Back   OpEd News
Font
PageWidth
Original Content at
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Food-and-Water-Watch-and-t-by-Yup-Farming-090416-370.html
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

April 17, 2009

Food and Water Watch and the Sledge Hammer

By Yup Farming

Food and Water Watch is in a big hurry to fix the food system that was broken by the last "big hurry" to "fix" it. Who is behind the rush? Not farmers. Not the public. And who rushes something so basic to a country? Food and Water Watch might want to watch the Constitution, first.

::::::::

posted at Yupfarming THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2009
Food and Water Watch and the Sledge Hammer

Announcing food safety is broken, FWW recommends fixing it ... with a sledge hammer - the slew of "food safety" bills in Congress.

Why a sledgehammer?  Because the bills break the country itself - indistinguishable from its constitutional rights.  The bills include these massive constitutional violations:

Warrantless entry.

Seizure of all records (not just food-related records) at all locations.

Limitless surveillance.

Global coordinates plotted of all farmland (defined by ownership of a single bunny) and fed into a corporate data bank being kept out of the country out of reach of FOIA.

Stripping away property ownership rights of land.

Million dollar a day penalties and up to ten years in prison for non-compliance with as yet unspecified food "crimes" and with no judicial review.  

This is a description of an actual police state.  It is then to be administered (according to Food Democracy Now) by Monsanto (no one is denying this).

Meanwhile, FWW mistakenly says:

HR 875 will not cover homes and gardens ... but it does.  

HR 875 will cover foreign food ... but it doesn't.   

Food and Water Watch says we have a crisis.  But in reality:

Food born illness causes one of  lowest numbers of death of any category in the country. 

More than three times as many people die from aspirin, tylenol, aleve, etc. for arthritis alone.  

Between eight to 160 times as many people die from medical error.

Food and Water Watch says to go ahead with these bills because food safety is broken.  

Food safety collapsed because of HACCP, the preceding "science-based" corporate "solution."  

The results from HACCP were preventing inspections, and deaths.  

Inspectors themselves call the USDA's intentional non-inspection " just a joke."

Ending HACCP is all that is needed to begin inspecting again.

Food and Water Watch says it is important to think about whether any proposal could have unintended consequences.  These are already blatant:

Harmonized (similar) laws in the EU are meant to and have eliminated small farmers. 

Violation of fundamental constitutional rights are integral to the bills.

HACCP, the previous, similar corporate "food safety" regulations, caused the problems.


Food and Water Watch says we must go ahead with bills:

On what democratic basis?  

On what sane basis?  

On what basis at all?
 
"Food safety" depends first on a "democratic safety" which is based on constitutional rights.  All that is required to fix our food is getting rid of HACCP and starting to inspect again.

The bills in Congress take a sledge hammer to our Constitution.   They are profoundly dangerous to our food and our democracy.  

Take action to stop them.

Step 1: Click here to email the President NOW 

Step 2: Call the White House switchboard at 202-456-1414 and the comment center 202-456-1111. Let's keep those phones ringing!

Step 3: Click here to tell Congress "NO!" to all of the fake food "safety" bills  They provide neither real, wholesome food nor safety:





Authors Bio:
Interested in farmers, farming, farms, farmland, farm history, farm skills, farm equipment, etc.

Back