The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act had more twists and turns than a big-city sewer system. Unexpected passage of the legislation at the very end of the lame duck Congress does not bring the story to a close. The fight goes on.
Regulations will need to be developed, which the FDA will try to do out of sight, but which we will monitor closely. The FDA will need funding to do the work, which means more legislation. And there may be other legislative opportunities to help pull back this seeming victory for agribusiness, factory faming, and its allies in Washington.
We have to keep educating Capitol Hill about the dangers of CAFOs, the main source of food contamination, and about the benefits—both to our health and our economy—of small farmers and especially local organic farmers. We need, in short, to keep the government from destroying what’s best about agriculture in this country. Big Food may have won this round, but they have most certainly not won the war.
Before we turn to the future, it’s also worth reviewing the story of what actually happened with this legislation. There has been a great deal of confusion about what took place, and it’s important to set the record straight. We also need to remember that natural health and family farming won some concessions along the way, concessions that kept this legislation from being far, far worse than it is. All of these concessions were won by a broad coalition of tireless health freedom advocates, while some of them-especially in the areas of potential CODEX regulation and supplements-were won specifically by ANH-USA, and we’re proud of those accomplishments. This is more proof that when we all work together, we can move mountains.
Here’s the full timeline:
March 2009: Senate introduces FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510). The bill languishes in committee for nine months, then is placed on the Senate’s legislative calendar.
June 2009: House introduces Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, or FSEA (H.R. 2749). Bill was designed to completely revamp the FDA and grant expansive authority with no oversight and contained provisions of significant concern to small farms (especially organic farms), small food producers, and supplement makers, including sharply increased criminal and civil penalties for violations of FDA regulations—up to ten years in jail and fines of up to $100,000 for individuals and $7.5 million for corporations, regardless of their size—just for making completely true statements about a food or supplement or referring to peer-reviewed science without prior FDA permission.
The bill was put on a fast track, and ANH-USA sprang into action. We placed a full-page ad in Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, calling on Congress to amend the bill. We also printed up copies of the ad, and had them hand-delivered to each congressional office. Our members deluged Congress with messages and phone calls. Unfortunately, the House passed the bill by a vote of 283 to 142.
November 2009: The original language of the Senate bill appeared to commit the US to the concept of harmonization of our food and supplement safety laws with a global standard, the Codex Alimentarius. The global standard is very likely to reflect European standards, which are extremely hostile to dietary supplements. ANH-USA was able to get the bill amended so that it no longer requires the development of a plan to harmonize with Codex; now the bill calls for a plan “on whether and how” to harmonize.
April 2010: Still concerned that the inclusion of Codex language in the bill could be used to support future US harmonization with Codex standards on dietary supplements, ANH-USA succeeds in getting new language that specifically exempted dietary supplements from US harmonization with Codex. In addition, while we did not work on this aspect of the issue ourselves, we were very pleased to see that supplements were also exempted from the “hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls” section of the bill.
September 2010: Noting that the Senate’s version of the bill didn’t have the extra-harsh penalties of the House bill, Sen. Leahy introduced a new bill, the Food Safety Accountability Act, or FSEA (S. 3767), which used language similar to that found in the House bill. Even worse, the bill would not necessarily hold accountable a company that tainted a product, even on purpose, if this type of adulteration occurred before the product was sold by a distributor. So much for “accountability.”
Once again, ANH-USA and its allies acted quickly and mounted a protest, and succeeded in getting the Leahy bill amended so that it would no longer be possible to use the bill’s language to send a supplement producer to jail for ten years just for citing legitimate science.
November 2010: One of the Senate bill’s big sticking points was how it would affect small farmers and food producers. Some small-farm and organic food advocates warned that the legislation would destroy their industry under a mountain of paperwork. Working with the natural health community, ANH-USA succeeded in winning inclusion of an amendment from Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), which exempts from some of the bill’s provisions any producers with less than $500,000 a year in sales who sell most of their food locally.
Still concerned about the language in the Leahy bill, we kept up the pressure, and thanks to all the phone calls, letters, and email messages that you sent to your senators, we were told that the FSEA language would be kept out of S. 510 entirely.
