News update: As of Friday 17th SB-510 has stalled thanks to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ok)
In the prior post, PamOKC left a comment on Senate Bill 510 which is a stealth attack on yore food freedom--heck, let's say it plain, it's an attack on our ability to feed ourselves without gubmint interference or becomin' a ward of the oppressive state that decides how much rice will be in yore bowl at the end of the day.
How so? It has the power to shut down small farms, farmer's markets, local produce stands, and the popular (and growing!) Community Supported Agriculture movement (Check out our blogger buddy, La Diva Cucina's own post on CSA) In some readings of the bill, the gubmint can shut down Aunty's dawg pen garden whar' I grows a few vittles fer salat. Iffin' I was to give
( nevermind sell ) some of mah tomatoes an eggplant away, the FDA Gestapo could destroy mah garden. It could shut down Chickory's charmin' Saturday food an' art emporium.
The National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association opposes the legislation, introduced by Dick Durbin --which is about all ya need to know--ever'thang that weasel brings to the Senate is another federal power grab over yore everyday life.
Worse, SB 510 akshully allows big dairy to put melamine into milk and baby formula!
Trouble is that thar's so many threats to our basic freedom that it's hard to git folks to sit up an' notice much anymore--folks is on threat overload. ( An I think it's deliberate).
Lemme admit right up front that I is a food conspiracy "nut." I have written professionally about Monsanto, an' blog posts on "food security", Monsanto and Frankenfoods, on the need fer savin' seeds of heirloom varieties, of the seed vault in Norway (and other parts of the world--China has it's own). Mah research is pretty hefty. Ain't no need to call it "conspiracy" when the facts is out in the open fer any thinkin' person to see.
As Chick9 pointed out in comments, an' as Aunty done wrote about last year, the real goal is implementation of Codex Alimentarius, a global assault ( 170 countries) on the world's food and food production freedom. Codex--a TRADE association of the UN-- mandates irradiation of ALL food unless eaten locally. Codex mandates that Monsanto's BGH (Bovine growth hormone) be given to every dairy cow on this planet! Codex mandates growth hormones, antibiotics and other poisons that make it possible for global food trade to ship food around the world in contaminated carriers, from contaminated animal sources. SB510 is one more brick in the wall fer Codex.
Now along comes this spider:
Monsanto's scheme to control US food regulatory policies and law
Senate Bill 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 is a bill that could be used to prohibit y'all from growin' backyard tomatoes--or any other food an' herb producin' plant.
REALITY CHECK: food safety? Less that one half of one percent ( .05%) of food borne illness is traced to independent or small farms, backyard growers or local produce stands or community markets.
No no NO!! The real food safety danger is from massive farm factories an' processin' plants whar' the monster is jes' too big fer a few inspectors to nuthin' about. Crammed animals produce disease. The processin' of diseased, GMO, hormone saturated, antibiotic injected "animals" is beyond "safe."
Jes' as bad is the truth that the gubmint ain't doin' the job they have now. Accordin' to the NYTimes, " ...in a little-known footnote to the egg recall, inspectors from the Agriculture Department regularly visited the Iowa egg facilities to grade the eggs and noted unsanitary conditions but never told the F.D.A. about them. That kind of poor communication and coordination between the government’s main food agencies is routine, and the legislation stalled in the Senate would do little to correct them."
Heck no--the bill would not insure food safety, but would give the feds the right to terrorize YOU. It would shut down folks lke HappyCowCreamery in Greenville SC
The recent salmonella outbreak which was the catalyst fer this SB 510 came from the disgustin' CAFOs ( confined animal feeding operations) whar' 20,000 chickens is caged like POWs so that they cain't even turn around in the space they squat in--an' they is squatin' over a bed of literal chicken droppin's so that diseases become airborne, gits in the water trays an adds to the rat droppin's thas' already in the chicken feed. Same fer dairy cows, ditto fer your next "farm raised" fillet of fish. In short the CAFDOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding and Defecating Operations) and mass market processin' is the source of any food borne illness youse likely to suffer.
The "watewater" lagoons from these foul confinements is pathogen heaven: Listeria, E.Coli O157:H7, salmonella, heavy metals, growth hormones..only the devil knows what all is in this animal sewage--an it leaches into your groundwater.
I'se already ruined yore lunch, so lemme add insult to injury by tellin' ya the massive manure runoffs into your local water systems is IGNORED by the gubmint. The ventilated chicken prisons blow their fetid infected air out into the countryside such that near chicken CAFOs folks' is gettin' diseases from airborne salmonella... until some health crusader comes along an makes a loud noise, or until we git the Great Egg Recall of Summer 2010 that forces the gubmint to look like they's doin' somethin'--so they hammer the small farms wif' a SB 510 while the big CAFOs roll merrily along.
Now ask yoreself this: Does I wanna eat eggs from a manure encrusted prisoner hen, or one from Chicory's beloved an' free rangin' Peggy Jean?
