The Farm Bill: Three Big Wins, but One Dangerous Fluoride Amendment

farm-billCapitol Hill’s most powerful special interests resorted again to underhanded tactics.
Today, the Senate passed the $1 trillion dollar Farm Bill with a vote of 68 to 32 (the House gave its approval last Wednesday). As you may recall, the most recent version of this cumbersome bill had serious ramifications for farmers, GMO labeling, and consumer access to locally sourced foods.
What that earlier version didn’t have was an amendment that will expose Americans, and especially children, to dangerous amounts of fluoride residue—yet such an amendment was somehow snuck into the final, 949-page Farm Bill just forty-eight hours before it went to vote.
Section 10015, which was slipped in behind closed doors by Dow AgroScience’s lobbyists, overturns an EPA ruling that pesticide residues must be included in calculations of safe levels of fluoride exposure. By removing pesticide residues from the equation, this amendment almost guarantees that Americans will be exposed to higher levels of toxic fluoride, while thinking they’re consuming safe levels.
Let’s keep a few facts in mind. The EPA’s Union of Scientists have warned about the toxicity of fluoride (1999). So has the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science (2006). So have researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (2012).
The latter group reported a significant drop in children’s IQ level from fluoride exposure, on top of all the other health issues including cancer. Even the US Department of Health and Human Services finally admitted in 2009 that fluoride levels in public water should be reduced.
And why is fluoride being forced on people? Supposedly to reduce tooth decay, but xylitol, a natural fruit sugar, is at least as effective for that. Meanwhile, we don’t get a choice about whether this waste product of the aluminum industry is added to our drinking water.
Are you unhappy to hear about how this fluoride friendly provision that had no place in this bill? Dow—one of DC’s most powerful special interests that spent over $10.5 million dollars on lobbying in 2013 alone—knew you would be. They knew that you would call and message your legislators until they stripped the fluoride amendment from the Farm Bill. That’s why they waited until the last minute and resorted to underhanded tactics—they’re scared of what activists like you can accomplish.
After all, you did win three big victories for the natural health community:

  • The King Amendment. Perhaps the most crucial concession won was the removal of the unconstitutional King Amendment (a.k.a. the Interstate Commerce Amendment), which violated states rights and could have unraveled hard-won GMO labeling and animal rights laws. You called and wrote and harangued until that provision was dropped. Well done!
  • More FDA Oversight. The final bill includes Section 11321, which will force the agency at least to study how new Food Safety Modernization Act rules could hurt small farms. This amendment helps shield family farmers from FDA overreach and could help protect consumer choice, as it’s less likely that farmers will be forced to either shut down or raise prices to implement expensive FDA regulations.
  • No Shield for Big Ag. The final Farm Bill does not contain Section 1613, which would have prevented any government agency from disclosing any “information provided by a producer or owner of agricultural land concerning the agricultural operation.” Essentially, this would have outlawed the reporting of Big Farma’s most dangerous “oopsies,” including GMO crop contamination, antibiotic abuse, and livestock disease outbreaks.

The Farm Bill is just a taste of the legislative battles we’ll face in 2014. Stay tuned as we tackle this year’s toughest challenges, including the IRS attack on free speech, Senator Durbin’s Anti-Supplement Zombie Bill (it just won’t die!), and the next draft of the NDI guidance. The fight has just begun!

47 comments

  1. What in H does the poison FLOURIDE have have to do with farming? Our congress is beholden to the lobbyists and not the constituents. Can them all!

  2. Flouride in food isn’t a good thing, since fluoride is a bi-product of rat poison production. Please DON’T let it get into our food supply.
    On another note, I’m very concerned about the section of the Farm Bill that would CUT SNAP benefits AGAIN! There are still too many Americans who are either unemployed, underemployed, seniors, disabled persons and veterans on fixed low-incomes who rely on SNAP benefits to assist them in putting food on their tables.

  3. Fluoride also is a hazardous industrial waste from the phosphate industry, which heats up phosphate to make phosphorus fertilizer. Phosphate is mined throughout Florida; thus fluorides run rampant in FL public waters. [The Case against Fluoride] Maybe thats how Florida got its name=Fluorida.

  4. The senator who inserted the section on behalf of Dow must be named so he can be investigated by the Ethics Committee. And the Dow lobbyists must be named so they can be blacklisted.

  5. Hooray! So happy that the King Amendment was struck down and also that there is no shield for Big Ag. After signing many petitions, doing some phone call volunteering, writing a few editorials and handing out science based info on the dangers of gmos at our local farmers market, I see that someone is listening and more and more people are waking up. God Bless America!

