Activism: OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING BILL! hr875

[CavySpirit]

Dear Friends,
We feel the unhealthful consequences of the legislation discussed below to be so disconcerting it was important to send it to the entire Holistic Community.
Snopes and other sources indicate this is real.
The 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.
YouTube - Criminalize Organic Farming? EXCUSE ME?! BILLS: HR 875 and S 425
And another one: YouTube - Follow up HR875 S425 Criminalize Organic Farming
The name on this outrageous food plan is Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (bill HR 875).
PLEASE 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 Write Your Representative - Contact your Congressperson in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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, politely and respectfully just tell them 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 U.S. Senate: Senators Home is a list of the U.S. senators with their contact info.
Thank you all for taking such quick action on this important threat to our health and wellness.
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[guineapigluver1]

That is outrageous!
Does this mean you won't be able to take care of your landscape and lawn organically too, if it passes (which hopefully it will not)?

I'm sorry but there needs to be a boundary on what they can pass laws on.

[cobalt]

I searched snopes.com and found no mention of H.R. 875 and I tried many variants of the phrase. I did however search google and scanned through the text of the bill and found no mention of outlawing organic farming.

Here is a link with a short summary:
Fanatic Cook: HR 875 Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009: Factcheck

Edit: Added link -> Food scare! | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

And some other links to the text of the bill:
GovTrack: H.R. 875: Text of Legislation, Introduced in House
Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)
OpenCongress - Text of H.R.875 as Introduced in House Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009

It's easy to put references in emails and such to indicate that snopes has validated it, but it's usually best to research it on your own.

And no, I have not seen the youtube videos. They are blocked here at work, but I will watch them when I get home.

Anyway, take a look at the bill and decide for yourself.

[CavySpirit]

I did take a look at the bill - although I didn't study it. I'm going to go back to it when I have more time. I can still see how it's being interpreted. And I do think that who is sponsoring and supporting the bill could be pretty telling. I'd like to get more factual info on that, too.

[tehdoc809]

I'd like to say I read the bill, but I did a thorough skimming Honestly, I don't see how this is bad at all, infact I'm in favor of it until I can find the time to read the whole thing to see if there is something I don't like.

It is doing some things that I think is greatly needed

-Raising the Standards on what is considered contaminates in all foods
-Raising the Standards on how food is prepaired in resturants
-Raising the Standards on how harshly resturants are inspected

Honestly, I didn't see anything in the bill that directly outlawed anything with private/organic gardens. This all has to do with the Sell of foods.

[guineapigluver1]

I have read the bill. Not thoroughly, though, but I have skimmed it.
It does not restrict private organic gardens from what I can tell, but that doesn't mean anything. You can't grow all of your food or make all of your food. And if it is made illegal, then what is everyone who eats, for the most part, all of their food organic supposed to do? Every study I have seen has said that by eating organic you can be healthier. Chemicals and pesticides also harm the enviroment.
There is absolutely no threat to the public whatsoever by or from organic farming. Non-organic farming CAN pose a threat to the public. This should not be passed. It is not right. This should not be for the government to decide.

[tehdoc809]

Originally Posted by guineapigluver1

And if it is made illegal, then what is everyone who eats, for the most part, all of their food organic supposed to do? Every study I have seen has said that by eating organic you can be healthier. Chemicals and pesticides also harm the enviroment.
There is absolutely no threat to the public whatsoever by or from organic farming. Non-organic farming CAN pose a threat to the public. This should not be passed. It is not right. This should not be for the government to decide.

Again, I don't see this anywhere in the bill. This bill addresses the contaminates in food for the sell and consumption of food. Organic food, shouldn't possess any of said contaminates so it shouldn't be affected at all. Governments are good at twisting these things. But the bill overall reads that they are placing harsh restrictions on the farms that use chemicals and pesticides.

[sophistacavy]

Well, I haven't read it at all yet, but I just sent a letter to my representative in Congress, and I requested a reply. I am also planning on calling the number where I can have my comments passed on to him and congress.

So, this thing better be for real, or I'm going to be really embarrassed.

The thing is that I don't see how T interpreted it that way, if some other folks read it and don't see what she is talking about. How can one or more people get such a intense meaning from it, and other's totally have no idea what is wrong with it?

I'm going to go read it now, and I'll report back with what I got from it.

[sophistacavy]

Ok, I skimmed over it. I don't really see what it is saying, except that we're going to establish a food safety administration that will do what the FDA should've been doing all this time, but never really has.

I didn't even see the word organic mentioned in there once. I'm confused now.

It seems they want to raise the standards of the safeness of different types of foods, whether it be animal or vegetable. I think it also kind of says that the certain foods that pose the highest risk of hazardous contamination will be inspected even more thouroughly.

It also mentions that this bill will take effect on food that not only is fed to humans, but also to animals! That makes me happy! And, no diseased animals will become part of the food chain. They still could, but the people will get in big-time trouble, which serves them right. Safer food for my animals sounds great to me.

Also, we're not a communist country, so I don't see how they could get away with telling private American families that they aren't allowed to grow their own food that they will eat themselves and not sell to anyone, unless they use fertilizers and chemicals......

Oh well. As I said, I'm a bit confused, so....if something I said is incorrect, just tell me.

[guineapigluver1]

Originally Posted by tehdoc809

Again, I don't see this anywhere in the bill. This bill addresses the contaminates in food for the sell and consumption of food. Organic food, shouldn't possess any of said contaminates so it shouldn't be affected at all. Governments are good at twisting these things. But the bill overall reads that they are placing harsh restrictions on the farms that use chemicals and pesticides.

I'm just really confused about what the bill is about now. I did notice the mention of it in the bill not affecting private gardens.
So what exactly is the bill about? And what does it effect?

[tehdoc809]

From what I gather, Its going to affect what is considered a contaminate to food and redefine what is considered an acceptable amount of said contaminate for consumption of the food.

In other words, Its going to relook at all of the chemicals and pesticides currently being used and reevaluate them to a higher set of standards for safer foods.

Secondly Its going to address how any food distributers are allowed to operate and be inspected. Again, hopefully, raising the standards. This is going to effect how clean they keep their establishment and how their food is prepaired.

Thirdly is address how the FSA (Food Safety Administration) is going to set up, what is now cosidered illegal and the punishments.

Although, While I was typing this I was skimming the Bill to try and be as accurate as possible and I found the clause that could, COULD, possibly be used to make organic grown food illegal if they wanted too. Again, it could only be for mass production though, Home gardens still couldn't be affected.

Originally Posted by Section 206: Food Production Facilities Under Title II: Administration of Food Safety Program

c) Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and representatives of State departments of agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish science-based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall--

(1) consider all relevant hazards, including those occurring naturally, and those that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced;


(2) require each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards;


(3) include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water

So if they twist it just right, they could come up with something thats natrually occuring and shut down organic food production, but I don't see why they would.

Even if they did, all of the other things in this bill, atleast to me, Outweigh that with all the other standards they are raising.

[guineapigluver1]

Thank you for explaining it to me. Now that it's been explained to me, I understand it now. I went back to read it some, and I think I get what you are saying.
I, too (now I do), don't see any reason why they would shut down organic food production either. I don't think they would. They would have tons of angry people if they did it.

[Res Judicata]

What the bill actually does and does not do:

Background on H.R. 875 — Food & Water Watch

Food scare! | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist