Wisconsin's Honey and Vandana Shiva's Law for Food Fascism ...

As tainted Asian honey floods the market and food safety "experts" again call for government action, an article from 2009 on Wisconsin's efforts to introduce Codex Alimentarius, beginning with honey, seems useful to consider..

By Meryl Williamson

What the Wisconsin Senate is attempting to do to honey is the beginning of a long planned noose-tightening for local farmers and food producers by multinational corporations. SB 419 offers a window into one of the ways they intend to achieve the death of local farming.

Vandana Shiva calls the laws that corporations are putting on the books that control food at a level never seen before in human history, “the Law for Food Fascism.” Her speech on the future of food is about more than dangers from biotechnology; it’s about the ability of all of us to have a choice of the foods that we eat, and for our farmers to be able to freely use their own seeds, and grow food in the manner that they choose.

In understanding Codex Alimentarius, it is not hard to imagine how similar laws, like SB 419, could be constructed to remove the right for anyone to grow food:

2009 − 2010 LEGISLATURE
2009 SENATE BILL 419
LRB−3834/1 CTS:cjs:rs

December 3, 2009 − Introduced by Senators VINEHOUT, LEHMAN, MILLER and SCHULTZ, cosponsored by Representatives GARTHWAITE, VRUWINK, BARCA, BALLWEG, BROOKS, CLARK, HILGENBERG, KERKMAN, KNODL, MOLEPSKE JR., A. OTT, PASCH, POPE−ROBERTS, RIPP, ROYS, SCHNEIDER, STEINBRINK, TAUCHEN, TURNER, A. WILLIAMS, YOUNG and ZIGMUNT. Referred to Committee on Agriculture and Higher Education.

AN ACT to create 100.187 of the statutes; relating to: requiring the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to establish standards for products sold as honey, prohibiting the labeling as Wisconsin certified honey of a product that has not been determined to meet the standards, prohibiting the labeling as honey of a product that does not meet the standards, and requiring the exercise of rule−making authority.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau

This bill requires the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) to promulgate rules that establish standards for products sold as honey and standards for the testing by private laboratories of samples submitted by persons who wish to sell honey produced in this state as Wisconsin certified honey. The standards for honey must be consistent with the standard for honey under the Codex Alimentarius of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

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