But now looky, the thang is the CAFOs is too big an' too powerful an' the gubmint cain't /won't shut 'em down--so to LOOK like they gives a fig about yore food safety, the feds is puttin' they jack-boot on Chicory's neck, Aunty's neck, an' that of mah local farmer's market.
What's a decent blogger to do? First, please call yore senator an' ORDER him /her not to pass SB510. Then find the CSA in yore area an' buy yore food from thar' as much as ya can--seek out local sources for small (real) farm raised veggies and eggs and meats. Read up on the matter--easy start here at Food Freedom blog
Take along family an' friends--introduce folks to the idea of local food. Next, please speak to your local grocer--tell him youse concerned about CAFOs an would he set aside some space for local grown food.
Of course, the best thang of all would be to start growin' a little bit of yore own food--lettuce an' carrots is so easy an' ya can do it in a few pots on the patio.
All this speaks to a bigger issue--yore innate freedom How can Americans even IMAGINE a gubmint that would prohibit them from growin a few tomatoes an' sharin' 'em wif' the neighbors? Or makin' it a FEDERAL crime to save and trade vegetable seeds? Easy--control food, control the people. Heck, the NEXT CAFOs will be CSFOs ( Concentrated Serf Feeding Operation)
I stole this quote from FoodFreedom blog
“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” ~Thomas Jefferson
Next post? The 10th Amendment is bein' rediscovered by states. (An' jes' in the nick of time!)
7 comments:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/07/guntoting-investigators-raid-venice-raw-foods-grocery.html
Hi Aunty, thank you for the shout out and the link. This is all so crazy isn't it? From what I have been reading the bill is stalled for now. Here is an intelligent article I found on the subject.
http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/food-safety-interview/?utm_source=roundup&utm_medium=email
I looked at the link from Anonymous and while I think the action on the authorities to be a bit heavy handed for the store, the yogurt and milk was not labeled. I for one, WANT to see expiration dates and know that what I'm buying, whether from a local farmer or grocery store, is safe to consume. However, I would hope that the authorities would concentrate on the culprits from the large corporations before going after these guys who are obviously just trying to offer a good, natural product. Being such a litigious country doesn't help either.
Going to follow this some more in the meantime. Thanks for the post, Aunty.
Anon,
thanky fer the link. It made me curious about raw milk products, about which I'se very ignorant,
La Diva C!
Thank fer yore link too--the best comment from yore article wuz,
"Then there’s the very real political effect as many of these rules become detailed and complicated. The big economic actors employ lobbyists from the best K Street firms to keep track and influence the process; they are at every meeting and know every player. Small and mid-scale players simply cannot afford to do that. "
THAT's eggactly the trouble--the small farmer cain't fight when the regulations is lowered on him
Mah big thang is that they ain't traced no salmonella or E. coli outbreaks to the local farmers--it comes from these HUGE CAFOs. So why slapp onerous rules on the little growers? Why target the local, the organic, the hime gardener...and whas' up with the seed police??
Meanwhile La Dvia--on the Front Porch, check out the link to the goat farmer lady--order up some prime lamb--yum.
Thanks so much for keeping me abreast of this, Aunty. It's the same ol' David vs. Goliath story isn't it? I still feel that we have power to change though and there are a lot of people that think like we do.
I grew up on a ranch at the edge of a small northern New Mexico town so poor, the average yearly income rarely hit five figures. One early morning when I was about six or seven, I woke up to the sound of voices coming from the kitchen. I toddled down the hall to see what was going on and there, in the middle of our freshly scrubbed linoleum floor, were my father, my mother, and several of our neighbors, slaughtering a deer our neighbors had just poached.
Poached according to the STATE, that is, but not according to the owner of the ranch, a man of laconic munificence who allowed his handful of tenants to hunt a certain number of animals on his property each year, for free. State be damned. But don't get caught and don't tell him the details.
Because our neighbor's lived in what was basically 500 square feet, they traded the use of my parent's large kitchen floor and their labor for a share in the meat.
So I guess you could say that my intolerance for government tyranny over individual autonomy in any manner started with a slaughtered deer, snatched in the night by people who had spent generations peaceably living off the land with no rules or regulations needed.
Good evening Aunty Belle:
You're right it is deliberate, the constant onslaught of issues, eventually makes most folks numb. They can't keep up with an all. And the folks that are trying to get over on them, i.e. The government and the mega corporations take advantage of the situation.
If we allow our present path to continue, we will all be eating Soylent Green. Too many people, too much manipulation of the food supply and far too many people in positions of power trying to feed the masses, instead of controlling the population.
MOI,
thas' a great story--lovin' it--an Uncle hooted, "Hail yes!".
Karl!!
Y E S! Soylent Green !! Heh, ain't that a prescient movie?
What is a real worry--doan laugh--is that having real seeds and growin' real ( NON-GMO) foods could be a criminal act.
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