Thank goodness the people on the front lines are fighting back. Have you seen the documentary, "The World According to Monsanto"? Terrifying.

Tamukha,

Yes, I have seen it. Again, the power Monsanto has is huge. US government will treat you as a worse threat than terrorists if you criticize their baby, Monsanto. That is why I really do not like fighting against them. I like doing positive action, sharing knowledge, using the existing political freedoms until we get most of the people to understand these issues.
About Monsanto - in my old country they have an old saying: "don't touch the sh.t, it will stink".