  6. Between the crap added to our plants and fed and injected into our animals, the crap we are forced to allow injected into ourselves to keep our jobs, and the crap forced on us through our water, it is becoming very difficult to be healthy, and very frustrating to raise healthy children. Sue A Hildebrand

  7. How Long Does Fluoride persist … as long as money is to made on a completely toxic, non proven nor effective tooth enamel hardener.
    America battles its own congress to Save Small Farms … absolutely ridiculous and sad.
    The FDA to date has allowed more loopholes, oversights, mismanagement, no management, less financial stress and has proven itself another useless bureaucratic piece of wage earning automatons.

  8. Just sent an email to President Obama about section 10015 and asked him to review it carefully before signing and allowing under-handed, greed driven actions to endanger the health of our citizens. I’m sure it’s too late, but I feel better for trying one last time, to have our voices heard.

  9. It is time to let other know about this type of bs. And it is time we go after the people who vote for this type of thing. After there are on the take. Get them out of office perhaps jail would be a good place.

  10. Are they putting their profit dollars way ahead of our health. Have they no decency?

  11. I demand that the law be changed to disallow any additions, deletions or changes of any kind, to any bill or law that is to be voted on by any representatives after such time as the entire contents of such bill or law, set to be voted on, have been made public. Each bill in it’s entirety should be posted on a public web site for all citizens, including those representing citizen’s interests, to have access to, and after such posting, there will be no further changes allowed, and should contain a maximum number of items in each vote.
    I wish someone with more education and experience about how this works would come up with a reasonable plan that we could take to our elected officials and let them know that we are fed up with this system the way it is, and we want it changed! If we could completely rid the halls of congress of all corporate lobbyists, it would be even better!

  12. I have read where fluoride comes from large industries that use a lot of aluminum such as Boeing Aircraft and others. I also read it comes from Florida phosphate fertilizer smokestacks. I have also read of late that it is now being shipped in from China because cities in the US get better deals buying it in bulk from them. China’s product, it is said, is fertilizer agricultural waste, and China uses a lot of pesticides in their agriculture. Here is one article, there are many more. http://www.thenhf.com/article.php?id=1112 This is from New York State’s Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.
    Wherever it is from, or whatever it is, it doesn’t belong in our drinking water, nor our agricultural farmland farming practices.

  13. My husband, myself, our daughter all have thyroid issues………thank you for bringing the fluoride issue among others to the public. I am so tired of going to Doctors here in Ohio only to hear that
    natural supplements are unsafe, unregulated and the worst! Wish natural would somehow gain in numbers and give a choice to those who only hear about it on t v programs. We want to be able to be monitored as we use naturals for our health/treatments. I need care in conjunction with a natural physician for effective, safe natural care.
    WHY don’t we have lobbyist of our own for this……especially for Medicare where people could choose to use natural meds and have it covered if they choose to see a holistic physician!
    Keep up the good work!
    signed…….American citizen ME

    1. Fluoride being in the halide group competes with iodine necessary for the proper function of the thyroid gland. I avoid every bit of the inorganic fluoride, such as they put in water, as possible.

  14. Can a law suit be filed about the flouride increase. This is, after all, detrimental to health.

  15. This farm bill has many errors! SNAP, GMO, Putting the health of everyday Americans First, The Agriculture Department has not had enough time to make a recommendation.

  16. This farm bill has many errors! S.N.A.P, GMO labeling, The Agriculture Department has not had enough time to make a recommendation with all the new changes.

  17. I love all you do for the average citizen. When I can afford to support you financially, I will do so enthusiastically.

  18. i will not buy ANY toothpaste or mouthwash that contains fluoride. i hope this puts your bill and companies out of business that are forcing this chemical on people!!!!!!!!!!

    1. The fluoride is in your water. Refusing to by tooth paste is going to do little to get the message across. Nonetheless refraining from purchasing fluoride is a good health habit.

  19. That means we will get a dose of fluoride, that’s unacceptable. Now that we know about their last minute addition we should be able to have the 2-4-14 Farm Bill repealed.

  20. I am greatly opposed to having fluoride in my water!
    I live in Naples FL and do not want to shower in fluoridated
    water! I spend a great deal of money on bottled water for drinking
    purposes. Remove the fluoride!
    Thank you

    1. Just make sure you know where your bottled water is coming from and what is in IT! You
      cannot trust much of anything without looking into it. Bottled water comes in plastic that bad, too! Try water filters in your house – under the sink and whole house- like Everpure.

      1. Very few water filters remove fluoride. The ones that do are usually pretty slow unless they large and expensive. That is why I use RO for drinking water. Do some research before buying a filter.

