Food Safety, Food Freedom and Real Change

by Ralph Fucetola JD

Published July 17, 2009 @ 07:40PM PT

Change for the better empowers the people to meet their own needs and wants as locally as possible. Is Congress about to give a great blow to local food production by giving into Big Agra interests and force the industrialization of all food production -- forcing family farms, natural, home gardeners with surpluses and other local food sources to meet Agra-Biz industrial standards or go out of business?

While Self-Shielding in the face of manufactured pandemics and weaponized vaccines got our attention; while Codex Alimentarius further degraded the food supply... Congress was planning its own surprise: the forced-industrialization-of-farming bills, such as HR 875 & 759, have been replaced by a new "fast-tracked" (sic) "Food Safety" bill - HR 2749 - that threatens food, health and freedom. It is in reality, a "martial law food control bill" -- see: http://farmwars.info/?p=1145

For these other Health Freedom issues, see the July 7, 2009 eBlast from Natural Solutions Foundation: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=3048 for information about Weaponized Vaccines and to http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=3041 for information about the annual Codex Alimentarius ("world food code") meeting.

From discussions with a Congressional office I am hopeful that the (sic) "Food Safety" bill is not likely to be voted for a couple weeks, so there is still time to push-back. The legislative aide told me that Congress is so focused on the bill regarding health care costs that it is not likely that the alleged "food safety" issue will come to the floor soon.

And, as you know, push-back works.

For example, we've been urging Congress to defeat all (sic) "Food Safety" bills since they do not really address the threats from huge factory farms and feed lots and threaten local production, but we also set up an Action Item so over a hundred thousand people -- so far -- could tell their own federal legislators to protect family farms, home food production, food co-ops, etc.

See: No HARMonization White Paper: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2394

Our original proposed amendment: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2246 *

And, apparently, they heard at least part of the message. Those who support HR 2749 are touting the (slight) "farmer protection" added to the bill to get it out of committee:

"Are Small Farms Protected?

"The legislation is doing a bunch of things for food safety, most notably
giving the FDA mandatory recall authority. This has been a major sticking
point for previous iterations of this legislation in the House, because House
reps more than senators represent small fiefdoms inside large rural states.
These districts wide recalls will disproportionately harm smaller businesses
and processors versus their larger partners. In a sense, FDA recalls and fees
would represent a regressive tax.

"This is an extremely valid concern given the FDA's proclivity for influence
from industry. However, this bill was able to climb out of committee in the
House because it properly addressed small growers and farmers markets.
Specifically, Section 107 of the bill which stipulates ‘Traceability
Requirements' on most farms makes an exemption for farmer's markets (more
or less):

‘(4) EXEMPTIONS-

‘(A) DIRECT SALES BY FARMS- Food is exempt from the requirements of this subsection if such food is-

‘(i) produced on a farm; and

‘(ii) sold by the owner, operator, or agent in charge of such farm directly to a consumer or restaurant.

"Traceability is a huge issue and this bill seeks to establish a new electronic
system for tracking that will be vetted over the course of a couple years.
The exemption for small farmers is good but poorly defined. We hope this
vague language about exemptions gets tightened up as the bill moves forward.
It would be a pity to see this single exemption allow major agribusiness
farmers off the hook."

http://nutritionwonderland.com/2009/06/food-safety-enhancement-act-hr-2749/

This is not the protection we want for local food production. But it is a start. We are concerned that the word "farm" could be construed too narrowly. What about religious communities, nonprofits, co-ops, community and family gardens that produce surpluses... Real protection is needed for local, natural production.

This is not a bill that we expect progressive congresspeople to support, and we certainly don't support what has been called a "martial law food control bill."

We need to redouble our efforts to get Congress to listen!

Here is the action item -

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714

Remember to follow us on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/healthfreedomus and http://www.twitter.com/drlaibow - whenever we post a new blog, the link appears on twitter!

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* The language was modified later, and this later language was sent to Congress many thousands of times:

"The citizens ascribing to this Petition therefore hereby request that the
Food Safety Modernization Act be defeated, or that it, or any substitute for
it, such as H.R. 759, be amended to exclude organic and natural agriculture,
family farms and ranches, and natural or organic food products, including
dietary supplements, through a rule of interpretation, as follows:

"Rule of Interpretation

"No provision of this act shall be deemed to apply (a) to any home,
home-business, homestead, small farm organic or natural agricultural activity,
(b) to any family farm or ranch, or (c) to any natural or organic food
product, including dietary supplements regulated under the Dietary Supplement
Health and Education Act of 1994."

"We also note the language of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 USC sec 203 (s)
(2) which provides, "(2) Any establishment that has as its only regular
employees the owner thereof or the parent, spouse, child, or other member of
the immediate family of such owner shall not be considered to be an enterprise
engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce or a part of
such an enterprise..."

"Language such as this would be helpful to allay our concerns."