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FDA on the Farm
FDA on the Farm. In its present form,
#usbill #HR2749 the FOOD SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ACT 2009
does not take into account the needs of small family
and local organic farms. Much work is going on
to reach congress and senators. You involvement is needed
now.
Date: 7/18/2009 6:10:09 AM ( 15 y ) ... viewed 2174 times
HOW TRUSTWORTHY
is the FDA with our PUBLIC TRUST????
FDA's Mercury Ruling Defies ALL Scientific Reasoning
FDA, in spite of their own scientific findings,
claims Mercury Amalgams are safe...
Please, this is not an organization to give more power!
Food Safety Laws need work,
not giving more regulatory powers to FDA.
look out for s510 #USBill #S510
FOOD SAFETY MODERIFATION ACT
Leafy Green Guidelines
and will be the standard
for new Food Safety legislation
that passes. This is likely the case.
The FDA is put in the drivers seat.
August 22, 09
Update
5:08 pm
July 18, 09
on iPhone now.
This blog needs clarification.
#HR2749 needs to clearly
disassociate from the
Green Leafy Marketing Guidelines.
I need to further research in my
own understanding how much
of the Green Leafy Guidelines
are part of #HR 2749.
They appear to be associated:
http://www.ftcldf.org/docs/hr2749-CROP%20REGULATION.htm
Any issued regulation “may include standards addressing manure use, water quality, employee hygiene, sanitation and animal control, and temperature controls, as the Secretary determines to be reasonably necessary.” [section 104(b), sec 419A(b)(3)–p. 32]
Leslie
"What concerns me most about this bill is that it could be perilously close to
making our Nation’s food safety more difficult to achieve in the long run. Whilethe Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 will have some positive impacts on the safety of our Nation’s food supply, it will also have some unintended consequences. In my opinion as a farmer, this legislation needs more refinement before going forward. I do not make this statement lightly or out of self-interest, but out of deep concern for the ultimate safety and security of our country’s food supply."
QUOTE FROM
NICK MARIVELL
at the AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEE
JULY 16
ACTION PAGE:
Ask Congress to Defeat HR 2749
9,269 Submissions so far
111th U.S. Congress - House Bill HR 2749 [Click here for FAQs]
A new food safety bill is on the fast track in Congress--HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. The bill needs to be stopped!
HR 2749 gives FDA tremendous power while significantly diminishing existing judicial restraints on actions taken by the agency. The bill would impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme on small farms and local artisanal producers; and it would disproportionately impact their operations for the worse.
HR 2749 does not address underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply. The industrial food system and food imports are badly in need of effective regulation, but the HR 2749 does not specifically direct regulation or resources to these areas.
http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum993.php
You can send messages to Congress through the FTCLDF petition
here.
OTHER PETITIONS
Tell Congress ‘One size does not fit all’ when it comes to regulating food safety! We the Undersigned urge you to support amendments to Federal Food Safety legislation that draw a clear line between small local processors and direct market growers selling locally and the long, industrial, multi-sourced food supply chains where foodborne pathogens have appeared and created problems. FDA oversight is overreaching and unnecessary for small processors selling into local markets and direct market producers.
MARGIE MACDONALD OF THE
WESTERN ORGANIZATION OF RESOURCE COUNCILS
told me July 17, 09 that she felt an amendment
was further needed that was good for the
small farmers. You will find their main
flyer on #HR2749 here:
http://curezone.com/upload/Blogs/Your_Enchanted_Gardener/Food_Safety_Act2.pdf
OTHER THINGS TO DO
TWEETER CONGRESS
http://tweetcongress.org/
Establish a working relationship with your
Congress person and Senator!
Send thanks to those in support of amendments to
#HR2749.
Contact info for Legislators are located
on the Tweeter Congress site.
There are a number of Legislators
who are open to hearing local farm points of view.
I will detail them on future blogs.
GIVE INPUT TO
PRESIDENT OBAMA's FOOD SAFETY WORKNG GROUP
THESE ARE THE AMENDMENTS TO #HR2749
from RUSSELL LIBBY OF THE MOFGA
Russell has been has been working for this Amendment:
Sustainable and Organic Farming Proposed Revisions to Pallone Amendment of ‘Food Safety Enhancement Act’ – 6/11/09
These amendments need to be discussed and included
in #HR2749
OTHER PLANT YOUR DREAM BLOGS
on this TOPIC will help you understand the issues.
