Posted on 11/25/2010 2:40:35 AM PST by cj in tx
Gulag Note: Call your U.S. Senators -- call whomever communicates with them -- spread the word. (Link to Senators' contact information, here.)
“If people let 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
This Founding Father would be rolling in his grave if he knew of the draconian measures to restrict food production the Senate is seeking to bring in. Under the deceptive title of the "FDA Food Safety Modernization Act", the bill if passed into law will crack down not only on large corporations, but also on "small businesses and entities that sell directly to consumers", and will give authorities power to further regulate "growing, harvesting, sorting, packing, and storage operations, minimum standards related to soil amendments, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water".
The Food Safety Bill (S. 510) is being heralded as more dangerous than even the Health Care Reform which passed earlier this year. Section 404 makes it clear that the bill seeks to conform to the requirements of the World Trade Organization and grants new authority to the Department of Homeland Security to oversee food production. Here's the key catchphrase from the proponents of this bill, responding to criticisms that the bill will cripple small-time farmers. This comment from Sandra Eskin of the Pew Charitable Trusts:
"Rather than telling people they don't have to meet these basic safety requirement that will be scale and size appropriate, rather than exempting them we think you should be giving assistance in helping them meet the requirements of the law."Because that's what we want, isn't it. We want the Government to protect us with the likes of this highly regulative "food safety" bill, and then to very kindly help us to meet the requirements of the law. Eskin also applies the tired "progressive" argument that the law is too old,
"The last time that the FDA’s law related to food was changed in any material way was 1938... Over the course of the following decades, we’ve seen our food supply expand and change markedly but the law has not kept up."
"Progressive" Democratic Senator for Montana, Jon Tester, proposed amendments which would exempt small producers and producers that sell primarily directly to consumers, hotels, and restaurants from new regulations. Mark Kastel, co-founder of The Cornucopia Institute explained the need for the Tester amendment, "We want to make sure that consumers have the right to choose between these two alternative supply systems (large scale farms and small farmers). Since nothing is 100 percent sure, I for one will gamble with my health, and the health of my family, by continuing to patronize local organic farmers. Weighing the risks, and the benefits of superior quality and nutrition, I think I am making a good investment. The concern is that this bill, without the Tester amendment, will competitively and economically injure these farmers, probably the safest farmers in our country, and deprive some consumers of this option in the marketplace."On Nov. 18 the bill passed with a compromised version of Tester's amendment. Rady Ananda at Food Freedom has stated that the amendment is simply "lipstick on a pig", and lists the shortcomings in the bill as it currently stands:
"exempt small farmers who make less than $500,000 a year in revenue and sell directly to consumers, restaurants or grocery stores within their states or within 275 miles."Are false, because it only exempts these small farmers from having to submit food safety plans. It does not exempt them from inspections that they get billed for, licensing requirements with expensive quality controls, product confiscation. And anyway, as the dollar crashes, how much is $500,000 a year going to be worth? In response to the arguments being made in favor of the bill with advocates touting the "5,000 deaths occur every year as a result of food-borne illness," David E. Gumpert, health and food issues reporter, makes the following important point,
"...Some of the injuries that have resulted from food-borne illness aren't necessarily a result of an absence of legislation. They are the result of the FDA not doing its job. For example, the FDA knew for years about the problems with the Iowa egg producers, yet didn't go after them in anything like the aggressive way it has gone after small food producers who have made no one ill."Off the Grid News explains what will happen to seeds if the bill passes,
"The big agriculture giants want to make you dependent on them for any seed, even if it’s heirloom seed. They know that they need the regulatory heft of Big Brother in order to accomplish this. First they need to eliminate seed cleaning equipment. They get the FDA to set minimum “food safety” standards for seed cleaning so that any farmer would need at least a million dollars in structure and equipment to meet the new requirements. And that’s per line of seed."
Harsh regulation of seed handling will of course, result in larger corporations such as Monsanto consolidating the production of seeds. Interesting to note that George Soros' hedge fund has just bought 897,813 shares (valued at $312.6 million) in Monsanto. It is Soros' second biggest investment. More on conflicts of interest within the FDA here. The bill also increases the costs of the FDA, with $825 million set aside for 2010, and "such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2011 through 2014." The bill then stipulates that no fewer than 1,200 additional staff must be employed at the Office of Regulatory Affairs of the Food and Drug Administration, the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The sponsor of the bill is Council for a Livable World-endorsed (CLW) Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin. The bill is co-sponsored by several mainly "progressive" Democrats and some Republicans:
CLW-endorsed Senators:
You can roll your eyes and say "that's never going to happen" - but if you want to ensure that it doesn't, then write to your Senator - in particular the Republicans who voted to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate.
