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MoniDew
04-09-2009, 12:49 PM
I don't remember where the original post is on this topic, even after running a search for it here. But this topic came up again, on another board on which I participate. I already posted this over at FaceBook, and I wanted to make sure that I copy/paste my comments here as well. (yes, that means it's a copy/paste of a copy/paste. :rolleyes:) So here it is:


The following is a copy/paste from a message board on which I participate. The regulation in question is one that seeks to control all "food establishments," and "food production facilities," as well as every "farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation." This law seeks to control EVERY food-related facility, including, but not limited to, anywhere food is prepared and served to customers, as well as backyard gardeners who simply supply their own families and a few backfence neighbors and friends.

If you are not licensed by law to produce food, using specific and strictly controlled sources, (and that last phrase is the key to this whole thing,) you can be arrested. In other words, you must use their seeds, their foods, etc. to produce your goods. You must be licensed to do so, because their seeds/foods are patented. They will arrest you for patent infringement if you are not licensed, yet still using their seeds/foods - believe me, you can be and not even know it! And they will arrest you/sue you out of existence if you refuse to use what they supply, whether by choice of conscience or by accident.


Here is what I wrote on the message board as my reply:


Terrifying! It's the only word that describes what this legislation really represents.

I garden because organics are important to me. Protecting my & my family's health, as well as contributing to the overall wellbeing of the soils, water, and air, is a part of who I am as a human being.

But we are dealing with HUGE agra-industrial giants here who want absolute power (WORLD DOMINATION) of the food supply! Remember: Power Corrupts; and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely!

These powers (Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Kraft, General Mills, etc) are deeply and incestuously imbedded in our government on all ends of the political spectrum. Have been, for decades!

To them, this is not about party politics. This is about power & control. He who controls the food supply runs the world! Imagine being able to control entire populations of people by either supplying, or withholding food! This issue will not go away overnight - if ever!

What is worse, they've already INTENTIONALLY whittled down the world's population by the use of known carcinogens in the food supply. The major chemical giants (Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, etc) and the food giants they supply (Kraft, General Mills, etc) have done more to cause the 50% cancer rates in this country than any other source. Inspite of all their "marketing" to the contrary, they are NOT HEROES, supplying the world with "food." They are murderers, pure and simple, and should be treated as such.

The only option is guerilla gardening! Until they lock up my organic @$$, I'm going to keep preventing cancer statistics from rising, and fight these monsters until I die!

Inflammatory words?! YES! But this is a MAJOR, hot-button issue. And it is so little-known. I welcome the opportunity to speak on it! Thank you!

gardengirl72
04-09-2009, 02:20 PM
Thanks for posting. This is an important issue. We have an article on it in this month's ezine. Please sign up to receive it if you don't already. What we all need to do is contact our reps in Washington and make sure they know how we feel. The congress woman who introduced this is such a fool and she won't let anyone contact her with facts unless they live in her district. If anyone finds and videos on this subject, please post and let us know.

Kevin
04-09-2009, 04:53 PM
Monica you are correct, this issue will not go away overnight. Thank goodness it was so over the top, that this time around it will probably die in comittee. Enough people stood up and contacted their representatives. That being said , expect this or another version of this crap to be on the table every time this nation of ours has a major food safety scare. These corporations Know that the only way the public will accept garbage legislation such as this , is if they can some how scare them into it, for their own safety. Any one who knows anything at all about the food industry in this country ,Knows for a fact we have the safest food supply on the planet. The recent peanut butter fiasco that sparked this whole mess , could have been prevented by even one currently employed safety inspector actually doing their job. We don't need more laws , we need to enforce the ones we have. And we need to hold our current paid inspectors accountable. Kevin

MoniDew
04-10-2009, 01:39 PM
Great response, Kevin, thank you. And thank you, Patti, too. Below, I will copy/paste the next reply I posted on the other board, just to keep you all abreast on this one. Thank you!

Unfortunately, there is so much more going on here than meets the eye. It's not as basic as, "Monsanto doesn't like organics." Or, "Monsanto doesn't want people growing their own food."

What they like/want is power & control.

Several years ago, laws allowing the patenting of genetics were put into effect. At that time, Monsanto began patenting the genetics of food crops. Monsanto began buying up and patenting the genetics of the food crops of the world, in all its biodiversity, and locking up these seeds in a vault under the arctic circle. 12,000+ food crops, as of this time, that if you or I were to plant without licensing or permission of Monsanto, we would be committing patent infringement.

And don't think they haven't enforced this! Subsistence farmers around the world have been sued off their family homes and lands of generations because of accidental "patent infringement."

That is just one of the issues. The reason Monsanto wants gene-patenting laws (they are who lobbied for and won the rights) is so they can genetically engineer food crops.

Genetic engineering is NOT the same thing as the good ol' hybridization and general cross-breading with which we are all familiar, and which has been practiced for hundreds of years by generations of farmers and gardeners.

Monsanto engages in genetic engineering of food crops for several reasons. One is to implant a terminator gene - a gene which will not allow the saving of seed from one season for replanting in the next - a practice that has occurred since time began. This forces the farmers of the world to RE-BUY seed every year, increasing Monsanto's profits. But that is the SMALLEST of the reasons why they engage in this practice.

Monsanto also genetically engineers food crops as a way to splice pesticides INTO the nuclei of the cells of various seeds. The resulting plant that grows from that seed carries that trait with it. As of this moment, every single cell of Monsanto corn is registered as a pesticide. Since they control the market on corn around the world, every corn-related product now on the grocery store shelf contains this pesticide. I'll resist the urge to go into the human health violation this represents. But I will go into the environmental impact of Monsanto's BT corn.

When subsistence farmers in third world countries are shopping for cheap corn to plant, they turn to the United States as their supplier. Monsanto offers this product extremely inexpensively to get it out into the world. Subsistence farmers unknowingly plant this corn, as they have done for generations, alongside wild corn belts because they know that cross-pollination from wild corn stands makes their crops acclimatize to their location (longitude, latitude, altitude, weather, etc.) Now, traits of the genetically engineered corn also cross-pollinate with the wild stands of corn. Monsanto then sends researchers into the wild stands to "find their genes." Because Monsanto owns the patent on these genes, they now "own" the crossed-with-wild-corn, too. Another one for the vault! POWER!

And, in a twist of evil genius, Monsanto also patents the genes of things that are resistant to Monsanto products. A Monsanto researcher found a bacteria growing inside the tanks used to store Round-Up, the most popular herbicide in the world. They genetically engineer this Round-Up resistant bacteria into soy, rape seed (canola oil) and wheat crops. Why? So they can crop dust millions of acres of farmland with Round-Up and kill EVERY LIVING THING except for their intended crop. Millions of acres of farmland are now under Monsanto's TOTAL CONTROL!

Of course, blow-over from a neighboring farm of Monsanto seeds into YOUR farm occurs. And when Monsanto finds its genes on your land they'll swoop in and take your home/land/farm, etc, no matter how many generations of your family have lived on it. A farmer in Canada lost 5 generations of family land because Monsanto rapeseed blew over onto his land. He couldn't kill it, because it was Round-Up resistant. That's how they found it.

Right now, there is a migration of formerly subsistence farmers occurring in third-world countries. They are now homeless wanderers and refugees, who were once able to take care of themselves and their families, all thanks to Monsanto's tactics.

So as you can see, backyard farmers, organic/heirloom gardeners, pose no threat to such a giant as Monsanto. They'll just take away that right by exercising their total domination. He who controls the food controls the world. What they are threatened by is anyone's ability to feed themselves without Monsanto's seeds/products. Break their control and you break their power.

That's the core of this issue. And why we fight.

Again, thank you for this opportunity.

Garden Green
04-27-2009, 12:26 AM
Making more noise about this:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17492.cfm

Garden Green
04-27-2009, 12:27 AM
Oh and this goes with it:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17489.cfm

MoniDew
04-27-2009, 10:49 AM
while I appreciate that they are trying to be the voice of reason in this issue, I think they are downplaying the importance of it.

In their favor, they do have the Millions Against Monsanto campaign going on:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm

Computer Cowboy
06-24-2009, 08:17 AM
I guess our fearless leaders can theorize and legislate all they want on paper. But in the real world, if some corporate or government official were to show up at my door to try to interfere with my gardening, regardless of what law he had armed himself with, he had better be prepared for some not-so-civil disobedience.

I used to be an enthusiastic writer of letters to my representatives. A few times, I even received a courteous reply, generally of this sort: "Thank you for sharing your views, which are completely wrong."

I don't bother with that anymore. Instead, I personally implement a simple code: I leave others alone and assert my right to be left alone, as long as I'm doing no harm. This has been tested in the past and will likely be tested again, but there's no negotiating room in it.

If it's good enough for Ghandi and Thoreau, it's good enough for me.

FuriousOne
06-26-2009, 07:54 PM
http://delauro.house.gov/files/HR875_Full_Text.pdf


This is off Rep Rosa Delauro's site.

Computer Cowboy
06-27-2009, 09:06 AM
"Such regulations shall
consider all relevant hazards, including
those occurring naturally, and those that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced"

Wait till they find out we're putting poop in our gardens.

If this law passes, I think you can can kiss local farmers' markets goodbye.