"Those who would give up essential Liberty,
to purchase a little temporary Safety,
deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
Pennsylvania Assembly:
Reply to the Governor,
November 11, 1755.—
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin,
ed. Leonard W. Labaree,
vol. 6, p. 242 (1963).
This quotation, slightly altered,
is inscribed on a plaque in the stairwell of the pedestal
of the Statue of Liberty:
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain
a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

http://www.bartelby.net/73/1056.html


UPDATE
AUGUST 13


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



"Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2749 - The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, by a large margin. The bill was substantially amended to reflect concerns from the Agriculture Committee, but many issues raised by organic and sustainable farmers went unaddressed, particularly: making sure standards are compatible with the National Organic Program; addressing conservation practices; and scale-appropriate standards and fees. On the floor, Congressman John Dingell, principal sponsor, agreed to address the organic standards and conservation practices in the final bill. Action now moves to the Senate, where S 510 - The Food Safety Modernization Act, will be the prime legislation. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released draft guidance documents for leafy greens, melons, and tomatoes on Thursday. These are open for comment for 90 days. MOFGA will organize a meeting to discuss them prior to submitting our comments.

There is a major emphasis on sanitizing washes in the leafy green standards -- essentially recommending dilute bleach to wash greens before selling them. This is an example of standards that need to be scale-appropriate. See amendments to H.R. 2749. See FDA guidelines. S 510 is not available for viewing online at the moment.


WHAT FUTURE OF FOOD ARE YOU CHOOSING
NOW?




These Baby Leafy Greens were
growing in the ground at LA MILPA ORGANICA FARM
the day before they were sold. They had no time
to begin decomposing. The shoppers at the
HILLCREST FARMERS' MARKET are very loyal
to their farmers, and the farmers in many cases
know by name the shoppers. A lot of food
is left over at the end of each FM. Is it
food with your name on it? This is
Real Food, Therapeutic quality food,
the kind of food Hippocrates intended
when he said, Let Food Be Thy Medicine.
Much of the problem with bagged lettuce
is that it is old and naturally beginning
to decompose.

What is the education that
needs to happen both in Washington D.C.
and around the nation?
I asked BARRY LOGAN,
of LA MILPA ORGANICA FARM
in Escodido, California.

ONE CHOICE:

EMBRACING THE DIRT!

This farming style has existed
for thousands of years.
"Bio-diversity is everything!"
says BARRY LOGAN
of LA MILPA ORGANIC FARM

Launch in external player or download.

ANOTHER CHOICE
HYGIENICALLY GROWN VEGGIES
PURE, WITH NO DIRT

These are becoming popular in Japan.
and grow well in GMO Seeds that
certainly would be highly regarded
by the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION
our "INTERNATONAL FOOD SAFETY BODY"

Japanese 'plant factory' churn out immaculate vegetables
By DAVID DERBYSHIRE
st updated at 9:56 AM on 03rd June 2009

"They look more like the brightly
lit shelves of a chemists shop than
the rows of a vegetable garden.
But according to their creators,
these perfect looking vegetables could be the future of food.
In a perfectly controlled and totally sterile environment -
uncontaminated by dirt, insects or fresh air -
Japanese scientists are developing
a new way of growing vegetables."


WHAT IS THE ANSWER
TO OUR FOOD DILEMMA?
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION
FOR HEALTHY FOOD SAFETY?










"BEET KEEPERS, Return!"
sez KEEP The BEET MEDIA STAR
The World's First Talking Beet Plant.

GROWING YOUR OWN PRODUCE MAY
BE SIMPLER THAN YOU THINK





HERE IS a 12-MINUTE EDUCATION
OF ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
HEALTHY FOOD SAFETY.
THESE is the PROGRAM that
CZARINA KEEP the BEET
plans to take to the New FDA
and her Legislative Friends in D.C.

1.


"DON't PANIC! IT's ORGANIC!
says PHIL NOBLE.
A VIDEO OF SAGE MOUNTAIN
ORGANIC FARM, featuring KEEP the BEET
MEDIA STAR

SEE KEEP The BEET...for those over 21 please!!!

2.

Take a look at this Humorous five minutes
about the ORGANIC REBELLION brought
to you by the ORGANIC TRADE ASSOCIATION.

STORE WARS

3.

JOIN THE MISSION ORGANIC 2010!

JOIN THE MISSION ORGANIC 2010!
SARA SNOW, TV Hostess raised on organic food
tells, it as she sees it.

REAL SCIENCE, REAL BENEFITS
LEAKY GREENS and E.COLI
Study by DR CHARLES BENBROOK


LEAFY GREENS:
READY TO EAT OR NOT?????

#HR 2749 appeared before
the House of Representatives
two times this week, on July 28
and July 30. The first time it
was looked "under suspension"--
i.e., no discussion for about 40 minutes.
Few people had an opportunity
to read the bill,
Many people all over the nation
were calling into their legislators
asking the bill be defeated.
A 2/3 vote of the house was taken.
The bill went down to defeat.
An emergency meeting was held.
The Bill was again brought up
the following day with more
changes. At the same time,
#HR 2749 was being looked at
July 29, there was another hearing
going on....

UPDATE, ABOUT THE HEARING
THAT TOOK PLACE JULY 29,
while the CONGRESS was VOTING
DOWN by a 2/3 vote, #HR 2749,
in its first appearance before
the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

This is a report from the other hearing...

REP DENNIS KUCINICH is chairman of
the SUBCOMMITTEE ON DOMESTIC POLICY
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
where MR. MICHAEL TAYLOR SPOKE.


FROM THE PRESS RELEASE

Subcommittee Hearing Titled:
"Ready to Eat or Not?: Examining
the Impact of Leafy Green Marketing Agreements."
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Nathan White (202) 225-5871

Date: July 29, 2009, 2:00 p.m.

Location: Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2154

On Wednesday, July 29, 2009, at 2:00 p.m. in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the Domestic Policy Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled, “Ready to Eat or Not?: Examining the Impact of Leafy Green Marketing Agreements.”

The hearing will examine the safety of ready to eat produce, the successes and challenges posed by the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (CALGMA), as well as its proposed nationalization. The hearing will focus on bagged or value added leafy greens marketed as “ready to eat,” the role of private industry and government in regulating these products, and the economic, environmental, and food safety impacts of that regulation.

The safety of “ready to eat” leafy greens has come under scrutiny after outbreaks of E. coli were traced back to contaminated bagged products, including the 2006 outbreak which resulted in more than 200 hospitalizations, five deaths and nearly $400 million in losses of produce.

4:04 PM
July 30, 09

From MR MICHAEL TAYLOR's TESTIMONY
JU:Y 29, 09
BEFORE THE LEAFY GREEN AGREEMENTS
HEARING

http://groc.edgeboss.net/download/groc/domesticpolicy/testimony.of.mr.michael...


Most produce is grown in an outdoor environment,
and it is susceptible to contamination from
pathogens that may be present in the soil,
in agricultural water or water used for postharvest
practices (e.g., washing or cooling), in
manure used as fertilizer, or due to the presence
ofanimals in or near fields or packing areas. Produce
also may be vulnerable to contamination
due to inadequate worker health and hygiene protections,
environmental conditions, inadequate
production safeguards, or inadequate sanitation
of equipment and facilities. Fresh produce is
produced on tens of thousands of farms, and
contamination at any one step in the growing,
packing, and processing chain can
be amplified throughout the subsequent
steps.

MR MICHAEL TAYLOR UPDATES US ON CODEX
ALIMENTARIUS IN HIS TESTIMONY JULY 29

In addition, FDA is leading an effort through the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the international food safety standards body, with support of the Food and Agriculture OrganzationlWorld Health Organization, to develop commodity-specific annexes to the Codex hygienic code for fresh fruit and vegetable production, starting with an annex for fresh leafy
vegetables and herbs. In June 2009, FDA conducted the first Codex international elechonic working group with members of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFÐ to advance the drafr Annex for Fresh Leafy Vegetables to the next stage of completion. In November 2009,
CCFH will consider how to proceed with the next tier of priority commodities.

http://groc.edgeboss.net/download/groc/domesticpolicy/testimony.of.mr.michael...

REP DENNIS KUCINICH is chairman of
the SUBCOMMITTEE ON DOMESTIC POLICY
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
where MR. MICHAEL TAYLOR SPOKE.


FROM THE PRESS RELEASE

Subcommittee Hearing Titled:
"Ready to Eat or Not?: Examining
the Impact of Leafy Green Marketing Agreements."
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Nathan White (202) 225-5871



I blogged on Codex July 9

IT's ABOUT TRADE:
INTRO TO CODEX ALIMENTARIUS
and ARE MOVE TO HARMONIZE WITH IT
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1452740


SUMMARY FROM the TESTIMONY
OF the CALIFORNIA ALLIANCE OF FAMILY
FARMERS at the LEAKY GREEN HEARING

We recommend that the USDA does not establish a national LGMA due to the negative environmental consequences that will occur. Until deer are taken off the animals of significant risk list, the scope is narrowed to processed greens, the vague areas tighten up, and most importantly the supermetrics reigned in, the LGMA should not become a national program. Besides the degradation of soil, water and wildlife habitat wherever leafy greens are grown, millions of public dollars are at stake. Farmers in markets that require the LGMA and supermetrics will be encouraged to take out previously installed conservation practices and will be hesitant to put in new ones that protect our natural resources. Such misguided food safety requirements are counterproductive.

http://www.wildfarmalliance.org/Press%20Room/press_room_National_LGMA.htm


ON PASSAGE OF #HR 2749
from LESLIE and KEEP the BEET

We stand with our Republican allies on this bill
and call for taking time for the SENATE
to thoroughly look at this bill.
The Congress goes on leave for
a month and then the Food Safety Enhancement Act
will go to to Senate, having now passed
the House of Representatives....

We stand with REP FRANK LUCAS (R) Oklahoma,
another new hero of mine, who simple asked
for us all to take time to get this bill right.
Is that asking too much????

We stand with lawyer BILL MARLER
a lawyer who has defended
people hurt by contaminations +
for many years:

He urges the passage of #HR 2749
in a well written OP-ED on his Blog.
http://www.marlerblog.com/articles/lawyer-oped/


He says:

"There is a great deal of resistance from smaller food producers, who feel that the bill will unfairly burden them. Here is my promise: if the effects of the bill turn out to be onerous for small food producers – those that sell food to neighbors or at farmer’s markets - I will personally take up the effort to amend the bill. In the mean time, I urge everyone who cares about safe food to call his or her Congressperson and urge passage of HR 2749. It really is long past time to “put me out of business.”


MR MARLER shops at his local Farmers' Market
and he is in favor of powerful Food Safety Legislation.
So are we!!!

Washington, here we come!!!

HERE IS a GREAT BOOK,
THE ULTIMATE GARDENER.
It was written by CHARLIE NARDOZZI
who helped Michelle Obama plant
the White House Organic Garden.
Please get a copy and send to your
favorite legislator's wife.
http://www.hcibooks.com/p-3874-the-ultimate-gardener.aspx

(KEEP the BEET gets a note on P. 244.)


WANT TO READ KEEP the BEET's
Column in the international
SPACE OF LOVE Magaaine???
Go here:
http://www.spaceoflovemagazine.com/article_3_5.htm



OTHER STORIES ON LEAFY GREENS
LAST WEEK






kids in the field at
LA MILPA ORGANICA FARM
event. Don't worry, they were
all older than five years old.

KEEPING CHILDREN and DEER out
of the growing field?
Is this your solution for
contaminated foods?



CROPS, PONDS DESTROYED IN QUEST
FOR FOOD SAFETY

Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Monday, July 13, 2009

Is it true that an organic farmer in CA
was asked to quarantine a part of his field
because a deer walked on the field?
Are there people suggesting
that children under five in diapers
should be kept out of growing fields?

From the story...

"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.

"I was driving by a field where a squirrel fed off the end of the field, and so 30 feet in we had to destroy the crop," he said. "On one field where a deer walked through, didn't eat anything, just walked through and you could see the tracks, we had to take out 30 feet on each side of the tracks and annihilate the crop."

"They're used to working inside the factory walls," said Ken Kimes, owner of New Natives farms in Aptos (Santa Cruz County) and a board member of the Community Alliance With Family Farmers, a California group. "If they're not prepared for the farm landscape, it can come as quite a shock to them. Some of this stuff that they want, you just can't actually do."

"Auditors have told 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.

Not only do the rules conflict with organic and environmental standards; many are simply unscientific. Surprisingly little is known about how E. coli is transmitted from cow to table."


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/12/MN0218DVJ8.DTL=rs...



REQUEST TO ESTABLISH a FEDERAL LEAFY GREENS MARKETING
AGREEMENT

This was submitted to Washington
in early June 2009, a day before
President Obama's FOOD SAFETY
WORKING GROUP brought out its
recommendations. Key players
were involved in those recommendations.
Mr, Michael Taylor reported in his testimony
before the Leafy Green Agreements Hearing
that he was in part of the first Codex Alimentarius
electronic meeting in early June as well.


"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."

http://nlgma.org/fresh-produce-industry-associations-peti.php


9:28 PM
July 28,09


I have been looking at
these GREEN LEAFY AGREEMENTS
deeply the last month.
I felt a deep tiein with #HR2749.
That tie-in is coming more to light.

There is a move to nationalize
this policy of LEAFY GREENS.

This Hearing was held July 29
led by REP DENNIS KUCINICH

I am dissapointed that Dennis
voted in favor of #HR2749.
I would like to know why.

Glad this hearing on Leafy Greens took place.
Little reported in the news.

http://domesticpolicy.oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2557


ACTION ALERT FROM THE
NATIONAL SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL COALITION
earlier this week. I have been in touch
with RUSSELL LIBBY, of the MAINE ORGANIC FARMING
and GARDENING ASSOCIATION and the folks from
PASA, the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Ag Folks
in the last week. All these were helping educate
the ENERGY and COMMERCE COMMITTEE about
Organic Farming. Some of the ideas of this group
were passed in the legislation of July 30. Other
points they wanted to make were not yet introduced
into the bill.

From their Press Release....
that I found around July 28, 2009...

# H.R. 2749 The Food Safety Enhancement Act

UPDATE -- July 29, 2009, 3:30 PM:
Concerns of organic farmers and small producers
prevented the House from passing H.R. 2749 today!
Find out how your Congressperson voted here.

The House of Representatives is voting today (July 29, 2009)
on H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009.
It's an attempt to address the worst problems in U.S. agriculture,
but as it stands the bill threatens to undermine the best things in U.S. agriculture - small farmers producing for local markets.

Please contact your Representative immediately
and urge them to Vote No!

You can watch the vote on H.R. 2749
on C-SPAN now.

Also today, Representative Dennis Kucinich
is holding an important food safety hearing:
Ready to Eat or Not?: Examining the Impact
of Leafy Green Marketing Agreements

This hearing examines one of the most pressing concerns
of organic farmers, that food safety regulations
for leafy greens could force them to destroy wildlife habitat
(natural buffers that protect soil and water quality),
poison frogs and create barriers to wildlife
on the theory that wildlife might carry pathogens
like E. coli into their fields (even though only
0.5% of wildlife carry E. coli O157).
The Wild Farm Alliance has more information on this topic.
http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=13799941

RELATED LINK:

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
Reports HR2749 Has Failed in Congress
http://hartkeisonline.com/2009/07/29/national-sustainable-agriculture-coaliti...

July 29, 09

FROM REP DENNIS KUCINICH OPENING STATEMENT
at the OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
GREEN LEAFY HEARING

Here are some of the details.
http://domesticpolicy.oversight.house.gov/documents/20090729171520.pdf

“Ready-to-Eat or Not?: Examining the Impact of
Leafy Greens Marketing Agreements”

July 29, 2009

While it is largely silent on key questions applying to upstream processing and distribution of Ready to Eat produce, CALGMA has a lot to say about farming practices and land stewardship. Small and organic farmers in particular have expressed concern about the costs and scientific justification for some of CALGMA’s requirements. Some of CALGMA’s metrics are seen to be in direct conflict with environmental protection and widely accepted agricultural practices. In some cases, streams have been contaminated, wildlife refuge destroyed, and biodiversity threatened by farmers’ efforts to remain in compliance with CALGMA metrics. Today we hope to address why CALGMA’s regulatory framework has focused solely on farming practices, to the exclusion of the rest of the supply chain. It seems the farmers have taken the brunt of the burden of minimizing contamination, when it may make more scientific sense to focus attention on the processing, packaging and distribution of Ready to Eat produce.

Consumers have a right to expect that the food they eat is safe. It is in the public health interest that Americans consume greater amounts of raw vegetables. But whether or not nationalizing CALGMA, as the USDA has proposed, is the best way to achieve those goals is the question this hearing addresses. I look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses today on this important issue.

__

DALE COKE
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION FAMILY FARMERS

http://groc.edgeboss.net/download/groc/domesticpolicy/testimony.of.mr.dale.co...


Pre-cut, packaged leafy greens, marketed as “Ready to eat,” have become
increasingly popular, capturing 70% of the leafy greens market. Americans appreciate the convenience of this partially processed product and are eating more fresh produce as a result. That is a good and important development and will likely help to improve the health of Americans.

Yet as the popularity of bagged lettuce and spinach has increased, so have rare but serious food borne illnesses associated with it. Outbreaks of E. coli 0157 and other pathogens have occurred in relation to pre-cut, packaged leafy greens at least once a year practically every year since 2003.

Regulation to prevent these outbreaks rests in the hands of the industry.

The California Leafy Greens Handler Marketing Agreement (CALGMA) was
implemented to stave off regulatory action by the state of California. CALGMA ensures adherence to a specified set of Good Agricultural Practices (“GAPs”), devised primarily by the Food and Drug Administration, to improve the safety of leafy greens. In spite of its name, CALGMA is having an impact on farmers in all parts of the nation, due to the requirement of compliance with CALGMA imposed by national processing and retailing outlets which buy and market their produce. USDA is currently proposing the creation of
a national marketing agreement along the lines of CALGMA.

2.) Farmer Liability. The majority of food disease outbreaks related to leafy
greens come from pre-cut or processed "ready-to-eat" products. The point of processing food is to make it safe and really ready-to-eat. Logically food disease outbreaks are a failure of processing. Salad processors continue to point to the fields as the problem and want to make farmers liable. How pathogens are vectored or when they develop in these processed salad products is unknown. Nonetheless food safety standards or metrics have been invented and marketed as the answer to the problem of pathogen contamination. Leafy greens farmers are now in the unenviable position of paying for and complying with a roster of unproven food safety metrics in an attempt to try to grow pathogen free crops in farm fields.These crops are grown outside in farm fields, subject to whatever is in the environment, whatever flies over it, drops or blows into it.


FROM THE WILD FARM ALLIANCE SITE
DANIEL IMHOFF

David Imhoff wrote a book
called FOODFIGHT, about the Farm Bill.
I met this man once. I was moved by him.


FROM THE WILD FARM ALLIANCE SITE:

Food Safety Teach-In Session Notes and Descriptions

Dan Imhoff, Director of Watershed Media
"Food Safety and the Fate of the Commons"
While food safety measures are in place to safeguard the common good, further discussion is needed about its broader societal impacts. What happens, for instance, when defending industrial food production systems compromises the effectiveness of antimicrobial drugs (the medical commons) or sacrifices wild habitats and native species that can actually benefit agriculture (the biological commons)? Perhaps we need expanded parameters for what constitutes safe food.

http://www.wildfarmalliance.org/Press%20Room/press_room_event_expand.htm

FOOD SAFETY REQUIRES A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT

WFA Food Safety Paper "Food Safety Requires a Healthy Environment: Policy Recommendations for E. coli O157"
In the paper, a set of recommendations is made for all current and future government-sanctioned food safety programs. Some are suggested changes to Good Agricultural Practice metrics, and others are changes to the scope of what food safety programs cover. Additionally, suggestions address wider-reaching core problems that when dealt with concurrently, yield a more comprehensive plan for the safe production of food.

Major recommendations include: a) the unfounded targeting of wildlife is stopped; b) buffers between crops and grazing lands are vegetated instead of left bare, and no buffer is required between crops and habitat; c) a ceiling is placed on all government authorized food safety programs to curtail the use of environmentally destructive super metrics; and d) food safety auditors are certified through programs teaching agricultural natural resource protections that reduce the incidence of harmful pathogens on the landscape.

http://www.wildfarmalliance.org/Press%20Room/press_room_research.htm#health


Here is another PLANT YOUR DREAM BLOG
I wrote last Saturday, or so...
it has many links of interest...

FROM HEALTHY FOOD SAFETY:
WHAT's YOUR SAY?
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1460328


OTHER LINKS AND RELATED BLOGS

Turning a New Leafy Green
Diagnosis and Treatment: Sterilizing the family farm
may not be the best way to keep E. coli out of your salad.

http://www.miller-mccune.com/science_environment/turning-a-new-leafy-green-195

By: Matt Palmquist | March 04, 2008 | 12:23 PM (PST) |

Beyond a program to monitor E. coli in water, Redmond argues, the key to combating it in leafy greens lies in the animal kingdom — and, more specifically, in cow manure fertilizer. "The more we look at it, the more we reluctantly have to admit that the reservoirs of E. coli are in cattle — pigs, geese and deer are just diversions," she says.



ARE THEIR NATURAL SOLUTIONS
for E. Coli Contamination?


Interesting find....
I met some of the founders
of this natural approach to handling
contaminants years ago...this solution
was used in the Tsunami and lessened
the damage from decomposing bodies.
It was recommended for Katrina, but
those in charge went with Chlorine bleach
and other more Western Scientifically validated
approaches...


"Abstract
Wastewater originated from dairy operations may harbor human pathogens including Escherichia coli (EC). Excess nutrients present in dairy wastewater can also pollute surface and ground waters. Effective microbes (EM) and duckweed have shown a great promise in wastewater treatment. The duckweed growth and EM applications were tested. Combined application of EM and duckweed growth significantly reduced the ammonium nitrogen, total phosphorus, total suspended solids and biological oxygen demand after three months and is a very efficient way of dairy wastewater treatment."
http://www.springerlink.com/content/94k2v5533lr88224/


HERE IS THE LINK
to the PLANT YOUR DREAM BLOG
I wrote after looking a bit into
Codex Alimentarius. I wrote
this July 9. This is followed
by two other links that I found
educational...

IT's ABOUT TRADE:
INTRO TO CODEX ALIMENTARIUS
and OUR MOVE TO HARMONIZE WITH IT
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1452740

OOPS-1!!!

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
fascinating...
I never took time
to study anything about
the WTO...

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."




POEM FOR THE DAY
from REKINDLING OF FAITH
by LESLIE GOLDMAN
YOUR ENCHANTED GARDENER

I plan to read this one
at my poetry reading at the
White House. We will be serving
organic beer that night. Tonight,
as I am writing, President Obama
is having a social with the police officer
and the Harvard Professor arrested...
I was wondering what kind of beer
they had.*

A POEM for ROLLO
and A BURGER KING KIND OF GUY

This big fella, he was a Burger King kind of guy,
checked out in front of me
at the Safeway wearing a cap
likea caterpillar driver over this armored body
that looked like a clump of muscle.
He had a box of margarine
for T.V. tonight, two wheaty-type crackers
they tell us build champions,
an economy bag of Butterfingers
to counterbalance the dirty unseen hand
someone out there and life dealth him;
and a super size of Malt O Meal breakfast puffs
that at first glance looked like dry food for some dog
named Rollo with big paws and six feet long.

I just came from this HIlton health show.
In my new openness
I was almost possessed to blurt out
"Doesn't eating that stuff
make you made? but he probably
would have knocked my block off if I did.
I looked inside him
and saw this angry little face
like those of missing children on milk cartons,
some lost for lack of a good home-crooked meal.
I did not speak. I walked up to him in my mind
and asked friendly like, "Have you a dog
named Rollo?" and left.

September 3, 1985


8:34 PM
Posted on the HUFFINGTON POST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/30/house-passes-farreaching-_n_248267.html





* WHAT KIND OF BEER THEY HAD

Consider that the beer they drank had been chosen for its symbolic value. Obama sipped Bud Light, the top selling beer in America, with 22 percent of grocery, drug and convenience store sales, according to industry data. It is a beer so bland that it advertises itself by proclaiming its "Drinkability," which is another way of saying its similarity to water. It is the safest beer the president could possibly have chosen, the stuff of poll testing and focus groups. Crowley drank the wheat beer Blue Moon, the unthreatening choice of a police officer with a sweet tooth, who is not afraid of a brew served often with a lemon wedge. Gates, who had talked up Red Stripe and Beck's, finally chose to represent his home state of Massachusetts with a locally-brewed Samuel Adams Light. The vice president, who does not drink alcohol, sent a message to the kids, nursing a non-alcoholic Buckler.

TIME MAGAZINE
July 30, 09

Unsolicited advice about organic beer for the Obama Beer Summit




 

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