ACTION PAGE:

GO SIGN THE PETITION NOW TO
PROTECT SMALL FARMERS and OUR HEALTH FREEDOMS

Ask Congress to Defeat HR 2749
111th U.S. Congress - House Bill
FSEA #HR 2749 (Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009)
http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum993.php

Follow through Congress on Thomas:
http://www.thomas.gov/



UPDATE

11:58 AM
July 14, 09

After 40 hours of study,
and then getting some diverse opinion,
I stopped sending this petition.
After five more hours of fact checking,
and studying the issues deeper, I am
back on track convinced that it is important
to sign this petition
as a beginning, and do much more.
We are in a NATIONAL FOOD EMERGENCY.
What needs to emerge is education.
The time for that is now.
This bill, #usbill FSEA #HR2749
is an opportunity to come to grips
with issues of Food Safety once and for all.
We cannot have Food Safety without Healthy
Safe Foods. Most of us need to be educated
about what healhy safe foods are, and why
local, organic foods are the backbone of
healthy Food Safety.

THIS IS WHAT I SENT OUT THE OTHER DAY

FSEA #HR 2749 Hurts Small Farmers

There are some proposed bills being rushed
through congress right now. The Rules and Reg
Makers would like them to go through unnoticed,
but people everywhere are signing petitions,
and reaching out to friends, family, and legislators to make
sure that the forces who would control small farmers
are put harmlessly aside for the good of humanity's
future. SIgn the Petition to help all the Joe the Farmers--
our small local, organic farmers growing therapeutic
quality foods.

MY INITIAL BLOGS ON THIS

http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1452740





FACEBOOK PHOTOS
OF HILLCREST FARMERS' MARKET
JULY 12
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2013589&id=504567234&ref=mf


FOLLOWING FSEA #HR2749
THROUGH CONGRESS:

include tags #usbill FSEA #HR2749
in your tweets.

Hashtags are little words or mnemonics starting with a #-sign that people use to associate their tweets with a bigger picture. GovTrack recommends the hashtag #usbill when discussing legislation in the U.S. Congress.


http://www.govtrack.us/twitter.xpd


THE FOLLOWING REPRESENTS FIVE MORE HOURS
OF RESEARCH AND FACT CHECKING.
I wanted to make sure that I was on the right track
in my request to ask you to sign this petition.

READ ON

2:15 AM
July 14, 09

I did not imagine I would be getting into a difference of
opinion about THE FOOD SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ACT
#usbill FSEA #2749 when I began looking into
the issues. This bill is now

I celebrate and help in every way possible a number of
local organic farmers in San Diego.
They sell produce at the HILLCREST FARMERS MARKET,
one of the best in the counry.

I have listened to STEPHEN L. WHITE, my main avocado connection
for more than ten years, "bitch" for just about the same amount of
years about the intense red tape he has to go through
that is very time consuming. The regulations
affecting our local organic farmers are already extensive.
One of his favorite words I hear is
"beaurocrat." The second issue i hear is about how little the shoppers
know about their food. Steve is a great family man. He has at least
five kids last I counted, most born in the last decade.

The apricots I bought from him this past weekend were among the
best of the market all season. He definitely knows how to farm.
His oranges I call the "The Ugly Orange that changed the American palate." Some of his oranges, available part of the year, are ugly on the outside,
but the sweetest and ripest you would ever want to taste.

When it comes time to add more regulations or give more authority to the
FDA to correct our food system, if I were in political office and I was about
to bring up food safety bills, I would definitely get the opinions of
local organic family farmers and include their point of view. Local organic farming is the backbone of healthy Food Safety.

So who are the advisors to FSEA #HR2749, I would like to know?
Who was in on the thinking behind the more than 100 pages of this bill?

As I researched I could see that many say Big Ag has the ear of
the Congress. The bills are getting more and more watered down.

One of the most powerful links below tells the story
of our attempts to sterilize farming as a way to ensure
Food Safety.

This article came out July 13 in the SAN FRANCISCO
CRONICLE.

Crops, Ponds Destroyed in Quest for Food Safety
by Carolyn Lochhead


Last week, I spent about forty hours last week studying what I could understand about FSEA and #HR2749.
I wrote a number of Plant Your Dream Blogs.
I went so far as to create a flyer that I brought to the HILLCREST FARMERS' MARKET. One of the first people I spent time with is JILL RICHARDSON,
the author of a really great new book called RECIPE FOR AMERICA.
Subtitle: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix it.
I am looking forward to spending more time with Jill's book.

