U.S. Urged to Start 'Fixing the Problem' of Food Safety

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Not the flavorless hard ones in the supermarket, but a nice sweet juicy one from a local farm? Well say goodbye to that if Monsanto's "food safety" bill makes it through. It is set up to squeeze out all but the largest, most industrialized "farms".
Any bill put through in the name of "safety" needs to be scrutinized. Often it employs scare tactics used by the largest firms in a particular industry as a market grab to squeeze out competition, which limits choice, which is not my idea of "freedom".
If you think you are paying too much at the farmer's market or roadside stand, wait until rules are in place which will force the small farmer to implement expensive safety measures designed for larger industrialized farms who are the only ones who need it. Or perhaps your local farmer's market will vanish altogether.
Americans need to do two things: 1) demand that their health and happiness no longer run through large corporations, and 2) read Michael Pollan.

swilson04 of TX 11:21AM March 26, 2009

I appreciate the thought here. We all want our food to be safe.
We also all need to realize that the system of food production in this country is one of the things that has allowed the USA to emerge as a world leader. Our ability to feed ourselves with food that is affordable by the masses has not been achieved by many other countries both currently and through history.
The fact that we have obesity as one of our foremost problems is a stunning ode to the success of a basic gov't tenet of feeding their own people.
So quit your d!@# whining and be thankful for the fact that we enjoy an overall affordable abundance of life sustaining food. That could well be the main thing separating us from the North Korea's of the world.
If you want to fix something get off your fat butt, grow a garden, and start hunting. If you are urban, realize how lucky you are to have supermarkets filled with food in an edible state grown 1000's of miles from where you are buying it. Virtually no other country can do that.

Jeff Bach of WI 5:29PM March 25, 2009

HR875 - which would give more power to Monsanto - was introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband Stanley Greenburg works for Monsanto!
The bill is monstrous on level after level - the power it would give to Monsanto, the criminalization of seed banking, the prison terms and confiscatory fines for farmers, the 24 hours GPS tracking of their animals, the easements on their property to allow for warrantless government entry, the stripping away of their property rights, the imposition by the filthy, greedy industrial side of anti-farming international "industrial" standards to independent farms - the only part of our food system that still works, the planned elimination of farmers through all these means.
The corporations want the land, they want more intensive industrialization, they want the end of normal animals so they can substitute patented genetically engineered ones they own, they want the end of normal seeds and thus of seed banking by farmers or individuals. They want control over all seeds, animals, water, and land.
Our farmers are good stewards. That is who is threatened by Rosa DeLauro's bill (and because of that, we all are). At a time in this country when wise stewardship and the production of anything real - especially good food - is what is most needed, it is our best stewards whom Rosa DeLauro threatens, under the cruelly false name of "food safety."
And now Monsanto wants its own employee, Michael Taylor back in government, this time to act with massive police power as a "food safety tsar" from inside the White House. This is the man who forced genetically engineered rBGH on us (unlabeled, and without warning) when the Clintons placed him over "food safety" in the 90s. HR 875 would give him immense power over what is done on every single farm in the country and massive police state power to wield over farmers and punishments to break them at will.
The following quotes show Monsanto and its biotech ilk are not "stewards" at all. Their inhuman focus on profit has led to inhuman, insane, sickening products that require intense corruption of democracy and science institutes and media, to foist them on country after country which don't want them.
It is our farmers who stand between us and this outrage which masquerades as science, as food, as normal business, as government.
It might sound "in the public interest" - when they use the words "food safety" - and trying to shift the emphasis away from what is really a part of this bill.
I am usually Democrat - and usually vote for the people. My vote for the people this time is AGAINST this bill.

Sue Peterson of KY 4:56PM March 25, 2009

Editor:
Contact your federal representative now! A bill is to be voted on within a week called HR 875. Next it will go to the Senate for approval -- S 425. This is one of the most intrusive law upon your "rights." As a citizen of New York State and all the states in our republic you must stop the passage of these bills. I did not say democracy as that is corporate government.
The goal of this bill is to criminalize organic farming. This most assuredly suggests you cannot plant a garden in your own yard and grow a few vegetables. Remember the small independent farmer was eliminated by regulations as to how, where, and if he could use his own land. Now I strongly have suspected there are two governments operating at every level of government. One applies to the taxpayers and the other applies to those elected to "serve" us and act in our best interest. They appear to be flaunting their un-earned monies and privileges they receive from "special interest" groups. We might call this "pork." The people themselves must stop demanding grants and extras that are far from essentials to life. Greed must cease! We all must pay for it ultimately.
Why at this time to vote on these bills is there so much emphasis on our First Lady Michelle Obama planning to plant a garden at the White House? It appears to point out that there are two sets of rules.
The Monsanto group is very involved in this. They've been altering seed germination (sterilizing seed) to save us from hunger and as a result you will not get the nutrition you need. The seeds from these plants cannot be saved and replanted. I have read that Al Gore is heavily involved in this scheme.
Call and write to your elected official and by all means spread the word to your friends, family, neighbors and even your enemies.
Our foods are so contaminated with pesticides, hormones, dyes, preservativess, radiation, poor fertilization, MSG, artificial sugars to name a few -- no wonder we are so tired and worn out.
S. Jane Smith
Warsaw

henry.buehler of IL 4:12PM March 25, 2009

If you think that the financial crisis is dangerous and arrived globally without warning, wait until the first genetically engineered food crisis really hits home. I can hear it even now. That is not possible, we are too careful.
Hey folks, greedy people, however intelligent they may think they are, will do stupid and dangerous things in the pursuit of profit. If you think that for a minute they will care about the general welfare of people of any nationality, you are not paying attention.
Play with money and you end up broke. Play with food, you get starvation and famine.
Cross blending animal and plant genetics is a Frankenstein scenario. We are not that smart.
If we do not outlaw such experimentation, It is only a matter of time until a major food source becomes completly undigestable or we invent some unpredicted disease never before seen in the history of the world.
I can hear it now, that could never happen. We are smart and we are careful.

jlb of OR 2:55PM March 25, 2009