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HomeSafeHome:  Criminalization of Organic Farms in America  |
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Celticheart
True Blue Farmgirl
811 Posts
Marcia
WA
USA
811 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 27 2009 : 10:05:56 PM
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Pam...thanks for the link.
Glory....Glenn Beck fan here too!!! Listen everyday on my way to work and watch him when I can. Have you read The Five Thousand Year Leap?? Wow.
It's not about being perfect, but enjoying what you do. Set aside time to be creative.
Robyn Pandolph
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misstilliewillie
True Blue Farmgirl
136 Posts
glory
Tennessee
USA
136 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2009 : 1:22:24 PM
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Marcia,
I haven't read either book, but now they are on my must read list! Thanks for all the info...
As for Glenn Beck!!!, he is "my one thing" every day that I take the time to watch~ I bet CNN's bummed!
I guess they didn't realize just exactly what they had!
Such is life...
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/misstilliewillie
livin' the sweet life! |
Edited by - misstilliewillie on Jun 07 2009 5:53:54 PM |
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melody
True Blue Farmgirl
3317 Posts
Melody
The Great North Woods in the Land of Hiawatha
USA
3317 Posts |
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Contrary Wife
True Blue Farmgirl
2164 Posts
Teresa Sue
Tekoa
WA
USA
2164 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2009 : 6:45:49 PM
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AMEN!
Teresa Sue
Farmgirl Sister #316
Planting Zone 3
"Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly." The Dalai Lama |
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pamcook
True Blue Farmgirl
228 Posts
Pam
Chapel Hill
NC
USA
228 Posts |
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Leezard
True Blue Farmgirl
950 Posts
Elizabeth
Novi
MI
USA
950 Posts |
Posted - Mar 31 2009 : 09:30:41 AM
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I figure, if nothing else, people are letting the government know what's on their minds. Even if these bills aren't as bad as they could be, then everyone that's called, written, emailed in has just put the idea of what's going on with some of the people in the area they represent in their heads so if something like this comes up again they may think about the response they've gotten from these bills.
http://ruby--slippers.blogspot.com/
www.leezard.etsy.com |
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melody
True Blue Farmgirl
3317 Posts
Melody
The Great North Woods in the Land of Hiawatha
USA
3317 Posts |
Posted - Mar 31 2009 : 09:59:43 AM
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Here is what my Rep. Bart Stupak e-mailed me this morning...
Dear Ms Neece:
Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R. 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act. I appreciated hearing from you on this issue.
On February 4, 2009, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro introduced H.R. 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act. H.R. 875 would establish a Food Safety Administration headed by an expert in food safety within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). By separating food safety regulation from drug and device approvals, the bill would allow food safety experts and researchers to focus on food safety. H.R. 875 would also provide the Food Safety Administration with the regulatory tools to access important records, recall products, and penalize companies for knowingly selling tainted products.
The Food Safety Modernization Act would address current weaknesses in the system by requiring traceability, requiring food companies to take preventive measures, mandating regular inspections, and demanding that imported food meet our safety standards.
Recent cases of salmonella in peanut butter, botulism in baby food, and e.coli in spinach are all signs of a disturbing trend. However, this is not merely a health issue; it is an issue of national security. Imported food could be tainted with biological or chemical agents before entering the United States or toxins could be introduced at a domestic food processing plant. By the time anyone begins to feel the effects of these toxins, this food could have reached thousands of people across the country, resulting in serious illness and even death.
While the number of cases of food borne illness has more than doubled in the last five years, the past Administration drastically reduced the resources for addressing food safety issues. The budget for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition has been cut from $48 million to $25 million in just three years. Also, annual inspections of domestic food processing plants dropped 25 percent since 2005.
On January 28, 2009, I introduced the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009 along with Congressman John Dingell and Congressman Frank Pallone This legislation is a critical step toward equipping the FDA with the regulations and needed to safeguard Americans in the global marketplace for food, drugs, devices, and cosmetics.
The Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act would guarantee FDA the funding to significantly increase inspections of food facilities and improve outdated information systems. The legislation requires food producers to have preventive food safety plans and subject the plans to FDA inspection, requires food imports to meet all US standards, closes the loopholes in FDA's ability to trace the source of contaminated products, and imposes stiff penalties on companies that violate safety standards.
Whether we are talking about the Food Safety Modernization Act or my legislation, Congress is not intending to stop individuals from growing food for their own consumption. In addition, my legislation includes specific language that exempts small businesses from paying the registration fee.
It is my hope that Congress will act quickly on food safety legislation. Congress faces an ambitious agenda in the coming months, but the more than 500 illnesses and nine deaths linked to the current peanut butter salmonella outbreak underscore the importance of wasting no time in enacting this important legislation.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to contact me again regarding issues of importance to you.
Sincerely,
BART STUPAK
Member of Congress
I guess he answered my question....
Melody
Farmgirl #525
http://melodynotes-melodynotes.blogspot.com
www.bythebayhandcraftedsoap.com
www.lemonverbenasoap.etsy.com
www.andsewitgoes.etsy.com |
Edited by - melody on Mar 31 2009 10:02:08 AM |
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Montrose Girl
Farmgirl Legend/Schoolmarm
1360 Posts
Laurie
Montrose
CO
1360 Posts |
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Rosemary
True Blue Farmgirl
1825 Posts
Virginia
USA
1825 Posts |
Posted - Apr 05 2009 : 4:14:24 PM
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Hello, Farmgirl sisters. I've been out of the loop for a while, but hoping to become more active in the forum again. In addition to running a farm and a full-time business, I'm also a political activist. I want to caution everyone here about these bills. They are not "coming up for a vote" soon. They're stuck in committees on both sides (House and Senate).
When you call your Congressman/Congresswoman, you should refer only to the House Bill, not the Senate version, and vice versa.
There is nothing in either version of the bill that specifically provides for any of the things some people here are frightened about; in fact, current state and federal programs already provide plenty of opportunity for many of the named horrors -- and worse -- to take place. The proposed legislation would create a new division within an existing agency to deal in a more streamlined way specifically with tainted food products, toward preventing "mad cow disease," e coli outbreaks and so on. Of course, any such program presents the opportunity for unintended consequences , usually due more to inept administration than corruption, though the latter is certainly possible. It also, however (and this might come as a hugely unpleasant surprise to Monsanto), could provide the mechanism to deal swiftly with complaints from organic farmers about things like toxic drift from neighboring farms using chemicals and genetically altered crops. Wouldn't that be nice?
It will be much more effective for organic farmers, and others concerned about the purity of their food in an open marketplace, to ask their legislators to support laws that enhance the things we know to be beneficial, rather than setting up needless administrative obstacles that can easily result in one of the worst scenarios in the global food chain: the removal of diversity and small-scale production to meet the unique challenges of living on a planet under the stresses of climate change. The less our government tampers with family farms and other small-scale organic food producers, the more likely we will all benefit from a wider choice of high-quality foods. The alternative -- subsidies for the production of food products with impaired nutritional value in spite of their enormous financial value to the giant corporations producing them -- will result fairly quickly in higher human and animal health care costs, more quickly depleted farmland, increased water and air pollution, and immeasurable loss of international good will, because too often, the worst spinoffs from U.S. corporate agriculture wind up in the bellies of the Third World.
Raise the bigger questions, sisters. And do your homework. Don't let someone else -- not even me -- do it for you. Everybody's got an agenda, even the "good guys." |
Edited by - Rosemary on Apr 06 2009 08:59:26 AM |
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Rosemary
True Blue Farmgirl
1825 Posts
Virginia
USA
1825 Posts |
Posted - Apr 05 2009 : 4:27:50 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by FaithIrene
LESS GOVERNMENT. PERIOD.
I personally think the more responsible I can be about my own life including my health and my finances the less interference or "help" I would want or accept from government sources!
That is my goal... to be even more responsible for my own health and finances everyday.
Everyday...
I understand your intent. I think we'd all like to believe that we know best how to run our own lives, and most of the time, we sure do!
I just couldn't let your post slip past me without saying that given the current economic climate in which we all are struggling right now, I would like to have had quite a lot more government watching out for us during the past several years of deregulation (less government) that allowed massive abuses to literally rob us of our futures.
Sometimes, somebody's gotta be running the show, or the actors stumble all over each other and nobody can hear their cues. On the other hand, I agree we have too much regulation in some parts of our lives, to the point where we've forgotten how to be self-sufficient and responsible for our own mistakes. I'm always amazed when I visit other countries where they don't have signs plastered up everywhere telling you to be careful! They expect people to apply some common sense and watch their steps. I like that. But, as I said, there are some kinds of things we can't necessarily be in control of ourselves. For those things, we created a government with enough power to do what they must to protect our interests, but never so much that it forgets at whose pleasure it exists in the first place. |
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Rosemary
True Blue Farmgirl
1825 Posts
Virginia
USA
1825 Posts |
Posted - Apr 05 2009 : 4:51:18 PM
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I wouldn't be too sure. They've done stranger things than that....in recent history. The politics of food and farming is very interesting. Last year I re-read an old book--Ill Fares the Land: The Famine That's Planned for America. It was written in the 1960's but much of what it covers is still relevant today. It covers things like the beginning of farm subsidies and the farm bill, price supports, etc. You can find it on Amazon, cheap, used. If you decide to read it do so with an open mind. See what you think.
I remember that book! It was darn near required reading in the food co-op culture of my youth. It would be interesting to revisit it now to see how much of it was prophetic. Thanks for mentioning it! |
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Celticheart
True Blue Farmgirl
811 Posts
Marcia
WA
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Apr 05 2009 : 9:40:39 PM
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LOL Mara, I thought I was the only 'weirdo' in the world that read that book. As I said I did re-read it last year. Much of it is still very relevant to things that are going on today and not just in agriculture. It was fuel for some very interesting discussion between DH and I last winter.
Thanks for reminding us all to do our homework.
It's not about being perfect, but enjoying what you do. Set aside time to be creative.
Robyn Pandolph
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Rosemary
True Blue Farmgirl
1825 Posts
Virginia
USA
1825 Posts |
Posted - Apr 06 2009 : 09:02:47 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Celticheart
LOL Mara, I thought I was the only 'weirdo' in the world that read that book. As I said I did re-read it last year.
Weirdos of the World, Unite! LOL
Mara |
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HomeSafeHome: Criminalization of Organic Farms in America |
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Criminalization of Organic Farms in America