OPENING TESIMONIES from the Hearing
July 16 of the AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE
3:55 AM
July 18, 09
I grew up in the area, West Hollywood, CA
where the HONORABLE
HENRY WAXMAN hails from.
Rep Waxman has been in the news lately.
He and the Honorable JOHN DINGLE of Texas
are two of the main drivers behind #usbill FSEA
#HR2749, the latest evolution in a series of
bills that wants to pass the
FOOD SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ACT (FSEA).
There are a ton of links on the internet in favor
and opposed to #HR 2749.
It basically would give the FDA increased
regulatory powers, and give them authority
over the farm and how it is run.
The Honorable Waxman has been getting the flack
from a lot of Organic types this week.
The One size fits all bill is a piece of work.
It needs a lot of refinement, as was pointed out
in the press yesterday, as reviews came in about
the Public Hearings in Washington held Thursday
July 16.
Basically, some say it could doom local organic agriculture
through heaping on already intensely regulated local farmers
a good heaping tablespoon of more Rules and Regs,
and large size fines if any of its dictates are broken.
The passage basically puts the FDA on the Farm.
The bill is described as a fast moving train.
No one, in their right political mind, wants to get in front
and stop it. On the surface it affords new protection against
contamination. People have already died from peanut butter
processing. There is a list of other criminal foods from
spinach to suspected tomatoes.
The powers that be, who do not know too much about
diversified farming, imagine that through sterilizing the farm
and applying lots of new regs, they can remedy the contamination.
Most of the people who know ecological farming would prefer
that the Reg and Rule makers look where the problem really is:
Industrial, centralized, mechanized farming practices, and
so named factory farming issues.
Some of the farmers I talked to--including NICK MARIVELL--
pointed out that if Henry Waxman, et all, have their way,
in the present form, #HR 2749 would do such things
as outlaw having livestock raising within two miles of
food growing. Marivell spoke in Washington D.C.
at the hearings. I have uploaded his testimony
to another Plant Your Dream Blog.
This idea--sterilize--the farm
is a nifty idea to avoid contamination
but does not hold water from a perspective of Healthy Farming
or for that matter, true science.
The integrated ecologically healthy farm basically has livestock,
food, and a diversity of buglife all living in balance.
This model says that for a strong immune system
in people and in food, build up the soil.
This is time tested and age old practice.
It is merely the last 100 or more years that
we have lost the beat with nature, and the beet
of the farm.
The sterile farm idea--a lovely idea, fits hand in hand
with some other kind of lab farming or GMO thinking.
The Sterile farm idea is enough to give me waking nightmares
24/7.
For a nifty article about the Sterile Farm,
please read CAROLYN LOCHHEADS piece that was
introduced into the testimony July 16.
The Sterile Farm has lots of support
through what is called the Green Leaf..
get name... In practice,
there are already farms in CA that have been asked
to keep little diapered children out of the field, and
cut buffers to keep out the potential of pooping deer
from pissing on lettuce leafs.
Much of the problem with leafy greens again,
traces to attempts to package greens and then
ship them. Local organic farmers' market types,
pick their lettuce the day of or the day before.
These farm fresh greens are full of nature's best
sunshine. As the current Regs of #2749 now stand,
such a farmer who cuts his produce the day before,
washes it, and then cools in before taking it to market
would be up for new Regs. Cooling and washing
are called food processing. Food Processing under
#2749 asks a $500.00 reg fee.
BACK TO ME and HENRY
I went to Fairfax High School.
Each Saturday during my college days,
I would load up Magnolia, my old 52 Chevy
and go back to the hood.
We would go to the SILENT MOVIE across
from my High School, and then go over to PINK
at the corner of La Brea and Melrose for one or
two hot dogs. The line was always long.
Good Onions, delicious unkosher meat, plenty
of mustard. I imagine Henry visited some of those places too.
I have Henry Waxman on my mind this morning.
I have to say the last week, I have been losing sleep
over Henry Waxman.
DR LEN HOROWITZ Started MY SLEEPLESSNESS
All these sleep losing actually was inspired by another
nice Jewish Man DR LEN HOROWITZ. I made the mistake
of listening to what he had to say at the
AFGHAN CULTURAL FUNDRAISING FESTIVAL
the Kickoff event for LIVE H20; LIVE H20 was Len's
brainchild.
Lots of us got together the weekend of the
Summer Solstice around the world to begin
cleaning up the oceans and waters of the world
through our prayers and actions.