I mailed out my first request for people to oppose this bill based
on an email I received from MARILYN PETERSON McDONALD, another
soon to be published author. I have admired and known Marilyn for many years. She knows food. She worked for DR BERNARD JENSEN (1908-2001), my own closest trusted source of information on food. DR Bernard Jensen taught what Hippocrites, the father of medicine taught. They both said,
"Let Food Be Thy Medicine."

One thing is very clear to me.

Our local organic farmers, and notably those in San Diego County,
are a national treasure. They are growing some of the last remaining
therapuetic quality food within miles of my house or this county.

When Hippocrites and Dr Bernard Jensen said, "Let Food Be Thy Medicine"
they did not mean "Let GMO Food Be Thy Medicine." They were talking
about fresh picked, local, organic food or better, food grown on farms that
were sustainable. By sustainable, I mean they had no laws interfering
with their ability to compost on their own land, or interfere with the wisdom
that they had to grow the best food possible.

These men were in touch with the beat of nature.

It is clear to me that when the bill calls for a science-based approach
to food regulation, Washington is more and more looking to GMO science
to provide this science. I witnessed this personally last June when I
was part of the Press Corps for BIO, the BIOTECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE. I have already written about that. We have to look
to other groups such as the ORGANIC TRADE ASSOCIATION, that
lobbies in Washington, and the ORGANIC CENTER to step up to the plate.
The Organic Center promotes REAL SCIENCE from an organic point of
view.

THE CONSUMER UNION (CU)

I agree with the CONSUMER UNION and its efforts to support
a safe food system, but Whoa! Yes, we need to have better watch dogging
of large industrial food producers, but not at the cost of further harming
our smaller family farms.

We need to make sure what we are doing with this with FSEA #HR 2749.

This is not just about winning an argument or calling one group
this or that name. This is about Food Safety, and that is what I want to see.

JULY 13 ACTIVITY

Here are a few things that happened yesterday:

1. The petition I sent to our Local Food Not Lawns Group--the organizers
of our recent CULTIVATING FOOD JUSTICE CONFERENCE--was sent out.
You can find the link to the Petition requesting you sign the petition
I wrote at the bottom of this blog.

2. I got an email from Jill Richardson. Jill seems for the most part to be
supporting what the CONSUMERS UNION is saying about this bill.
Jill alerted me to the work of the CONSUMER UNION
I spent time on their site. They are in favor of the passage of this bill.

3. I also got a personal email from Jill. She led me
in some good directions that I followed up here.

I was shocked by what I read from the
CONSUMERS UNION. In their article about the FARM TO CONSUMER LEGAL DEFENSE FUND (FTCLD), they wanted to win their argument. The points they were making did not begin with the strongest points that the FTCLD
were making about their concerns about #HR2749.

#HR2749's REAL IMPACTS; A RESPONSE TO CONSUMER's UNION

I highly recommend that you look at what the CONSUMER UNION
was saying, and also the response to them that is now posted from
the FARM TO CONSUMER LEGAL DEFENSE FUND (FTCLDF).

Jill left me with the idea that perhaps this Defense Fund were libertarian at heart and was opposing this bill because they are opposed to regulation.
I did a little more research on them. Their positions go way beyond
being Republican, Democratic, Green, or Liberitarian--or any
poitical point of view.

THE LEADERSHIP OF THE FTCLDF

The statements made by the CU in opposition
to the FTCDF Stand begin with statements about
their vociferous support of Raw Milk. This is
one of their points, but far from their lead
THE TALKING POINTS AGAINST #HR2749.
http://www.ftcldf.org/docs/hr2749_talkingpoints.html


ABOUT RAW MILK

NANCY FALLON MORELL, is a member-leader of FTCLDF.
She is one of the wisest voices I know today
RE: Wisdom Traditions with Food. She is the inspiration
behind the WESTON A PRICE FOUNDATION. I highly recommend
this work. Nancy Fallon Morell is an advocate of Raw Milk for
health.

The Consumer Union (CU) appears to be against Raw Milk.
This bill #usbill FSEA #HR2749
wants to outlaw Raw Milk on a national level.

I am not a milk drinker,
but stand with Dr. Bernard Jensen, Nancy Fallon
Morell and the thousands who have benefited from Raw Milk
in various health-giving forms. This
bill outlawing raw milk is not the way to go.