Update - Nov. 24, 11:10pm: Removed Orrin Hatch's name from list of co-sponsors, as original list taken from an older copy of the bill.
Trevor Loudon, top researcher of the global neo-Marxist movement, administrates KeyWiki and NewZeal.
Mr. Loudon’s Obama Files articles are listed at NewZeal.
Email them today.
Gulag Note: Call your U.S. Senators -- call whomever communicates with them -- spread the word. (Link to Senators' contact information, here.)
“Section 404 makes it clear that the bill seeks to conform to the requirements of the World Trade Organization”
Sounds like the Liberal Free Trade Globalists have their hands all over this....along with their buddy...George Soros.
Bump.
Too bad there isn’t an anti-nonsense clause in the Constitution. Calling seeds for planting “food” when they are not intended to be ingested as food would be a prime example. Isn’t it already a long standing practice that seeds for planting may be treated with preservative chemicals which would be strictly verboten on seeds for eating? So long as they are identified as such by dye or other means?
Is it just me, or does that sound like a spurious quote? Doesn't have that 18th century cadence.
I’m for free trade agreements between as many countries as possible but we have got to get rid of this WTO!
good call
Since at least 1997 the statement “Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now” has been misquoted in paraphrased form as “If people let 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”.
The accurate quote and source:
“Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.” —Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVII, 1782. ME 2:222
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1310.htm
Still seems apropo of this as well as Obamacare IMO, unless someone can provide more context.
BUMP
What ever happened to our freedoms? Whatever happens to Consent of the governed? Whatever happen to the Constitution???
Forgive me asserting these “Radical ideas”:
God(ups... I mean government) forbid that any American ever be told that his rights are not the grant of Government but God. That our rights are as such not subject to the legitimate creation or destruction of government but rather inherit in our existence.
That we Americans are not a free people but one bound to the service of an all powerful and discretionary government. Theses ideas of American liberty are obsolete in the present age of the Federal Government’s need for massive power and control over everything.
Leave it to me a “radical” patriot(defender of liberty) to reassert these simple facts to the deaf ears of power crazed politicians who would not voluntarily submit to them:
The legitimacy of power dwells from the consent(Constitutionally enumerated) of the governed, not the Governing own discretion.
That our American adherence to Federal Laws is and can be no more or less discretionary then the Federal Government’s own adherence to the limits of the Constitution authorizing its existence.
That we are free people governed not by the arbitrary will of a dictator (elected or not), but rather by a compact enumerating our consent to be governed(The Constitution of our State and that of the United States).
That theses facts before mentioned(”radical” ideas that once formed the very foundation of the united States) are not and never can be negotiable to a free people.
no world tax paid, NO FOOD!
Did I just hear somebody scream at their computer that "THAT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE!"?
I've got three letters, just three letters
TSA
Great post. More OUTSTANDING work from Trevor Loudon! United Totalitarians of America at work with the Internationale. Names names. It may be time for groups of patriots to gather to tag team each movement/word/history/enabler of each of these totalitarians 60/60/24/7/365.
Note, quote, call, educate, vote. 2012 is rapidly approaching.
LIfe, liberty and the pursuit and destruction of totalitarians.
Ping for further action
very afraid ping
We have had precious little success convincing our two unrepentant RHINO’s Chambliss and Isakson to see the light. Perhaps it’s just ignorance because they are both no nothing go along get alongs or because they were two of the largest recipients of payola from Special interest groups on this issue. You be the judge. Feel free to contact both of them and add your displeasure with their stand on S.510 to ours.
Saxby Chambliss PH: 202-224-3521
Johnny Isakson PH: 202-224-3643
“Will Centralize and Regulate Food Production”
Anytime the government centralizes any aspect of economic activity, it degrades its quality as well as violating the spirit of the Founding Fathers. The Libertarian movement should be even more up in arms about this than it is about ObamaCare.
p.s.- Bamahead, that’s your cue!
And from the likes of Mase and Toddsterpatriot... crickets.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.