  21. In California, the lobbyist forced in a law that any communities over 10,000 population, must have fluoride added to their system! Watsonville, CA had that forced on them. Marinelli Apple juice in Watsonville which makes other juices with added water will drill a new well to get off the Watsonville water system to have fluoride free water. Watsonville voted not to have fluoride, but the law overrides that vote! That is a slick law to force communities to have fluoride whether they want it or not.

    1. Many people in California are health conscious so it sounds like the state had to force the fluoride garbage down their throats.

  22. Please name the person responsible for inserting the Dow/Fluoride sneak attack into the bill.
    I want a word with this person.
    Everyone should be made aware of who is being paid off to poison us.

  23. I will not buy ANY toothpaste or mouthwash that contains fluoride. I use water filters that remove most of the fluoride and most of the other chemicals. I hope this puts your bill and companies out of business that are forcing this chemical on people!

    1. I toured Canada last fall and visited with some people from Sweden. They were worried sabout going to jail when they return to home. I asked why and thay said that if they take water off the return flight home and for get to turn if over to inspectors that they will go to jail. Flouride is 100% banned from entering Sweden and most of Europe. They told of children in America shooting teachers and other students is because flouride damages their brain. This is informatiom and I believe these people were teling the truth. Lets save our children.

  24. What HAS been shown is that fluoride, on a topical basis does indeed help prevent caries. What has ALSO been shown is not only that ingested fluoride does NOT help, but that it is a poison for the body. Are the aluminum companies really that powerful?

    1. I forgot to mention that one should be careful when using fluoride toothpaste not to swallow any of it!

    2. I think you’ll find that it is organically bound fluoride that has some benefit. The free form or inorganic fluoride that they are forcing on us has absolutely no use in the human body. It’s just poison and the FDA knows it.

      1. Alan, why would anyone put something in their mouth that isn’t safe to swallow? When I asked my dentist what his thoughts were about fluoride, he said that same as you…” don’t swallow’. I asked him if it was safe to brush with gasoline as long as I didn’t swallow and you should have seen his expression. It wasn’t long after that , that he quit promoting fluoride treatments. We get entirely too much fluoride from many sources.
        About 40 percent of all teens today have some level of dental fluorosis. My beautiful niece has a horrible case of it and it has affected her personality and her self confidence. But, what concerns me even more is that IF her teeth are showing visible signs of fluorosis, then how has it affected her bones and other organs? I wonder if we will see an epidemic of brittle bones in otherwise young healthy adults in the coming years.

    3. All the non-manipulated scientific reports I have read do not confirm that fluoride protects your teeth. This is a manipulated theory of the aluminum industry which started this so-called science after WW2. They didn’t know what to do with the remnants and invented this scam.However, should I save one of my teeth using fluoride tooth paste , I rather lose the tooth instead of getting Alzheimer or cancer.

    1. I believe Senator Debbie Stabenow was the driver of that ledgislation .and, she also voted against labeling on gmo products. Monsanto is jumping for joy now that they can have free rein over poisoning us!
      Thank you Senator Stabenow.

  25. So much for the land of the free. Forced to drink Fluoride and destroy our health. Forced to eat GMO food because of lack of labeling. Aluminum nan- particles and other chemicals being sprayed into our skies with chemtrails………FDA abuses and persecutions of small farmers, bribery, and evil. Let’s stay vigilant, sign petitions, get their names and vote them out! We are guaranteed the right to life and liberty……..both are in jeopardy. Put an end to Fluoride now!!

    1. You said it. Only the sleeping public (and much of it IS already asleep, thanks to the dumbing down of fluoride and corporate media control. The rest of us, who are thankfully, still awake, are FULLY AWARE of the trickery and deviousness used to get bills passed which do NO good for the general population. And God-willing, we will fight to stop your abuse and control until we win. “Prevents tooth decay” – what a LAME EXCUSE for poisoning the water supply. No different than the selling of CANOLA OIL, which isn’t fit for human consumption either…yet you try to push it on the 99%, don’t you? No different than your drug-pushing of BIG PHARMA, GMO’s, chemically laden PESTICIDES, CHEM TRAILS,…you poison our water, poison our air, poison our food supply..then put severe controls on anything natural and healthy that’s left. Oh yes, get your FEMA crates ready to lock up us dissenters. God help you..you are setting up a karmic backlash that will ultimately take you into a hellish nightmare from which you may never return. WAKE UP Corporate Thieves! WAKE UP Lawmakers! You are FOOLS. Times are changing. A new generation of souls is being born who are wise to your greed and tyranny. Your time is limited!

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