For more on this Raw Milk issue, I highly recommend
that everyone order a copy of the DVD put out my CHEF JEM.
Go here for excerpts on this.
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1301129

The issue of raw vs pasteurized milk
and which is best for Healthy Food Safety
is only one of more than 1000 issues
that needs to be addressed in salons
at the White House and on public TV.

We will never have an educated
Washington legislative
corps or turn turn Health Reform around
unless we begin this process now.
HERE is a blog I wrote called
FOOD SAFETY IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
and another called

NATIONAL FOOD EMERGENCY REMEDIES

This issue, Raw Milk, is only one
of the issues this bill would effect.
There are for the most part, deeper
and more devastating potential effects proposed
in the more than 100 pages.

Please begin to educate yourself.
Included below are my research notes
and many links from my research last
early morning July 14, 2009.

RELATED BLOGS and LINKS:

MISSION STATEMENT OF FARM TO CONSUMER LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/

The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund is a 501 (c) (4) non-profit organization made up of farmers and consumers joining together and pooling resources to:

• Protect the constitutional right of the nation’s family farms to provide processed and unprocessed farm foods directly to consumers through any legal means.
• Protect the constitutional right of consumers to obtain unprocessed and processed farm foods directly from family farms.
• Protect the nation’s family farms from harassment by federal, state, and local government interference with food production and on-farm food processing.

#HR2749's REAL IMPACTS; A RESPONSE TO CONSUMER's UNION
http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/HR2749-response.htm

I find this highly intelligent and to the point:

THEIR CONCLUSION

HR 2749 is seriously flawed because it does not require FDA to focus on the real threats to food safety: imported foods and industrial domestic foods shipped all over the country. Instead of ensuring effective, on-the-ground inspection, the bill focuses on paperwork requirements that are ineffective and counter-productive. At the same time, it imposes extensive, burdensome federal regulation on small, local farms and businesses, which have not been the source of the major food recalls. It would be best to start over with a new bill that addresses the real problems from the beginning.

The FTCLDF calls on the Consumers Union and other organizations supporting HR 2749 to address the potentially crippling effect the bill would have on the nation’s small farms and local food processors rather than dismissing these issues.

OPENING OF CONSUMER UNION (CU)
REBUTTAL TO THE FTCLDF

The CU avoided addressing the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund’s detailed analysis, which is posted at http://www.ftcldf.org/news/news-15june2009.htm,
and conflated arguments made by FTCLDF with statements made by anonymous individuals and posted on a blog.


CONSUMER UNION (CU)

CU ARGUMENTS,
http://www.consumersunion.org/blogs/nimf/2009/06/good_grief_could_it_be_true....


The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FCLDF), a group primarily devoted to preserving the right to sell raw milk, has mounted a vociferous internet campaign to defeat HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act (FSEA), alleging that the bill will hurt small farms. The bill recently received unanimous approval from the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is on its way to a floor vote.

(A lot of these arguments seem flawed...Leslie)

NOT IN MY FOOD, ORG (CU)

(Well meaning and good stuff--Leslie)

http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/notinmyfood/about.html

Providing consumers with timely information about food safety risks and actions that can be taken to reduce them is the goal of NotInMyFood.org, which is a project of Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. At a time when government oversight of food safety should be strengthened to combat life-threatening risks such as mad cow disease and E. coli contamination, the startling reality is that just the opposite is happening.

To an alarming degree, the federal agencies that are supposed to be our watchdogs bow to the whims of the food industry, even when the end results clearly endanger public health. Among the most significant problems we face:

Government agencies have the authority to recall faulty products ranging from toys to tires and impose penalties if products aren’t pulled off the market, but when it comes to our food supply, industry calls the shots. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and Drug Administration do not have the power to order mandatory recalls of contaminated food products other than infant formula, leaving it up to food producers instead to conduct voluntary recalls.

Consumers are kept in the dark about food-borne health risks. Federal regulators refuse to tell state officials the locations of stores and restaurants that have received potentially contaminated products unless they agree to keep that information secret from the public.

Government oversight of food production facilities is astonishingly lax. Plants that repeatedly fail safety inspections because their meat was visibly contaminated with feces have been allowed to continue distributing their products, even though such meat would have a higher likelihood of carrying deadly E. coli.

