Saturday, May 30, 2009

The stunning naivete of the sustainable ag community


The sustainable ag community seems to have not noticed that everything they cares about is at stake with six "food safety" bills in congress, another one from Waxman on the way.

They seem not to have noticed the timing - just after the inauguration, when hope was high and attention diverted by that and the bailout. 

They seem not to have noticed that the bills had to have been prepared well in advance of any peanut issues, suddenly showing up as they did.

They seem not to have noticed that were it not for work by ordinary people to say the bills are dangerous, they may have already slipped through congress, unnoticed, as "food safety."

They seem not to have noticed that they are Hillary Clinton's presidential platform to create a massive and centralized "food safety" department, a platform developed with her advisor Mark Penn, CEO of Burson Marsteller, representing Monsanto.

They seem not to have noticed Hillary Clinton's ties going back to Arkansas and the Rose Law Firm - to Walmart, Tysons and Monsanto - world leaders in industrial food, industrial farming, biotech.  

They seem not to have noticed DeLauro's ties to agribusiness or her harshness in dealing with farmers.

They seem not to have noticed DeLauro's husband's work with the Clintons and Monsanto, http://www.gqrr.com/index.php?ID=403
 including his interest in globalization and helping corporations frame issues to their advantage.  http://www.gqrr.com/index.php?ID=408

They seem not to have noticed the Clinton's have a history with food safety and that Bill Clinton gave us the first "food safety" plan - HACCP.  http://www.organicconsumers.org/irrad/ctf.cfm

They seem not to have noticed that HACCP was an agribusiness/WTO bonanza which got rid of inspections, lowered food safety standards, wiped out safe local processors who were competition,   
and centralized the food supply into WTO members' hands, including his friends at Tysons.

They seem not to have noticed that Bill Clinton's "food safety" plan - HACCP - increased illnesses and led to deaths and blocked trace back to corporate slaughterhouses.

They seem not to have noticed that Bill Clinton got us into the WTO with big promises US sovereignty would never be affected and Hillary bills - coming in through Rosa DeLauro and other Clinton friends - would eliminate US sovereignty over its own food supply, giving all power to the WTO.

They seem not to have noticed that Monsanto is taking over seed world wide, including in the EU.   http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=202

They seem not to have noticed that the bills here are harmonized with the laws in the EU so seeing what is happening to them is seeing what the bills here will do.

They seem not to have noticed the immense and rapid decline in small farming in the EU.
They seem not to have noticed the huge loss of diversity in seeds in the EU as only those placed on a government registry may be sold and since it costs a fortune to get seeds there, farmers can't and biotech can.

They seem not to have noticed the FDA redefined seed as food and seed storage as one source of contamination or the implications.

They seem not to have noticed the implications playing out already as the FDA has made normal seed cleaning equipment - central to sustainable agriculture - illegal and set the 'food safety" standard for the equipment so high it would cost a million or more to meet it, and separate equipment (and another million plus) is now required for each line of seed.

They seem not to have noticed the "food safety" bills never mention the word "seed" and yet can eliminate ownership of them by simply doing to "storing" what they have already done to "sorting" - raise the standard above anyone's capacity to meet it.  
They seem not to have noticed they need seed to exist and the country needs human control over them to remain a functioning democracy.

They seem not to have noticed that NAIS is in the bills and includes a version for plants as well, meaning all US farmland would be under it.

They seem not to have noticed that NAIS includes Premises ID which is not "property" covered under the Constitution but an international term, that appears to make owners mere "stake holders" in their property.

They seem not to have noticed the peculiarity of even a single chicken putting someone under NAIS and that their even getting rid of the chicken would not remove the land from "premises" registration, nor would selling the land to someone without animals.

They seem not to have noticed this makes the argument that Premises ID is needed for tracing animal diseases, false.

They seem not to have noticed the USDA for 5 years will not change the word to "property" or answer if it is so that landowners become mere "stake holders" or answer the accompanying question - "If those holding all US farmland are mere stake holders, who are they holding the stake for?"

They seem not to have noticed that some believe that all US farmland, collected through this shift in a single word, may be collateral on the bailout and if we default, others - perhaps China - will claim it.

They seem not to have noticed the bills are essentially Codex Alimentarius, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5266884912495233634
the primary political battlefield where the war is being waged about who will regulate and control the global food supply, from field and stable to table.
They seem not to have noticed Codex is working with other groups supporting the following agendas: 
1. The chemical industry's aim that all animals be treated with antibiotics and hormones. 
2. The largest seed company in the world (Monsanto) is working toward 100% genetically-modified crops. 
3. The nuclear industry's goal of irradiating all foods including plants and livestock. 
4. All industries' goal: phasing out truly organic foods, or at least, making them extremely difficult to obtain. 

They seem not to have noticed that under Codex, all nutrients (vitamins and minerals) are to be considered toxins/poisons and are to be removed from all food because Codex prohibits the use of nutrients to "prevent, treat or cure any condition or disease"

They seem not to have noticed that all food (including organic) is to be irradiated, removing all toxic nutrients from food (unless eaten locally and raw).

They seem not to have noticed that nutrients allowed will be limited to a Positive List developed by Codex which will include such beneficial nutrients like Fluoride (3.8 mg daily) developed from environmental waste. All other nutrients will be prohibited nationally and internationally to all Codex-compliant countries [2].

They seem not to have noticed that all nutrients (e.g., CoQ10, Vitamins A, B, C, D, Zinc and Magnesium) that have any positive health impact on the body will be deemed illegal under Codex and are to be reduced to amounts negligible to humans' health [3].

They seem not to have noticed that people will not even be able to obtain these anywhere in the world even with a prescription.

They seem not to have noticed that all advice on nutrition (including written online or journal articles or oral advice to a friend, family member or anyone) will be illegal, including reports on vitamins and minerals and all nutritionist's consultations.

They seem not to have noticed the bills contain a civil and criminal penalty section that sets up an independent funding source so there will be no congressional oversight, has unlimited punishments even beyond the massive ones listed, will be applied by "the Administrator" (see below) without judicial review over even validity and appropriateness.

They seem not to have noticed those penalties apply to everyone in the country who "holds" food.   http://yupfarming.blogspot.com/2009/04/jam-and-water-watch.html

They seem not to have noticed those penalties come on top of no due process, warrantless entry, surveillance, monitoring, taking of all records, ....

They seem not to have noticed that those promoting the bills use canny verbiage to deny they will regulate or shut down organic farming, gardening, farmers markets, etc.  by saying "there is no language in the bill" that says those things, while those opposing the bills flag the worrisome fact of broad and vague language and then point instead to what the bills will actually do.

They seem not to have noticed that, though so much is at stake, the organizations they count on are quoting reassurances from the very people who introduced the bills, despite their close ties to agribusiness and Monsanto.

They seem not to have noticed that the organizations they count on plan to compromise with the bills, trusting industry's friends' reassurances while dismissing the long list of threats which farming/health/food/leftist friends have easily seen in them.

They seem not to have noticed the oddness of that or flinched at Monsanto bragging in comments on websites that Grist and Slow Food agree with them there is no problem.
They seem not to have noticed in reassuring them nothing is wrong, their own organizations are aligned with Monsanto interests.

They seem not to have noticed that Monsanto has repeatedly shown up on websites, trashing those criticizing them, while saying they are not involved with the bills at all.

They seem not to have noticed that Bill Clinton gave us Michael Taylor and Taylor gave us rBGH and unlabeled, unregulated GMOs.

They seem not to have noticed Taylor is back, dressed as a "food safety" professor now, and was on Obama's transition team.  

They seem not to have noticed that Food Democracy Now says Monsanto, through Michael Taylor, is expecting to run the giant agency the bills will set up and to control the entire US food supply, including all farms and homes and gardens.

They seem not to have noticed that Codex was developed by Nazis.

They seem not to have noticed the bills are Kissinger Plan of "control food, control people."

They seem not to have noticed these bills are a more extreme threat to our country, our democracy, and each of us individually than the bailout.

They seem not to have noticed they should be mobilizing for all they are worth.

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