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General News    H3'ed 3/14/09

A solemn walk through HR 875

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(1) visit and inspect food production facilities in the United States and in foreign countries to determine if they are operating in compliance with the requirements of the food safety law;

(2) review food safety records as required to be kept by the Administrator under section 210 and for other food safety purposes;

(3) set good practice standards to protect the public and animal health and promote food safety;

This is where words that sound so friendly and innocuous and even good are code words for international rules set by the WTO.  These rules define industrial requirements, which do not fit real farming in the least, much less organic farming.

This is where insane, anti-nature, anti-farming rules like "animals and crops can't exist on the same farm" come into play.  Where wild animals aren't ever supposed to be near crops so the government has been poisoning deer and frogs.  The list of such manufacturing rules for farming is long, and each very much "efficiency manager comes and wrecks the farm."

(4) conduct monitoring and surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the environment, as appropriate; and

Please, those of you who find the idea of NSA-spying intolerable, look carefully at those words.  Now, imagine it were your farm, your home on that farm, and realize that the USDA and FDA have been run by and the new agency will be run by Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, and ADM.  Their interest in helping consumers have safer food is nil. The bills are meant to eliminate farmers as is now rapidly occurring in the EU with identical ("harmonized") bills, now law there.  

(5) collect and maintain information relevant to public health and farm practices. 

Pause here to consider the implications of each of those on someone's home - their family's farm. This is quite different from applying them to industrial sites where no one lives.  Beyond that, these powers are so broad and vague, they are dangerous if only in that.  

Those things listed open the door to total control, warrantless entry and perpetual surveillance.  Notice how innocuous they have made it appear, even beneficial - always about public health.  Yet, the insincerity of this is boggling - the USDA and Big Ag have worked to prevent inspections to the point where farmers have had to actually sue to get them done, even after offering to pay for them.  

(b) INSPECTION OF RECORDS.-A food production facility shall permit the Administrator upon presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner...

Who defines "reasonable"?  Does a farmer have to go to court each time there is an "unreasonable" manner and time?  How wide open do we push the door to Big Ag-corrupted government control over farmers - the people creating the only safe food?

Look carefully and realize the USDA right now is countenancing state ag departments conducting terrorizing raids on non-corporate farms across the country.  Imagine it were your home and USDA agents banging on your door to demand paper work and if you don't have it, facing fines that would bankrupt you in a moment and lose you your land and home.

... to have access to and ability to copy all records maintained by or on behalf of such food production establishment in any format (including paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary to assist the Administrator-

Imagine again.

       (1) to determine whether the food is contaminated, adulterated, or otherwise not in compliance with the food safety law; or

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Met libertarian and conservative farmers and learned an incredible amount about farming and nature and science, as well as about government violations against them and against us all. The other side of the fence is nothing like what we've been (more...)
 
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