U.S. cattle are permitted to eat feed containing blood from other cattle and waste from poultry slaughterhouses—both of which may contain the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease.

JILL RICHARDSON's BLOG
(and a place to order her excellent book,
RECIPE FOR AMERICA)

http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/1942/the-food-safety-bill-whats-good-what...

JILL RICHARDSON's OUTSTANDING
BLOG ON THE HEARINGS...
Lots of hard work here!!!! Congrats!!!
http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/1815/todays-food-safety-hearing

THIS ARTICLE SAYS IT ALL FOR ME!!!!
SUSTAINABLE FARMER ARE ATTEMPTING
TO CREATE STERILE FARMS.
I am concerned this is the kind of antiseptic
Agriculture and mind set harbored by a scientific Model.

Published July 13, 09
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/13

Crops, Ponds Destroyed in Quest for Food Safety
by Carolyn Lochhead

WASHINGTON - Dick Peixoto planted hedges of fennel and flowering cilantro around his organic vegetable fields in the Pajaro Valley near Watsonville to harbor beneficial insects, an alternative to pesticides.

Farmworkers harvest romaine lettuce to be shipped directly to market at Lakeside Organic Gardens Farm in Watsonville. (Paul Chinn / The Chronicle)He has since ripped out such plants in the name of food safety, because his big customers demand sterile buffers around his crops. No vegetation. No water. No wildlife of any kind.

FROM the same article:

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.

An Amish farmer in Ohio who uses horses to plow his fields could find himself caught in a net aimed 2,000 miles away at a feral pig in San Benito County. While he may pick, pack and sell his greens in one day because he does not refrigerate, the bagged lettuce trucked from Salinas with a 17-day shelf life may be considered safer.

The leafy-green agreement is based on available science, but it is just a jumping-off point.

Large produce buyers have compiled secret "super metrics" that go much further. Farmers must follow them if they expect to sell their crops. These can include vast bare-dirt buffers, elimination of wildlife, and strict rules on water sources. To enforce these rules, retail buyers have sent forth armies of food-safety auditors, many of them trained in indoor processing plants, to inspect fields.


FROM FOOD AND WATER WATCH
(Jill recommended I study what they are doing.)

http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/t/741/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1122

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/foodsafety/tell-congress-you-need-stron...

Tell Congress You Need Strong Food Safety Reform

Here's the good news: after countless recalls, including the disastrous peanut butter-related Salmonella outbreak this winter, Congress is finally considering Congressman Waxman's food safety bill -- the bill goes to the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week. The bad news? You guessed it, big ag is pulling out all the stops to weaken the bill. Can your tell your Member of Congress you want a strong food safety bill?

Big ag will always have more money to fight these battles than we do, but we have something they don't -- thousands of activists who will contact Congress. Congress needs to hear from all of us if they are going to stand up to big ag.

Here's what your Member of Congress needs to hear about the food safety bill:

1) The bill must include frequent inspections of food processing plants. The Peanut Corporation of America debacle showed that industry self-regulation just doesn't cut it.


2) It must set strong standards for imports that are equal to the standards that apply to domestically produced food.


3) It must include sensible regulations that work for farmers of all sizes – that include flexibility, not one-size-fits-all rules geared toward the largest operations.

We won't get many chances to fix our broken food safety system, so it's critical that we stand up now and stop big ag from weakening Congressman Waxman's food safety bill. Can you contact your Member of Congress today?

Act now!

___

After study of all the above sources,
I still stand by this:



DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS
ABOUT FSEA #HR2749?
http://www.ftcldf.org/aa/aa-26june2009.htm



RELATED PLANTY YOUR DREAM BLOG
DAY

FOOD SAFETY IN THE WHITE HOUSE
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1454239


12:39 PM
July 12, 09


FOLLOWING HR 2749 Through
CONGRESS:

http://thomas.loc.gov/


GOV FAST TRACK

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2749


THIS CAN BE FOLLOWED ON TWITTER HERE:

Q and A:
http://www.ftcldf.org/aa/aa-26june2009.htm

INTERESTING:
http://www.growingedge.com/think-hr-875-was-a-bad-bill-take-a-look-at-hr-2749

FROM THIS SITE:

In my opinion, the industrial and agribusiness controllers of our current food system do need more regulation in an attempt to make our food supply more safe. Stuffing these bills with ambiguous wording is something we do not need. Each new bill has more ambiguity added which will only create more panic among the public.
If you thought HR 875 was bad, this one sucks even more. Read a full text of the bill here. Hopefully, it will stall and die in committee like the bills proposed before it.


NEWS FROM RUSSIA:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/06/AR20090706015...

In Mother Russia, She's 1st Lady of Gardening

Links to this article
By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
MOSCOW, July 6 -- First lady Michelle Obama arrived here Monday afternoon to an audience more intrigued by and enamored of her gardening skills than of anything else on her résumé. If she effected any kind of charm offensive leading up to this official visit -- at least one with a message that seems to have resonated down to the streets of this city filled with grand czarist architecture -- it has been one based on lettuce and compost.

THIS IS WHAT I SENT OUT
THE OTHER DAY:

FSEA #HR 2749 Hurts Small Farmers

There are some proposed bills being rushed
through congress right now. The Rules and Reg
Makers would like them to go through unnoticed,
but people everywhere are signing petitions,
and reaching out to friends, family, and legislators to make
sure that the forces who would control small farmers
are put harmlessly aside for the good of humanity's
future. SIgn the Petition to help all the Joe the Farmers--
our small local, organic farmers growing therapeutic
quality foods.

http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1452740

After doing all this research above,
and considering all the points of few
as I understand them, I still stand behind this.

I would like to see a Food Safety bill that prevents
harm. It clearly looks like this bill needs a lot more work.
It clearly favors big ag, and can harm small farmers.
I do not feel that the FDA has a good track record
for support of natural health.

CONCLUSION:

THIS ARTICLE SAYS IT ALL FOR ME!!!!
Published July 13, 09
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/13

Crops, Ponds Destroyed in Quest for Food Safety
by Carolyn Lochhead
WASHINGTON - Dick Peixoto planted hedges of fennel and flowering cilantro around his organic vegetable fields in the Pajaro Valley near Watsonville to harbor beneficial insects, an alternative to pesticides.

I will do more work on this.

ACTION PAGE:

GO SIGN THE PETITION NOW TO
PROTECT SMALL FARMERS and OUR HEALTH FREEDOMS

Ask Congress to Defeat HR 2749
111th U.S. Congress - House Bill
FSEA #HR 2749 (Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009)
http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum993.php


ANOTHER SOURCE
for RELATED PETITION DRIVES:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714


After thoroughly analyzing the text of H.R. 2749,
the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund reports
that small farms and local producers and small business
would be forced to endure “a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme”
that would “disproportionately impact their operations for the worse.”
The bill contains frightening and costly requirements,
with severe penalties for individuals who are found
non-compliant by the FDA.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?p=2173478.



...out of juice...I will edit this later...
6:34 AM Leslie



RELATED:
PHOTOS FROM THE HILLCREST FM
July 12. VOTE for this FM to be one of the best in the
country here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2013589&id=504567234&ref=mf

Food safety vs. sustainable agriculture in a scorched-earth battle

July 14, 09
7:45 AM
http://www.ethicurean.com/2009/07/13/food-safety-2/

SF CRONICLE REPORTS THE STORY I REFERENCED ABOVE:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/13/MN0218DVJ8.DTL

SUSTAINABLE FARM ISSUES:
What do farmers have to deal with"
From an Open Letter to then President Obama

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Letter-to-President-Elect-by-Press-Release-0...



In addition, America must come to understand the environmental and human health implications of industrialized agriculture. From rising childhood and adult obesity to issues of fo od safety, global warming and air and water pollution, we believe our next Secretary of Agriculture must have a vision that calls for: recreating regional food systems, supporting the growth of humane, natural and organic farms, and protecting the environment, biodiversity and the health of our children while implementing policies that place conservation, soil health, animal welfare and worker's rights as well as sustainable renewable energy near the top of their agenda.

Today we have a nutritional and environmental deficit that is as real and as great as that of our national debt and must be addressed with forward thinking and bold, decisive action. To deal with this crisis, our next Secretary of Agriculture must work to advance a new era of sustainability in agriculture, humane husbandry, food and renewable energy production that revitalizes our nation's soil, air and water while stimulating opportunities for new farmers to return to the land.

We believe that a new administration should address our nation's growing health problems by promoting a children's school lunch program that incorporates more healthy food choices, including the creation of opportunities for schools to purchase food from local sources that place a high emphasis on nutrition and sustainable farming practices.

December 4, 2008 at 21:35:35

FASCINATING and INSIGHTFUL
THANKS TO NICOLE JOHNSON.
Connects a lot of the dots.
The 2009 Food ‘Safety’ Bills Harmonize Agribusiness Practices in Service of Corporate Global Governance
http://farmwars.info/?p=594

By Nicole Johnson


GARY NULL
http://www.gnhealth.com/calltoaction.html
Lots of radical dot connecting

MORE DOT CONNECTION
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Food-Safety-Bills-More-Da-by-gail-combs-0905...


THOM HARTMAN SHOW
HR 875

http://vodpod.com/watch/1891751-obama-to-make-organic-farming-illegal-hr875-a...


talks about idea that organic gardening could be illegal.

immune compromised consumers...
Food industrial complex...mentioned...
moving us from localized...food autonomy...
to education, free markets,
fed government establish...

ANDREW BOSWORTH...
overstatement, four problems.

Book:
BIOTECH EMPIRE.


3:48 PM
July 15, 09

JILL RICHARDSON's POINT OF VIEW
This goes back to June 10, 09
I want to know how much of this she still
supports.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/10/740691/-ACTION:-Today-Is-The-Day-For-Food-Safety-Reform!

9:01 PM

This one speaks in favor of the bill:
http://nutritionwonderland.com/2009/06/food-safety-enhancement-act-hr-2749/


Comments disagree.
Mentons that

The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) has some interesting things to say about the legislation. They were working directly with the congress to address the concerns of small farmers – and they appear to have done a great job. All 12 of their most immediate concerns were addressed. Some of the major ones were:

Went to the THE MAINE ORGANIC FARMERS AND GARDENERS SITE....
They do not paint the same rosey picture..

http://mofga.org/Programs/PublicPolicyInitiatives/MOFGAPositionStatements/Foo...


I have been part of two phone calls and a meeting with a coalition of consumer groups pushing for the legislation. We want to be sure that they understand the impact these laws, and the regulations to follow, will have on the kind of food system we have been working towards for over thirty years—one where the farmer and the buyer have a direct, ongoing relationship.

We are making slow progress, but HR 2749, as written, still doesn’t recognize that many farmers, as part of their core businesses, turn fruit into jams; make pickles; bake; dry and package teas; and much more. All of these activities, and even cooking maple sap into syrup, turns you into a food ‘facility’ that is supposed to register under the Food Bioterrorism Act and, as proposed, would have to pay a fee to FDA yearly. There is a real conceptual disconnect here. The Bureau of the Census counts 872 fruit and vegetable canners in the entire U.S.; we have a quarter of that number here in Maine. When is a farm a food processor that is a food ‘facility’ that warrants FDA regulation and oversight? When does a farm have enough potential impact on the food system to warrant FDA scrutiny? These are unanswered questions.


REPEAT:
The references follow relate to what is said in this article.
This article describes the mentality that i sense in in HR 2749.

THIS ARTICLE SAYS IT ALL FOR ME!!!!
Published July 13, 09
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/13


CALIFORNIA FOOD SAFETY GUIDELINES DO NOT SOLVE E. COLI
PROBLEM

BIG AGRICULTURE “SOLUTION” COULD HURT FAMILY FARMERS
AND THREATEN ACCESS TO LOCAL LEAFY GREENS

DAVIS, Calif. (September 5, 2007)—Food safety guidelines proposed by the California produce
industry will not protect the public health or solve the state’s E. coli problem, and could destroy
the state’s internationally-heralded family farm economy.


http://www.caff.org/media/pr.shtml


The industry-sponsored Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (LGMA) guidelines were recently
developed in reaction to the tragic 2006 bagged salad E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks, which resulted
in more than 350 illnesses and three deaths. The LGMA guidelines are written by and for large
growers in the industry, even though these practices were already in place on most large farms
that grow for the processed, bagged salad industry. While more than 95 percent of growers are
currently encompassed by LGMA, critics have urged refocusing on the most probable source of
E. coli contamination: processing.

CAFF proposes a multi-tiered scientifically-based approach to address food safety, including
increased university research on appropriate food safety measures for all sizes of farms and
public testing for pathogenic E. coli 0157 in the state’s surface water.

“Industrial food companies have an uncanny way of creating problems and then proposing
solutions that only industrial food companies are capable of implementing,” said Tom Willey,
owner of T&D Willey Farms in Madera, CA. “If family-scale farmers try to swallow the burdens
imposed by the industry guidelines, it will doom us.”

# # #

Community Alliance with Family Farmers (www.caff.org) is a statewide non-profit whose
membership includes family farmers and urban residents, working to build a movement of rural
and urban people to foster family-scale agriculture that cares for the land, sustains local
economies and promotes social justice. Growers Collaborative LLC
(www.growerscollaborative.org), is wholly owned by CAFF, and part of CAFF’s Community Food
Systems program.

COMMUNITY ALLIANCE WIHT FAMILY FARMERS
POSITION:

http://www.caff.org/policy/foodsafetyfederal.shtml


POLICY :: Food Safety

The Issue
Leafy Greens
State Reports
Federal Reports
Press
Resources
Federal Food Safety News and Legislation (last updated June 4, 2009)

Recent food-related illnesses and deaths from processed peanuts, Mexican chiles, Chinese pet food ingredients, fresh-cut leafy greens, and an upsurge in contamination of meat has led to a renewed effort to reform food safety laws and agencies in Washington DC.

The legislative effort in 2009 is centered in the House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles). The Committee has posted a draft bill and as well as a summary of the bill.

A hearing was held on June 3, 2009. The committee plans to mark up the bill the week of June 8, 2009. It then goes to the floor of the House and then on to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP!).

CAFF is not happy with the inclusion of explicit authority for the FDA to promulgate mandatory on-farm food safety practices for fruits and vegetables. There is a tendency in such regulations to create “one-size-fits-all” metrics that in fact are inappropriate for most farmers who do not grow large tracts of individual crops. And we believe that the FDA’s own data show that whole raw commodities are not what is making people ill, rather it is processed products, such as the fresh-cut leafy greens in plastic bags.

Family farmers have a lot to fear from the FDA and the state health agencies bringing a “sterile” attitude to farms. We have written up what happened in the California sprouts industry after the FDA decided that all sprouts were dangerous.


http://www.circleoffood.com/blog/2009/06/30/speak-up-for-food-safety-legislat...


This text is taken from an email from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

First it was spinach. Then tomatoes and peppers. Then pet food, peanuts, even pistachios—all tainted with Salmonella, E. coli, or another contaminant.

And now it’s cookie dough.

Every two hours, one person in the U.S. dies from a preventable disease caused by the food they ate. Each year 76 million people suffer an episode of food-borne illness and 325,000 are hospitalized. These numbers just touch the surface of failures in our food safety system. Outbreak after outbreak has destroyed consumers’ confidence leaving families fearful that the food they eat may sicken them.

The food safety system must be modernized to build safety and accountability into the production of the food we buy.

After several years of review, Congress is moving quickly on food safety legislation, but change won’t come without your help! Special interests are lobbying hard to weaken the bill.

COMMENT ON THE SAME SITE CIRCLE OF FOOD

hrys Ostrander
Jul 14th, 2009 at 4:11 pm

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and the National Organic Coalition issued an Action Alert yesterday targeted at sustainable ag advocates in states who have US Representatives on the House Agriculture Committee. The Action Alert is about this bad food safety bill that is on the fast track in congress that has a House Ag Committee hearing on the 16th. The bill proposes a one-size-fits-all apporoach to improving food safety as well as a mandatory annual $500 fee for producers (including many farms) to be able to sell food anywhere in the US. It’s crazy that small producers are being asked to pay in the same amount that a mega corporations would be paying in. That’s just the beginning of the bad things about this bill.

Since the Action Alert is not on either the NSAC or the NOC websites, I’ve posted it on my website:
http://www.thefutureisorganic.net/FoodSafetyAction.htm

along with a longer comment by me.

If this organization, Circle of Food, is really concerned about healthy, nutritious food, it should give a good listen to the voices of the small-scale farmer and food producer who are providing the answer to food safety concerns by revitalizing local food systems. HR 2749 as written will end that revitalization, put thousands of small-scale farmers and processors out of business, all without truly addressing the root causes of unsafe foods — namely, industrial, chemical-dependent, unsustainable farming, and food production.

You really must withdraw your support for HR 2749, or, at the very least, demand that the bill be allowed to be amended, which currently it is not.

There’s a lot of talk about empathy these days. Have some empathy for the small farmer. Oppose HR 2749!

Chrys Ostrander
07-14-2009




 

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