On the surface, LIVE H20 is all about the love frequency
528, as they name it, and revealing the great hidden connection
between praying on water and human intention,
but when I started to visit the 24/7 streaming video
on the LIVE H20 site, I was exposed to another world.
I visited a bunch of downer inside me
frequencies that started to give me my current nightmares.
LEN is not only involved in the Frequency of Love 528.
He is one of the big spreaders of all the yummy stories
about virulent swine flu pandemics and conspiracy
theories that definitely have any normal person looking
for sleeping pills--if they listen at all.
Some of the ideas I listened to on the LIVE H20 internet
stream of videos were harder to digest than those
PINK's Hot Dogs.
One thing led to another.
Before I knew it, I was surfing an internet trail
that led me everywhere from names
like FRITZ TER MEER, the esteemed Nazi
never say die war criminal.
Convicted at the Nuremburg Trials,
the company he was involved in during
his Nazi days, I.G. FARBEN is said to have created
drugs like RU 486 (Mifepristone), an abortion remedy.
to other nifty products, such as the one size fits all gas
for the chambers of horror.
According to DR RIMA LAIBOW, Ter Meer not only created
the sign above the gas chamber at Auschwitz, but
his brainchild was the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS,
a commission of Rule and Reg Makers.
According to Dr. Laibow, Ter Meer realized that through
Food, the world could be controlled.
Codex, says, Dr. Laibow, basically means "Food Rules."
He sold the idea of Codex to the U.N., where he had friends,
says Liabow.
Now isn't that enough to disturb the sleep???
What does Codex have to do with #HR 2749?
On the surface, nothing.
Codex goes hand in hand with world trade
as offers the nations guidelines
for health. It does have a few interesting timelines.
By December 2009, the Codex Commission
that has been meeting numbers of times a year
since 1962-- wanted to have some of their
ideas filter down into daily living.
What are some of the Codex Alimentarium
Regs?
Here is a little bit from one web site I just visited.
I have no idea when this article was written,
however, the supplement restrictions are something
now proposed, and in practice in some nations of
the EU. These ideas have some friends within the FDA
who lean toward the efficacy of pharaceutical scientifically
tested drugs. One agent I heard speak in an internet film
did not feel that natural remedies were the way to go.
I am not sure what kind of Food Rules,
Codex has RE: Farming.
I imagine the foods they like to eat
are neither hot dogs from PINKS nor
local, organic farmers' market faire.
I do not know where this is coming from,
but somewhere in the back of my mind,
I see an Art work created.
It shows that traditional farm couple with the pitchfork.
The face of the man and woman are both those of
my old dear neighborhood ally, the Honorable Henry Waxman.
In his pocket is a bottle of vitamins. The label reads
Kotex Alimentarius.
I am sure the final version of #HR2749 will have lots of
other revisions before it finally passes.
Passed as it, I imagine it would ask diapered kids
and menstruating women to stay out of the farm field.
Shudder...
Back to bed.
FDA ON THE FARM
CAROLYN LOCHHEAH Articles
this week:
http://overlawyered.com/2009/07/tearing-up-the-farm-in-safetys-name/
Tearing up the farm, in safety’s name
by WALTER OLSON on JULY 17, 2009
Eye-opening account by Carolyn Lochhead in the San Francisco Chronicle of some of the collateral damage in the farm-safety panic. For fear of bacterial contamination, farmers are now increasingly obliged to act rigorously against any sign of wildlife, whether frogs, squirrels, birds or mice:
…ponds are being poisoned and bulldozed. Vegetation harboring pollinators and filtering storm runoff is being cleared. Fences and poison baits line wildlife corridors.
Even organic techniques of surrounding crops with hedges of pest-resistant vegetation are being foiled by buyers’ demands that an entirely sterile ring be installed instead.
Auditors have told [farmer Ken] Kimes that no children younger than 5 can be allowed on his farm for fear of diapers. He has been asked to issue identification badges to all visitors.
Full article here.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/13/MN0218DVJ8.DTL
"In pending legislation and in proposed federal regulations, the push for food safety butts up against the movement toward biologically diverse farming methods, while evidence suggests that industrial agriculture may be the bigger culprit."
--Carolyn Lochhead article, July 13
Going national
For many giant food retailers, the choice between a dead pond and a dead child is no choice at all. Industry has paid more than $100 million in court settlements and verdicts in spinach and lettuce lawsuits, a fraction of the lost sales involved.
Galvanized by the spinach disaster, large growers instituted a quasi-governmental program of new protocols for growing greens safely, called the "leafy greens marketing agreement." A proposal was submitted last month in Washington to take these rules nationwide.
A food safety bill sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, passed this month in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It would give new powers to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate all farms and produce in an attempt to fix the problem. The bill would require consideration of farm diversity and environmental rules, but would leave much to the FDA.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/13/MN0218DVJ8.DTL...
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/13/MN0218DVJ8.DTL...
OTHER POINTS OF VIEW:
The testimony at the hearing July 16 brought up the
Carolyn Lochhead piece. Here is the section of the
testimony where it is mentioned.
http://curezone.com/blogs/fmp.asp?i=1457739
"BEATING UP ON THE FDA"
2/3rds of the funds comes from rhe
pharmaceutical. The drug companies
run the FDA."
http://waxman.house.gov/
Discusses "Pre-emption."
We cannot recover damages.
The FDA relies on information
given to it by the Indistry.
"The system works by putting out
a product and then seeing the results."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWns15Y5TdI
10:00 AM
July 18, 09
Found on DR MERCOLA SITE
PRESIDENT OBAMA's FOOD SAFETY WORKNG GROUP
http://www.foodsafetyworkinggroup.gov/ContentKeyFindings/HomeKeyFindings.htm
Hooray! I want to give input to this group!
--Leslie
7:07 AM
July 18, 09
ALL HANDS ON DECK
from USA TODAY
FDA to Fix Food Safety
Old Article
mentions the working group...
I want to give input to this working group....
Bingo!!!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-07-07-food-safety-guidelines_N.htm?c...
DEFENDING FOOD SAFETY
http://www.defendingfoodsafety.com/tags/henry-waxman/
Excellent site for understanding the issues
HENRY WAXMAN OFFICIAL SITE
http://waxman.house.gov/
FDA MOVING TO THE FARM
http://www.agandfoodlaw.com/
FDA Moving to the Farm
There is a legitimate concern expressed by many in the nation’s agricultural community over a bill, the Food Safety Enhancement Act (HR 2749), that is quietly and efficiently moving through Congress under the distraction caused by health care reform and Supreme Court confirmations.
The concern of the nation’s farmers is perhaps best expressed by Rep. Mike McIntyre’s words in the House Committee on Agriculture’s hearing on the bill, as quoted in Carolyn Lochead’s story on the bill in today’s, July 17, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle, ‘“There’s been a battle cry in North Carolina, that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is coming onto the farm.”’ To read Lochead’s article click here.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/17/MNB618Q3UU.DTL
LEAFY GREEN MARKETING AGREEMENT (LGMA) GUIDELINES
NOTE:
Carolyn Lochhead refers to this in her article.
I researched this with CAFF on the web.
They comment on this.
This is a stuck point with #2749.
RUSSELL LIBBY and the Maine Farmers
have been working to amend this in the bill.
T
This LGMA is an attempt in the bill
to nationalize this CA program that
takes the sterile approaches.
It needs to be researched how much of this
is still in the current #2749.
FROM THE MAINE ORGANIC FARM
and GARDENING ASSOCIATION
ON LEAFY GREEN GUIDELINES
Food Safety Regulation by Marketing Agreement. On a parallel, and completely-related track, a petition was delivered to USDA on June 8th that requests the establishment of a Federal Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement. If approved, this would extend the standards used by the largest greens growers in the country to any farmer that agreed to sign-on, and make the California agreement the de facto standard for any farmer supplying greens to markets across the country.
REQUEST TO ESTABLISH a FEDERAL LEAFY GREENS MARKETING
AGREEMENT
http://nlgma.org/fresh-produce-industry-associations-peti.php
I am not sure how much of this is in the current
#HR 2749--Leslie
10:31 AM
July 18, 09
THESE ARE THE AMENDMENTS TO #HR2749
from RUSSELL LIBBY OF THE MOFGA
Russell has been has been working for this Amendment:
Sustainable and Organic Farming Proposed Revisions to Pallone Amendment of ‘Food
Safety Enhancement Act’ – 6/11/09
These amendments need to be discussed and included
in #HR2749
FOOD SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ACT DRAWS IRE
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Friday, July 17, 2009
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/17/MNB618Q3UU.DTL#ix...
(07-17) 04:00 PDT Washington - -- Members of a powerful House committee and farmers raised alarms Thursday about a food-safety bill steamrolling through Congress, saying it could hurt small farmers, conflict with organic growing methods and trump efforts to boost wildlife habitat and water and air quality.
07.17.09
Overshadowed by the health care debate on Capitol Hill, the bill is part of a broad effort backed by the Obama administration and consumer groups to tighten food-safety rules after national outbreaks of food-borne illness caused by salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens in cookie dough, peanuts, produce and beef.
The Food Safety Enhancement Act by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate all farms. It has provoked uproar among small farmers.
"There's been a battle cry in North Carolina, that the FDA is coming onto the farm," said Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C.
Re: [Community_garden] Bill HR 2749 relating to New Farm Regulations across the USA
Linda Ludwig
Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:49:12 -0700
Hi Fellow Gardeners:
http://www.mail-archive.com/community_garden@list.communitygarden.org/msg0913...
I felt compelled to send you this information as if
passed will dramatically affect our small organic farms mandating conformance
to FDA standards and adding enormous amounts of paperwork to their already
hectic workloads. Please take the time to look at this link and forward to all
of your friends who care about our local all natural and organic farmers.
Thank you...Linda Ludwig
http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum993.php
SUPPORT FOR ORGANIC FOOD
FROM THE UN
old article 07
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FAOPromotesOrganicAgriculture.php
OOOPS!!!
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/hr-2749-totalitarian-control-of-t...
* HR 2749 would empower FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested. It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers. [This astounding control opens the door to CODEX. WTO "good farming practices" will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms but into the forced purchase of industry's products. They will be slaves on the land, doing the work they are ordered to do - against their own best wisdom - and paying out to industry against their will.
There will be no way to be frugal, to grow one's own grain to feed the animals, to raise healthy animals without GMO grains or drugs, to work with nature at all. Grassfed cattle and poultry and hogs will be finished. So, it's obvious where control will take us. And weren't these the "rumors on the internet" that were dismissed but are clearly the case?]
OPPS-2
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/cafta/Agriculture.html
Underpinning the WTO, FTAA, and CAFTA is the ideology that all food -- from basic grains and meat to fruits and vegetables -- should be produced for international export. This is a drastic shift from the centuries-old practice where each country produced the majority of food its citizens needed on local, small farms -- and only traded in certain products that could not be grown locally. Indeed, the first great wave of globalization -- the colonization of Africa, Asia, and Latin America -- was based on transnational companies forcing local farmers to give up local food production, and shift production to plantations using enslaved Indigenous and African labor to grow luxury crops of coffee, sugar, bananas, and cocoa for export to the colonizing countries.
CONSPIRACY THEORY STUFF
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/17/MNB618Q3UU.DTL#ix...
Bayer, Hoechst AG, IG Farben and Nazi Germany [and Abortions]
By Matt Burg
In October of 1996, the United Nations/World Health Organization Codex Alimentarius Commission met in Bonn, Germany to make changes in the rules governing dietary supplements for member nations. Codex is empowered by governments to set standards of operation for the health industry. Over 90% of the international organization are allowed to send delegates to the meetings to represent large multinational pharmaceutical corporations. A proposal made by the German delegation and sponsored by Hoechst, Bayer and BASF the three corporations that were formerly IG Farben before they were ordered to disband after the Nuremberg Trials.
The drug company backed proposals call for the following:
1) No vitamin, mineral, herb, etc., can be sold for prophylactic (preventive) or therapeutic reasons.
2) Natural remedies can be sold as food but they must not exceed the potency levels set by the commission. This means that consumer access to dietary supplements will be limited to the RDA dosage as a maximum limit for vitamins. Supplements without a RDA would be illegal to sell because they would become drugs.
3) Codex regulations for dietary supplements would become binding, eliminating the escape clause within the General Agreement of Tariff and Trade (GATT) that allows a nation to set its own standards will be heavily fined by the World Trade Organization (WTO) creating the potential of crippling the entire sectors of that nation's economy.
4) All new supplements would be banned unless they go through the Codex approval process.
This policy is has been enacted in Norway and Germany. This policy if approved would cause pharmacy regulation of many supplements and vitamins causing a signifigant price increase. Any country not following the policy would be subject to fines from the World Trade Organization.
The Codex process is now at "Step Five"- formalization and debate concerning the specific features of the policy. In two years, Codex could jump from step 5 to step8 to finalize the restrictions.
MORE CONSPIRACY THEORY...
5:43 AM
Just Googled
Codex and Farming...
It brings this up...
Codex Alimentarius:
The UN Plan to Eradicate Organic Farming
and Destroy the Natural Health Industry
UNABRIDGED By
Ian R. Crane
Narrated by
Ian R. Crane
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