In addition, the House agreed that if the Senate’s bill passed, the House would accept the Senate’s version in place of its own. The House bill was far, far worse, and contained the ten-year jail terms—so this meant that ten-year jail terms should not be in a final Food Safety bill.
On November 30, the Senate bill passed 73 to 25, and sent it on to the House for approval.
December 1: The House rejects the Senate bill because it contains a revenue-raising (i.e., taxing) provision. The Constitution requires all revenue-raising provisions to arise from the House.
December 10: House passes a Continuing Resolution, which is supposed to provide temporary, stopgap funding for the government while budget bills are worked out. But this CR included the language of the Senate food safety bill. The CR is sent to the Senate for approval.
December 14: Sen. Inouye attempts to get an omnibus spending bill substituted for the CR. While we were told originally that the food safety language would not be part of the omnibus bill, it appeared that a deal was struck to include food safety.
December 17: A number of senators, mainly Republicans, decide to support neither the omnibus bill, which contained a lot of “pork” (funding for local projects with little or no national significance) nor the CR from the House, but instead wanted a one-page CR that would keep the government open for the next two months. This left the food safety bill once again out in the cold.
December 19: At 10 p.m. on a Sunday night, in one of the most underhanded legislative maneuvers we’ve ever seen, senators took an old House bill that had been languishing on the legislative calendar for a year and a half, removed all of its text and completely substituted the text of S. 510, then changed the title. What had been the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act was now the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act with a new number, H.R. 2751. It was identical in every way to the old S. 510, except that this was now technically a House bill, which got over the earlier constitutionality issue. This was agreed to in the Senate by unanimous consent, and the bill was sent back to the House.
Note that twenty-five senators who had previously voted against the bill were part of the unanimous consent agreement. Even one of them could have denied unanimous consent, in which case the bill would most likely have died. These senators were also participating in a legislative trick that made a mockery of the Constitution.
December 21: After less than an hour of debate, the bill passed in the House, 215 to 144. This included Yes votes from legislators who had been voted out of office in November, but who were making one last use of the “lame duck” session—something the 20th Amendment to the Constitution was trying to prevent when it was originally enacted. Seventy-four members of the House had already left for the winter break and did not vote.
Henry Waxman, still chair of Commerce Committee during the lame duck session of Congress and an arch foe of natural health and health freedom, famously said that nothing is ever settled for good in Washington. We can’t help but agree with him when it comes to the botched Food Safety Act.
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Restricting access to natural. Supplements is NOT American & only serves pharmaceutical compies.
Any suggestion as to who to email–please keep us informed about what can be done and who to contact.
Judy, this is a GREAT website that talks about all the health/food related issue we are facing.
http://www.healthfreedomportal.org/
if you sign up for the emls, you will also get petitions to sign — this way you can let the idiots/thugs that are running the FDA, as well as those in congress that you will NOT stand for their nonsense and profit over people agenda!
You can also join your local chapter of Weston A. Price Foundation and become involved their w/local/national food issues.
I would NOT however, recommend SlowFood USA, they supported this horrific bill w/o even KNOWING what it was about. I actually called their offices and the lady that answered the phone said she was in favor of this bill, but did NOT know what it contained. I told her she was misinformed and sent her an eml w/further explanations. I also wanted to talk to the communications mgr, and left a message which to this date has NOT been returned.
I honestly believe the salmonella issue was PLANTED w/the help of the US Gov’t in order to be able to IMPOSE and get most people, who are truly ignorant of what this law contains, to PASS. All of this in cohoots of course, w/BIG AGRABIZ!!!
Judy,
The Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), which has jurisdiction over the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is Michael B. Enzi, Senator from Wyoming, who encourages interested parties to submit detailed comments on the draft guidance to FDA.
visit his web: enzi.senate.gov for more info.
Jacques
One can only hope that this chronology will be given to every newly elected Congressman/woman and Senator, and that he or she will be as offended as I am at this underhanded and despicable action by the outgoing Congress.
With the rest of the bills that Congress is trying to pass that take away our choices for good health, it looks as if the ‘secret’ agenda is population control–only the strongest survivie that don’t need clean air, food and water.
It seems that those that ‘they’ consider just ‘eaters’ are suppose to perish so that there will be enough to go around. Sad that the value of life is almost 0
GEE Tia, do ya really think that’s the ‘agenda’? The congress acted as if they literally had a gun to their head, or a huge amount of dough just waiting fo be dropped into their Caymen Island bank accounts. Do you think that we, the disparaged ‘internet bloggers’ had any impact on them at all?? I wore out my keyboard on this one. What a joke. I would say don’t e-mail, WRITE a letter and send it. That still won’t work when your kids lives are threatened. I knew this was a done deal when I heard that Monsanto hired XE (the infamous Blackwater). For What? I guess they knew the vote was a sure thing, so now they’ll need more soldiers to police where their poison pollen lands, so they can put even more farmers out of business.
The ‘concession’ on the $500,000 or less was on SALES, not profits. So that will leave the very small farmers safe? Maybe. But it won’t make US safe. There will be far too few farms to supply the growing demand for real/organic food. It was a gimmick to shut us up. Even Sen. Colburn caved after pledging to us he would put a hold on the bill, in which case it would have died.
The FDA is the most criminal agency ever to exist, responsible for many deaths.. When I studied about Aspertame, watched the gestapo tactics concerning vitamin companies, and their disgustingly slow reactions to REAL drug threats, I realized what their real ‘agenda’ was. It’s to the point that they couldn’t care less how obvious that agenda is. How is it that GMOs have come to be in 90% of our food without 99% of us realizing it?? If they get their funding (they will) , the FDA will become the next IRS. They have been sure to get those videos out and let us know they will storm your farm, with AK-47s drawn, if you DARE to live your life as before. Be assured that no matter what you see on TV, it’s because that’s what they WANT you to see. Remember that 1/2 million dollars in cheese they ordered destroyed??? The FDA later sent the business a letter saying there was NO bacteria found in their cheese. Too bad. The farm never had the funds to fight for themselves anyway. Just like the IRS. Make a few examples of people and freak out the whole country. Who has the guts to passively resist, and grow the biggest garden you ever had? Plead ignorance of the law. After all, you never heard a word of truth about this bill on the telly, right? By the way. If ‘they’ call a state of emergency, all the food goes under the contol of Homeland Security and the Treasury Dept! Won’t we feel safe then!!!
Oh yeah, never mind about that big garden. The chemtrails will keep it from maturing and it will be a waste of time. Wake up people!! I know it’s beyond comprehension, but these psychpaths are determined to kill us, AFTER we spend all our savings being very sick first..
.
PS……here’s what the FDA thinks of your food ‘freedom’. This is part of the affidavit they filed in court in response to a lawsuit over raw milk:
Earlier this year, the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) filed a lawsuit against the FDA over their raw milk ban, claiming it is unconstitutional. The FDA’s rebuttal contained the following extremely concerning and outrageous statements, which make it very clear they believe you have no right to unprocessed food:
*”There is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food.”
*”There is no ‘deeply rooted’ historical tradition of unfettered access to foods of all kinds.”
*”Plaintiffs’ assertion of a ‘fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes
what foods they do and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families’ is similarly
unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish.”
The FDA’s brief goes on to state that “even if such a right did exist, it would not render the FDA’s regulations unconstitutional because prohibiting the interstate sale and distribution of unpasteurized milk promotes bodily and physical health.”
*”There is no fundamental right to freedom of contract.”
Would a judge really buy this?? In our Orwellian, Outer Limits, Twilight Zone world, you bet!! Even if we lobbied to the individual members of the FDA, does this sound like they CARE what we think, feel, or are entitled to????
To BJ in PA,
Unfortunately, I fear that you are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!! I would add that the FDA is nothing more than a revolving door for Big Agra and Big Pharma execs… Without changing the players and changing how the FDA is funded (thru fees from Pharmaceutical Co’s, and bigger fees for fast tracking new drugs)
our hope of them EVER standing up for the people they are supposed to be serving is a joke.
The FDA also terrorizes any doctors who dare to actually cure anything, TRANSLATE TO ANYTHING OR ANYONE THAT THREATENS BIG PHARMA OR BIG AGRA MARKET SHARE.
I too have burned up my keyboard and telephone lines for over a year regarding the S510 bill and the numerous house versions.
I did not stop when the dirty little legislative trick worked!! None of us should… We have a new congress, we have some new senators.. As for my senators, I have written and left messages at their Washington office that “THIS IS NOT OVER” I am personally telling everyone who will listen, what went down and how if WILL affect them. I have told my “””Representitives” that I will stand on a street corner if necessary, to tell of the deceit in Washington. THAT I WILL WORK TO GET THEM OUT OF WASHINGTON. I sincerely believe that they need to be held accountable.. There is no excuse… Either they voted knowingly to take away my freedom of choice for the food put into my body, or they voted to put BIG lobbyist money in there coffers… Either way, they did not serve the people.. IT IS TIME TO LET THEM ALL KNOW THAT WE ARE ON TO THEM… GO TO OPEN CONGRESS .ORG AND FOLLOW THE MONEY!!! IT WILL BLOW YOUR MINDS.
AS LONG AS WE ARE LITTLE SHEEP, JUST GROUSING AMONGST OURSELVES, WHAT WILL EVER CHANGE???? ARE YOU ANGRY YET..?? TIME TO GET SOME MOMENTUM.
EVERY SENATOR AND REPRESENTATIVE SHOULD LIVE BY THE LAWS THEY PASS FOR US…
WHEN DID WE GET AN ELITE CLASS?? THEY CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE TO ABIDE BY WHAT THEY PASS..THEY GET A FULL BOAT RETIREMENT AFTER JUST ONE TERM, THEY DO NOT HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE HEALTHCARE PACKAGE, THEY ARE ALLOWED TO HAVE INSIDE TRADER INFO….
NUFF SAID……. I HOPE
PRINT THIS TIMELINE AND SEND IT TO YOUR SENATORS OFFICE, AS WELL AS THE HOUSE….
OVER AND OVER. CALL THEM…….. BE HEARD!!
You GOT IT RIGHT!!!! I BELIEVE THIS WON’T WORK B/C THERE IS NO FUNDING. WHAT WE CAN DO AS INDIVIDUALS IS TO NOT PURCHASED THE CONVENTIONAL CRAP THERE IS IN THE SUPERMARKETS. CUT OUT ALL FAST FOOD, AND BE VERY PICKY ABOUT THE RESTAURANTS YOU CHOOSE TO PATRONIZE.
LEARN TO COOK AT HOME, REHEAT LEFTOVERS, TAKE YOUR OWN FOOD TO WORK. I DID THAT FOR MANY YEARS.
LEARN TO LOVE TO COOK!!!! AND REALIZE THAT WHAT YOU PUT IN YOUR BODY IS FUEL AND NOT JUST ANYTHING WILL DO, ESP. NOT JUNK FOOD!
TAKE OUT HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, POTATOE CHIPS, ETC. IT WILL TAKE TIME BUT IT CAN BE DONE!!!!
WE CAN SHOW THESE IDIOTS THAT WE WON’T BUY THEIR CRAP AND WON’T STAND FOR THE OTHER STUFF THAT’S BEING THROWN OUR WAY! WE CAN DO IT!!!
BUY FROM YOUR LOCAL FARMERS MARKET. WE LIVE OUTSIDE HOUSTON AND TRAVEL 1 HR EVERY SATURDAY MORNING EARLY IN ORDER TO PURCHASE THE BEST, FRESHEST AND SOMETIMES MORE ECONOMIC FOOD WE CAN. YES! IT’S WORTH IT. WE’RE WORTH IT AND SO IS MOTHER EARTH!
Do we really need another bureaucracy regulating small farmers into oblivion so that we have even less access to healthy, locally-grown foods?
We must make sure that we have a choice at the supermarket between organic and non-organic. We must stop corporations like Monsanto who are creating toxic food.
What can I do to protest this underhanded politics? I would like to do something abot it. Please reply Thanks.
The heart of the real issue hear goes way back to the plan of industrial agriculture, which successfully created poverty and landlessness in industrialized societies, which deny people access to food. They succeeded in forcing millions of farmers off their land and grabbing control of food supply. People are waking up to the fact that when they have no control over their food they have no control over their health. ITS THAT SIMPLE!!! Unless the return to small local farming is allowed to progress as it should small farmers will revolt, backed by local people who already know too much of the tradegy of industrial agriculture and the BIG LIE- which is being revealed to many more people every day. The attemps to squash small local farming, before too many of the American public support local small farmers, is too late, although these attemps come from virtually every angle and often. A revolt WILL and SHOULD come by force, as this is the only thing that will be understood by evil wielding such power. The FDA is a mafia and they will be eliminated by force. American small farmers can’t run, won’t run, and they are being backed into a corner. They are armed and ready with itchy trigger fingers. I wouldn’t want to be an FDA employee enforcing this agenda or law enforcement. Many are waiting to make an example of them. “Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.” ~Henry Kissinger “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” The beginning of the reversal Kissenger’s reality (the BIG PICTURE) starts with small localized farming. You can bask in the oblivion of deception or learn the truth, look in the mirror and ask yourself if you will do nothing.
Why were every last one of them so desperate to get this bill passed no matter what? I understand the corruption, the payoffs, etc., but what caused people who voted against the bill to pull the final trick to get the bill passed at the very last possible second?
Vitamin C has been thoroughly researched and proven to be extremely effective and enhancing to our health for many decades. I find it most disturbing that the FDA that has often approved deadly pharmaceuticals wants to deny the public of a vitamin. More than 100,000 people die every year from ‘approved’ pharmaceuticals. If the FDA wants to help out the public, why don’t they ban fluoride, a known poison, from our drinking water!
Please preserve our right to the vitamins and supplements of out choices.
I am sad to say that the one world corpratists have captured our congress. I only wish I knew what form of threat is delivered to a congressman by the Bilderberg types behind the black curtain who have assuredly taken control of the US government. What makes a politician comit moral treason against the people who place trust in them to do the peoples’ work. I do know that unless the phone number of Congress is on every cell phone and is used regularly…there is little hope the United States will retain its recognizable form. I saw” 1984″ last night on TV as a grim reminder of the vision of the David Rockefeller types who have the money,power and now the technology at their filthy rich fingertips to do their bidding. Remember the fewer the rulers at the top the worse off are those at the bottom.
Study the goals of Bilderberg…do you really want to live like that?? There are more of us and very few of them….Why should I have to fight .call , send copius e-mails…just to eat humane sustainable non GMO food. We have the numbers …they do not. We also still have the vote ! Democracy was never intended to be a spectator sport. Onward!
It appears we encounter more and more issues with the FDA every day. So why don’t we start petitioning the Scientist and the staff behind FDA policy setting, individually? We do that to get corporations to change their practices, shouldn’t we try this with this agency’s staff as well?
HOW DARE YOU TO THINK THE PEOPLE OF THIS ‘FREE SO FAR’ COUNTRY NEEDS YOU POLITICIANS TO TELL US …WHAT….WHEN….HOW, ETC. TO EAT AND GROW OUR FOODS!!!!!!!!…..YOU FORGET THAT YOU PEOPLE WORK FOR US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND…WE WILL NOT BE TOLD BY ANYONE ABOUT THE FOODS WE EAT !!!
WE WILL WORK TO FIRE ALL OF YOU AND ALSO TO REPEAL THIS EGREGIOUS ‘ACT’….STAY OUT OF OUR LIVES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AGREED complety!
Congratulation!!!
You said everthing!!!
I;d like to know if their family it is important for them or just make money?
Where they’re going to take all the money, after died?
Thanks
Nancy
Lets look out “inhaling hydrogen peroxide”. Go to “Google” Type “bill munro peroxide”.
Bad bugs be they in your garden or your body can not live in OXYGEN rich envierment.
Millions of people inhale 3% peroxide all over world every day.
Thank you for your time.
This is NOT NOR EVER WILL BE A COMMUNIST/SOCIALIST COUNTRY !!! DON’T TELL US WHAT TO EAT, WHEN OR HOW !!
This is the MOST EGREGIOUS ‘ACT’ YOU HAVE EVER IMPOSED ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE !!
STAY OUT OF OUR LIVES……..PERIOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
100% right!!!!!
Hi.
I would like for FDA to concentrate their efforts in getting off the market High Fructose Corn Syrup
and Monosodium Glucomate, MSG and all other stuff masking MSG.
That is what is causing America’s fat epidemic, they need to stop that stuff.
At least themselves and their kids are on the same boat too.
100% agreed
Delusional thinking Francisco. The FDA serves the corporate state. The corporate state has no value in you, the people, other than the profits they can make off your sickened body.
What you need to think–and then say, is that we need a public that is willing to re-eduacte itself out the dumbed down state within which it lives.
The people in control of this government and economy see you as a walking interference with their plans. Much of their thinking and planning concerns controlling the unruly, mongrel masses. Now when you awake each day, isn’t this how you think of yourself?
What seems to be the hardest lesson for the public to learn is that the people we petition live in a different world. What is normative value to them is really evil to us.
Our government is out of F********Control! They are planning to limit our food supply and force feed us their franken poison, and now are banning vitamins that are necessary for life! God gave us these … only he can take these away. They are trying to be God.
IT’S TIME FOR A REVOLUTION!
Only a small portion of our population is aware of what is happening to them! We need a wake up call…..
The goverment are out control?
Who voted for them???
Lets get all together and fight for our rights, before it is too late
Dear ANH,
Have you thought about a campaign to eliminate the FDA? Or at least confine it powers to reviewing tests on manufactured drugs?
If the FDA isn’t reined in, this nonsense will never stop. It’s unconstitutional and interferes with the individuals right to seek treatments that actually work and that don’t have the serious side affects that always seem to accompany FDA approved drugs.
The FDA needs to be stopped – dead.
Susan Brown
Let start one?
good ideia
Thank you for the excellent reporting. My friends and I had been talking about exactly what happened and where we stood presently. I will pass this information on.
If we do not purge the corruption out of our government, the end of America will be a reality.
DEAR SIRS, MAYBE IF THESE WERE IN A PRESCRIPTION FORM AND SOME COMPANY MADE RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS OF MONEY YOU WOULDN’T BE ‘BOTHERING’ WITH THIS.
START LOOKING AT REALLY TOXIC SUBSTANCES…I.E. ASPARTANE, GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD, NON ORGANIC CHICKEN FARMS, ETC. THE LIST COULD GO ON AND ON!!!
START EARNING YOUR MONEY! GET EDUCATED.
It sure makes me wonder what freedom means since we no longer have the freedom to eat pure, natural un-modified food. I spend more on my ‘real’ food so that I’m not buying the pharmacutical drugs that line the pocket of our ‘representatives and senators’.
Let’s see since we floridate our water, pasturize our milk, feed artificial hormones to our meat, feed grain to fish…….we have become an obese society, with major diseases drastically increasing.
What happen to our country founded on giving us personal freedom? I’m looking for a new country. Preferrably one that will allow me to drink raw milk……
Until we the people (sheeple) wake up and figure out this is THE PLAN that the NWO has put into place, things will never change! Stop caring about celebreties and their babies, turn off the TV and vote for freedom loving honest politicians ONLY! And don’t fly!
Google S.510 and have a look at who voted for this. Gives you the list.
Something much larger has to be done quickly about this. A tv show ongoing, something. Massive protest.
Europe is doing all ths , taking the rights, this year, that is what this is gearing up to.
That FDA affidavit should be published so everyone can see it. Send it to John Stewart etc,
Oprah and Obama are large players in this. tsk
WHAT IT IS HAPPING WITH THE HUMAN BEING?
WHY MOST OF PEOPLE NOWADAYS CARE JUST ABOUT STUPID THINGS?
IT IS EVERYBODY BLIND AND DEAF?
ARE WE GOING TO BE SEAT AND WAINTING FOR THEM TO DESTROYS US?
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?
LETS ALL GET TOGETHER AND TAKE ACTION!!!
ASAP
THANKS
GOD BLESS ALL
This article is from NaturalNews.com. The same things have been happening since the 70’s in the US. Sucides and the loss or forfeiture of small farms and small farming practices. Just change the name of the country from India to USA. Now because of GMO’s, which we don not use on our farm, but the neighbors do, cross pollination has occured (and who knows what else) and we have gigantic, weird looking weeds growing, that we’ve never seen before and don’t know if we can get rid of them. We are hoping the weeds, which almost destroyed last year’s alfalfa crop will come back this year witrhout these weird weeds, but we don’t know.
We have to band together, somehow, and discuss ways to stop this government control in all these areas of our lives if we are to get back and maintain our freedom of choice.
Here’s the article on India:
Joyce
Monsanto connected to at least 200,000 suicides in India throughout past decade
Tuesday, January 04, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
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(NaturalNews) When India’s seed economy was forced by the World Bank to become globalized in the late 1990s, economic conditions within the nation’s agricultural sector almost immediately took a nosedive for the worst. Much of the common Indian seed stock turned from saveable heirloom varieties to patented, genetically-modified (GM) varieties that expire after a single use and require the application of expensive and cumbersome pesticides in order to grow, which plunged many Indian farmers into abject poverty. And nearly 25 years later, the devastating effects of this corporate takeover of Indian agriculture has resulted in countless suicides, 200,000 of which have occurred just in the past ten years.
According to a recent report in the U.K. Independent, many Indian farmers have lost their farms and land over the past several decades. One of the primary causes is failed investments by farmers that banked heavily on the success of newly-introduced GM crops. Multinational biotechnology giants like Monsanto and Syngenta promised farmers that GM crops would bring incredible yields at lower costs, and save the country from poverty. But in reality, many of the crops ended up failing, leaving millions of Indian farmers with absolutely nothing.
“One farmer every 30 minutes (commits suicide) in India now, and sometimes three in one family,” explained Palagummi Sainath, an Indian journalist, to the U.K. Independent. Left with nowhere to turn and a complete loss of their livelihoods, many farmers are literally drinking their crop pesticides. And since many of these suicides go unreported or unnoticed, actual rates could be even higher than those reported.
Years of drought and poor agricultural policy are also to blame for the widespread failure of agriculture in many Indian regions, but it all appears directly connected to the introduction of GMs in the 1990s. The U.K. Independent report states that the Indian government removed cotton subsidies in 1997, which resulted in a significant profit loss for many cotton farmers. But during that same year, GM varieties of cotton were also introduced, which many attribute directly to the crop failures that left the agriculture sector largely in ruin.
“Every suicide can be linked to Monsanto,” explained scientist Vandana Shiva to the U.K. Independent. After subsidies were lifted, the cost of cotton production rose dramatically, especially when GM cotton was introduced because it required the application of expensive pesticides and herbicides. Natural varieties of cotton, on the other hand, do not necessarily require chemical applications to grow and flourish. And since farmers can save and reuse natural seeds every year, all is not lost during years of poorer yields because farmers can often try again the next year.
But in the GM crop paradigm, the stakes are far higher. Farmers must borrow large sums of money to invest in GM technology. They do so based on promises that yields will increase and profits will soar. But when the promises fail to pan out and farmers are unable to keep paying for the expensive pesticides, they typically end up losing everything, including access to reusable heirloom seeds. So, many end up killing themselves because they literally have nothing left.
The introduction of GM agriculture in India shifted the agricultural economy from one of biodiversity to monoculture, which is hugely significant in India’s agricultural failures. Rather than grow a variety of different heirloom crops that each respond differently to periodic changes in climate — which Indian farmers have always done prior to the introduction of GM crops — many farmers began to grow only one single GM variety. And when conditions turned out not to be favorable for that crop, both economically and in terms of climate conditions, disaster ensued. In fact, one statistic from a government report in India states that more than 90 percent of known suicide victims were in debt, which was largely brought about when farmers took the plunge into GM crops from their former methods.
The globalization of agriculture in general has dramatically increased poverty in India, as crop subsidies in other nations began to affect Indian agriculture, driving down crop profits. Indian farmers have lost billions of dollars over the years from having to compete in the global agricultural marketplace rather than grow their own biodiverse crops to feed their own people. Global powers have literally robbed India of its self-reliance and self-sustenance in the name of “ending poverty” by thrusting upon them a system of monopolized agriculture controlled and operated by companies like Monsanto. And unless India somehow secedes from the global system of corruption, conditions will only become increasingly worse for its people.
Sources for this story include:
http://www.independent.co.uk/enviro…
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• Water Wars Erupt in India as Drought Threatens Population Survival
• Monsanto: The world’s poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit
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Please tell me what you want me to moderate or remove. Thanks- Joyce
Here’s the deal: We are headed into the most oppressive police state the world has ever seen. Truly, most people have no clue about what is happening and here’s the kicker……even if they did know most people would side with the government no matter what. Don’t believe me? Try talking to some people you know about it and see their reaction. It will consist of something like, “So you are saiying you are against clean, safe food?” That is the programming kicking in and the majority of the people not only want this…they will welcome it with open arms! A revolution seems so far away because most people love new laws, they love to be restricted as long as they are made “safe”. I truly believe that the jackboots will be kicking in most peoples doors and beating their kids before they realize the great wonderful government is actually their enemy. Emailing, writing letters and calling representatives is in vain. They DO NOT LISTEN. You might as well be writing Santa Claus because you and I are insignifigant to these people. They are bought and paid for 100 times over and are so corrupt they have absolutely no vision other than stuffing their pockets with $$ as fast as they can before it hits the fan. God Help US!
I honestly don’t know what this bill is about other than it helps corporate farming profits and doesn’t give one hoot about people’s health. Is that about right? I recently watched The Future of Food and it was pretty disgusting what is going on with genetically modified foods. Again, the key was a Supreme Court decision (late 40’s, early 50’s) that for the first time allowed a “live” food source to be patented. I may not have that precisely correct but that is the crux of it.
This must have been pretty significant for them to sneak this through as they did. Monsanto must have hosted the cocktail party later. Those who truly represent us in Congress are few and far between. The electorate is ignorant and easily manipulated and this go-around the dumb voters thought bringing back the oligarchy was a good idea.
The whole thing pains me.
We Need to cut funding for this bill and it will Die The new Congress can do this Keep Emailing your newly Elected Reps
I am just so fed up with all these underhanded, unethical, detrimental, and even unconstitutional laws and regulations! I can see a way to deal with it:
Fight fire with fire: There is always a legal loophole, no matter how a law is written. Find them and exploit them. For example, to skirt the $500,000 sales limit of small farmers, divide the farm into sub-farms on paper, each producing sales under the limit. Some enterprising group could release open-source software to assist farmers with any paperwork burden to make this really easy. Or do something just as silly as copying and pasting the blasted S.510 bill into another bill: sell a bushel of produce for a dime, and require a “deposit” necessary to maintain an “account” of the remainder of the normal price. So “sales” can be any amount you want, just depending on how you feel like defining it!
Either way, fight or flaunt, this madness has got to stop. We will not be pushed around without pushing back even harder! Bring it on baby!
We are talking about the control these groups as the FDA or Monsanto, or the Labious that work with congressman in the White house, etc. but as some of the above people said we ARE the many ones, and they are the few, so we must get together and spread the word, and help by buying in local markets, do not buy FDA prescriptions, put our moneys in small local banks or credit unions, and maybe all these websites get together and set up some type of forum to organize us to be in an specific place to protest for all of these criminal acts, because this is what these are Criminal Acts against Humans. They do want to get red of us. We are just a number to them and they want power, control and want to get rid of 90% of the population, by making sick with the drugs, chem trail. flouride, GMO,s ETC. It is time we get together against these criminals,
“If people let the government decide what foods they eat
and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as
sorry a state as the souls who live under tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson (1778).
This is typical liberal skulduggery. Really, there needs to be a way legislation passed in such a manner (by deception and/or trickery) to be declared unconstitutional and withdrawn immediately upon discovery, and those responsible for use of such tactics to be penalized for their misconduct.
This kind of behavior is inexcusable and should never be tolerated. Our government was never intended to work in such a manner.
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