Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 84 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds   

History, HACCP and the Food Safety Con Job

By       (Page 2 of 20 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page.   1 comment
Message Nicole Johnson

If the Senate passes its version of HR 2749, we will also see our food laws brought significantly closer to harmonization with Codex Alimentarius, the cartel-acceptable food codes that the World Trade Organization employs to dictate to all member nations the terms of the global food trade for the benefit of transnational corporations.

An "Adaptive Approach to Agriculture

Before we examine how FSEA will impact our food supply, it would be helpful to understand more about some highly relevant though little known history of American agriculture and its industrialization. Though industrialization is usually portrayed as something that happened as a natural result of technology bringing about ever-increasing efficiency, this notion doesn't fit the facts.

With World War II, America saw its agricultural system intentionally subjected to political policies that radically transformed it. What was once a decentralized system that provided a means to self sufficiency and independence for tens of millions of farmers was purposefully centralized into a capital-intensive fossil-fuel dependent system that restructured local economies, permitting their wealth to be extracted by what are now transnational cartels dedicated to the so-called free market and globalized trade at all costs.

This transformation was the result of organized plans developed by a group of highly powerful " though unelected " financial and industrial executives who wanted to drastically change agricultural practices in the US to better serve their collective corporate financial agenda. This group, called the Committee for Economic Development, was officially established in 1942 as a sister organization to the Council on Foreign Relations. CED has influenced US domestic policies in much the same way that the CFR has influenced the nation's foreign policies.[1]

Composed of chief executive officers and chairmen from the federal reserve, the banking industry, private equity firms, insurance companies, railroads, information technology firms, publishing companies, pharmaceutical companies, the oil and automotive industries, meat packing companies, retailers and assisted by university economists " representatives from every sector of the economy with the key exception of farmers themselves " CED determined that the problem with American agriculture was that there were too many farmers. But the CED had a "solution : millions of farmers would just have to be eliminated.

In a number of reports written over a few decades, CED recommended that farming "resources " that is, farmers " be reduced. In its 1945 report "Agriculture in an Expanding Economy, CED complained that "the excess of human resources engaged in agriculture is probably the most important single factor in the ˜farm problem' and describes how agricultural production can be better organized to fit to business needs.[2] A report published in 1962 entitled "An Adaptive Program for Agriculture [3] is even more blunt in its objectives, leading Time Magazine to remark that CED had a plan for fixing the identified problem: "The essential fact to be faced, argues CED, is that with present high levels farm productivity, more labor is involved in agriculture production that the market demands " in short, there are too may farmers. To solve that problem, CED offers a program with three main prongs. [4]

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |  17  |  18  |  19  |  20

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Rate It | View Ratings

Nicole Johnson Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Nicole Johnson is a researcher and activist living in Ventura county, California. Her kids wish she would go back to painting and stop worrying so much about the world.
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

History, HACCP and the Food Safety Con Job

The 2009 Food 'Safety' Bills Harmonize Agribusiness Practices in Service of Corporate Global Governance

Food "Safety" Reform and the Covert Continuation of the Enclosure Movement

The Festering Fraud behind Food Safety Reform

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend