The bad news
Two bills that are against locally grown food have been prepared by big ag and are now in the hopper for this session of Congress. You can read them now at the Library of Congress Thomas site. They have cheery, friendly titles, and given the horrible economic mess that Congress is dealing with, they could slip through. They are: H.R.875 Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (Introduced in House) and S.425 Title: A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for the establishment of a traceability system for food, to amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspections Act, the Egg Products Inspection Act, and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for improved public health and food safety through enhanced enforcement, and for other purposes. — Sponsor: Sen Brown, Sherrod [OH] (introduced 2/12/2009) Cosponsors (None) Latest Major Action: 2/12/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
If you do not want to read the bills themselves, I hope that you will click on the link below and read this story. It is horrifying, but if we don’t know what the enemy doing, we will be defeated. There are are two articles about this:
Goodbye farmers markets, CSAs, and roadside stands
and
HR 875 The food police, criminalizing organic farming and the backyard gardener — a violation of the 10th amendment by Lydia Scott also provides an analysis of these bills. As Scott says, “Devastating for everyday folks but great for factory farming ops like Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo and Tyson to name a few.” It makes me believe that these bill are the work of the same people who brought us chemical fertilizers, deadly pesticides, tainted peanuts, and poisonous spinach and peppers.
It is an ongoing battle. This is a real threat. For example, officials in Tacoma tried to stop people from selling food from their homes because residences are not businesses. Totally in conflict with the right to farm. Yes we have a right to farm. I suggest that everyone write to any congress person they know to help stop what the article your friend sent is writing about… Read More. There is only ONE farmer in the Senate, Jon Tester (D) of Montana. He is an organic farmer. Read the www.whitehouse.gov website and read the Agenda/Rural link. The White house supports local food and all the ways that it is delivered. If you like locally grown, organic or naturally grown food, you have to protest this.
I wrote about this last week on my Amicus Agraria blog: The battle against CSAs, Farmers Markets, and wholesome food.
The better news
Yet, there is much hope with the current administration. A recent issue of the provided an analysis about the new USDA: Like Nixon to China, Vilsack reshaping USDA landscape. In this report, Rodale states that:
We’re on the cusp of a similarly noteworthy shift in the posture of the USDA under its new secretary, Tom Vilsack of Iowa. Initially dismissed by many progressive food and farming activists as a tool of corporate agribusiness, the new leader is making waves several times a day in what is starting to feel like a tsunami of positive change.
Agriculture Schrome://cooliris/skin/new/mouseover.pngec. Vilsack announcing that Kathleen Merrigan, the person who drafted Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, will be his deputy secretary. That makes her the second most powerful person in the USDA behind Sec. Vilsack himself.
These are the positive things that are happening that make your protest against H.R.875 Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (Introduced in House) and S.425 stronger.
I wrote about this and other farm news at Snow, Seeds, and Surprises from the USDA.
