Natural Solutions Foundation
www.GlobalhealthFreedom.org

We reproduce below, with permission, A Solemn Walk Through “Food Safety”.

Index
Introduction
A Solemn Walk
Natural Solutions White Paper

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Introduction

Food is becoming a battle ground like no other: freedom, survival, fascistic take over of a once-free people (more or less, at least), corporate triumph over independent producers – it’s all happening around food. And the mechanism is simple: a set of bills ostensibly devoted to “food safety” and “food security”.

Urgent Action Item:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714

Tell Congress that the Farm Bills MUST be defeated. Time is short and the issue is of immense importance.

In essence, these bills are a sneak attack implementation of Codex Alimentarius. The Natural Solutions Foundation has been warning that organic farming and home growing, clean food and food freedom were under heavy attack. Here is the Mother of All Food Fascism Assaults and we still have some time to defeat it.

Congress often comes up with bad ideas. This is not just a bad idea: it is a catastrophically bad idea for health and freedom. In fact, it is nothing short of food tyranny and will kill not only organic farming, but lots of people as well, along with the entire private farming sector. Your own gardens are at risk as well.

I cannot urge you strongly enough to take action NOW (we have only a few days to create the urgent push-back needed to fend off this disastrous legislation. These are bad, deceptive and extraordinarily dangerous bills which make the eternal link between fascism and food crystal clear. But the bills are written in neutral, even calming tones. Please go to the articles below to read a brilliantly annotated version of the bills and a summary and learn just how dangerous they are. My thanks to Sue Diederich and Linn Cohen-Cole for their tireless work on this vital issue.

Just as –

~ “homeland security” is anything but assured by the Department of Homeland Security’s destruction of our rights,
~ “health” is not served by a healthcare system devoted to propagating illness for profit,
~ “democracy” is not served by corrupt voting machines and “man in the middle programs”

so food security and safety are not served by agencies and laws which –

~ drive independent farmers out of business,
~ forbid seed saving,
~ destroy safe food production and organic farming,
~ propagate dangerous and destructive industrial farming practices,
~ guarantee the total control of the food system by industrial forces known for unsafe food production while destroying the capacity of independent farmers to survive a regulatory onslaught created specifically to destroy them,
~ put home food production in jeopardy,
~ “HARMonize food production with pro-industry, pro-WTO controlled, lowest common denominator practices of Codex Alimentarius.

These are tragically solemn times calling for solemn re-dedication of each of us to the fight to retain and restore freedom. Food is just about the best place possible to start. Killing HR 875, S 425 and all related bills is the best place to start.

Click here (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714) to tell Congress in no uncertain terms how imperative killing these dastardly bills is to you. Then tell everyone you know how important this push-back is.

Now think for a moment how important this information is to your life, your liberty and your society. Would you have had it without the Natural Solutions Foundation? We work very hard at being your health freedom advocates and we need your help. Please make regular donations, small or large, to the Natural Solutions Foundation – an astounding 100% of your donations goes directly to our work. People write to us to tell us that you need us and we certainly need you. Click here (http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=189) to make your tax deductible donation to the Natural Solutions Foundation.

This action, and this issue, cannot wait.

Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org

Index ——————————————-
Solemn Walk Through HR 875
By Sue Diederich and Linn Cohen-Cole

Walk Index
First Walk: Myths and Misinformation
Second Walk: End of Organics
Third Walk: Meaning of the Bills
Fourth Walk: Conclusion

Introduction to the Walk

The Pennsylvania Sustainable Agriculture Association, PASA, sent out information about HR 875 which lists ‘facts’ to counter ‘myths’ and ‘rumors’ on the internet. It gives no specifics to back up its ‘facts,’ so the following close up view of the bill and accompanying commentary offers readers a chance to decide for themselves what is myth and what is fact. Neither of us are lawyers, but we both can read. Sue Diederich heads the Illinois Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, an organization formed to protect the rights of farmers and consumers to deal directly with each other without government interference.

PASA’s assertions are in regular lower case font, as are the inserted portions of the bill which have all been provided by Sue Diederich who also provides her own comments in italics usually. My comments are in bold face. [Note: these type faces have been altered from the original to permit publication in the program used to publish this blog which lacks color font options – Dr. Rima]

Occasionally, we feel something is essential for people to see and those comments are in CAPITAL LETTERS. (It should all be in CAPITAL LETTERS [font changed to allow publication in this program – Dr. Rima], really, since so few organizations appear to have read the bill or seem to know how to read the bill or have thought through its massive cumulative impact or been concerned at its endlessly broad reach and over incredibly vague things.)

People seem to expect the bill to be titled “The Criminalization of Organic Farming and the Take over of the US Food Supply,” and when they don’t see any words to that effect anywhere in the bill, they declare “this bill is fine” and those seeing dangers are “alarmists.” Do they think the industrial side is composed of fools? These are the same people who make cheery cereals with cartoon characters on the box when, inside, high fructose corn syrup is all over the cereal which comes from Bt-corn associated with diabetes. HFCS is, too, and there is an epidemic of diabetes here even among children. They know how to package. Why do people understand that industrial food inside a box can be a problem and yet are so innocent about looking at the bills, not realizing there is packaging there, too, or how much is at stake that the public and even legislators not see since this is about taking control. The industrial side isn’t stupid.

Understanding parts of the bill at times depends on smelling smoke as you read it. Here in the US, we still have only smoke … an Ohio state ag department SWAT team raid on an organic coop, Pennsylvania ag department raids on horse and buggy Mennonites, California setting coliform levels so low fresh milk dairy farmers would need cows that produced pasteurized milk right out the udder, arrest and handcuffing of a single mother in front of her children for selling goat milk, the USDA paying its agents bonuses for foreclosing on farms, … But in the EU where 60% of the Polish farmers are now gone because of identical bills enacted into law there, and 60 UK farmers have committed suicide, there is fire. And in Iraq, where they have been rendered helpless serfs by the theft of their country’s seeds and criminalization of farmers’ collection of their own seed, it is roaring. And in India where 182,000 farmers have committed suicide since the WTO and IMF got hold of agriculture and our Big Ag firms went in there, and 8 million farmers have left the land, it is out of control.

The WTO, run by the multinational meat packers and genetic engineering corporations, want HR 875, here. The bills are “harmonized” rules for globalization of food and lower food safety standards to allow for it. Those corporations are members of NIAA, a corporate consortium that brought NAIS, created by Anne Veneman, to the USDA to be made into law.

Walk Index
First Walk… Myths and Misinformation

We begin with PASA offering FWW’s take on the bills to its members:

Myths and Facts? H.R. 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act

PASA members: The following information about a bill now before Congress, HR 875, was developed by our friends at Food and Water Watch, and forwarded to us by the National Sustainable Ag Coalition (NSAC), of which PASA is a member.

This Myth/Fact sheet was developed to help answer some of the rumors that are fairly rampant on the Internet right now. We will keep a close eye on the situation, and share further updates from NSAC as they become available. ?

MYTH: H.R. 875 “makes it illegal to grow your own garden” and would result in the “criminalization of the backyard gardner.”

FACT: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens. This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.

Though private residences are not specifically included, nor are they specifically excluded. While this does not immediately affect home owners growing tomatoes in the backyard, entered testimony leaves the door open for just that in the future. Referring back to the Bio-Terrorism Act, in a discussion on this very topic and entered in the official record of debate on the interim rule, (bold/underline = mine), the same argument exists here and no new definitions or exclusions have been provided in HR 875 – and “reasonable” is a subjective term in theory as well as practice…

This interpretation, However, does not necessarily preclude a reasonable construction of Other provisions of the FD&C Act to include such residences.”
[I do get that residences are easily included.]

MYTH: H.R. 875 would mean a “goodbye to farmers markets” because the bill would “require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally – a fruit stand, at a farmers market.” ?

FACT: There is no language in the bill that would result in farmers markets being regulated, penalized any fines, or shut down. Farmers markets would be able to continue to flourish under the bill. In fact, the bill would insist that imported foods meet strict safety standards to ensure that unsafe imported foods are not competing with locally-grown foods.

SECTION 406 CLEARLY STATES ALL FOOD OFFERED FOR SALE WILL BE VIEWED AS BEING IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE AND SUBJECT TOT HE PROVISIONS OF THIS BILL.

C. 406. PRESUMPTION.

In any action to enforce the requirements of the food safety law, the connection with interstate commerce required for jurisdiction shall be presumed to exist

8) CATEGORY 4 FOOD ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 4 food establishment’ means a food establishment that processes all other categories of food products not described in paragraphs (5) through (7).

(9) CATEGORY 5 FOOD ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 5 food establishment’ means a food establishment that stores, holds, or transports food products prior to delivery for retail sale.

14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.

[SUE, say it again and again, “this applies to farms and can apply to homes.” It certainly looks to me that families baking cookies for bake sales could easily be included.]

SEC. 206. FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITIES.

(a) Authorities- In carrying out the duties of the Administrator and the purposes of this Act, the Administrator shall have the authority, with respect to food production facilities, to–

(1) visit and inspect food production facilities in the United States and in foreign countries to determine if they are operating in compliance with the requirements of the food safety law;

(2) review food safety records as required to be kept by the Administrator under section 210 and for other food safety purposes;

(3) set good practice standards to protect the public and animal health and promote food safety;

(4) conduct monitoring and surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the environment, as appropriate; and

(5) collect and maintain information relevant to public health and farm practices.

(b) Inspection of Records- A food production facility shall permit the Administrator upon presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner, to have access to and ability to copy all records maintained by or on behalf of such food production establishment in any format (including paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary to assist the Administrator–

(1) to determine whether the food is contaminated, adulterated, or otherwise not in compliance with the food safety law; or

(2) to track the food in commerce.

(c) Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and representatives of State departments of agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish science-based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall–

(1) consider all relevant hazards, including those occurring naturally, and those that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced;

(2) require each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards;

(3) include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water;

THEY NEVER MENTION SEEDS BUT THIS IS PRECISELY HOW THEY WILL CRIMINALIZE SEED BANKING AND ALL HOLDINGS OF SEEDS.

[Notice they mention harvesting, sorting and storage operations, then watch below.

WE ARE INCHES FROM THIS OURSELVES. THE LEFT NEEDS TO WAKE UP.

This trick of setting bars above any ability to be in the game, is similar to how blacks had been treated. Click here. This trick of setting bars above any ability to be in the game while imposing fines that destroy people who fail to meet that standard, is sadistic. Then, taking the land as confiscatory payment, is theft by government become totalitarian and colonizing its own people.

There are other items of the list which surely will be controlled as well. In toto, that little list is the deconstruction of farming itself and given the inclusion of manure, especially of organic farming.]

(4) include, with respect to animals raised for food, minimum standards related to the animal’s health, feed, and environment which bear on the safety of food for human consumption;

(5) provide a reasonable period of time for compliance, taking into account the needs of small businesses for additional time to comply;

(6) provide for coordination of education and enforcement activities by State and local officials, as designated by the Governors of the respective States; and

(7) include a description of the variance process under subsection (d) and the types of permissible variances which the Administrator may grant under such process.

(d) Variances- States and foreign countries that export produce intended for consumption in the United States may request from the Administrator variances from the requirements of the regulations under subsection (c). A request shall–

(1) be in writing;

(2) describe the reasons the variance is necessary;

(3) describe the procedures, processes, and practices that will be followed under the variance to ensure produce is not adulterated; and

(4) contain any other information required by the Administrator.

(e) Approval or Disapproval of Variances- If the Administrator determines after review of a request under subsection (d) that the requested variance provides equivalent protections to those promulgated under subsection (c), the Administrator may approve the request. The Administrator shall deny a request if it is–

(1) not sufficiently detailed to permit a determination;

(2) fails to cite sufficient grounds for allowing a variance; or

(3) does not provide reasonable assurances that the produce will not be adulterated.

(f) Enforcement- The Administrator may coordinate with the agency or department designated by the Governor of each State to perform activities to ensure compliance with this section.

(g) Imported Produce- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall promulgate regulations to ensure that raw agricultural commodities and minimally processed produce imported into the United States can meet standards for food safety, inspection, labeling, and consumer protection that are at least equal to standards applicable to such commodities and produce produced in the United States.

Administrator shall have authority to grant exclusions to foreign producers.

[While it may be obvious to us that this is onerous beyond any capability of coping with it, it needs to be said and described in some detail what it would actually mean for farmers or for us. Here in story form is a taste of it, so anyone could feel the insanity of it:

SEC. 201. ADMINISTRATION OF NATIONAL PROGRAM.

(a) In General- The Administrator shall–

(1) develop, administer, and annually update a national food safety program (referred to in this section as the ‘program’) to protect public health; and

(2) ensure that persons who produce, process, or distribute food meet their responsibility to prevent or minimize food safety hazards related to their products.

[This is where I think it would be very helpful if you explained how astoundingly onerous that long list is and what its impact would be on any farmer who previously only needed to load up his goods and bringing them to a farmers market – though that in itself is a time consuming, physically effortful job that often begins pre-dawn on those mornings and ends late in the day, all of it separate from growing the food and boxing it up to bring.

A small farm is not an industry with staff to fill out paperwork, handle licensing, manage all the industrial bureaucracy that is being loaded on here, but is most often a couple who is also taking care of a family in addition to growing crops and raising animals. These are precisely the people who we need most as part of our food system and how will clearly be crushed by the grossly inappropriate application of such rules to small farms.]

· MYTH: H.R. 875 would result in the “death of organic farming.”

FACT: There is no language in the bill that would stop organic farming. The National Organic Program (NOP) is under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Safety Modernization Act only addresses food safety issues under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
[Of course, they are not going to come straight out and say it. But breaking this down to what is actually involved, you find that:]

The administrator is charged with developing minimum standards, not maximum limits on feed, fertilizers, nutrients etc- right here goes organics.

Third, FSA is to cooperate with the USDA in “promulgating rules and orders” which will have the bearing and impact of law.
To refer back to the previous “Myth”
[The one about foreign food having to meet our standard, right?]

– Alaska, Hawaii, US territories and foreign countries may apply for variances, so… NO… Imported foods do NOT necessarily have to meet the same standards. In fact, many countries have had to lower their standards due to WTO rules and trade agreements, and Australia had to further lower their regulatory standards when they instituted the NLIS program (their version of NAIS). There is no reason to think we would not have to do the same.

Walk Index
Second Walk… The End of Organic Farming

[NOW, COMES THE RESPONSE TO WHETHER THE BILLS WILL MEAN THE END OF ORGANIC FARMING.]

I’m going to format this differently to accentuate your points, Sue. This section should be a major education for people in how things have been working. This is in response to the myth that the bills will not affect organic farming, right?]

Animal health has traditionally meant medication and hormones, petroleum-based fly sprays and all sorts of other goodies.

Animal encroachment prevention can be anything from a scarecrow or plastic owl to POISON BATES AND BULLETS. Not one of these things is specified, yet there is no place for real public opinion in the decision making process provided. I will grant that there is usually a public comment period for federal register entries, for whatever that has been worth in the past.
[Meaning, it has been worth little to nothing. And obviously, the public is left having to respond ad infinitum to one issue after another. Someone compared the numbers of things being thrown at us to try to stop, to carpet bombing so you can’t comment on everything, even if it helped which is clearly often doesn’t.]

SEC. 206. FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITIES.

(3) SET GOOD PRACTICE STANDARDS to protect the public and animal health and promote food safety;
[This is where words that sound so friendly and innocuous and even good are code words for international rules set by the WTO that actually define industrial requirements which do not fit real farming in the least, much less organic farming, would be applied.

[This is where insane, anti-nature, anti-farming rules like “animals and crops can’t exist on the same farm” come into play. Where wild animals aren’t ever supposed to be near crops so the government has been poisoning deer and frogs. The list of such manufacturing rules for farming is long, and each very much “efficiency manager comes and wrecks the farm.”]

(4) conduct monitoring and surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the environment, as appropriate; and
[Please, those of you who find the idea of NSA-spying intolerable, look carefully at those words. Now, imagine it were your farm, your home on that farm, and realize that the USDA and FDA have been run by and the new agency will be run by Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM. Their interest in helping consumers have safer food is nil The bills are meant to eliminate farmers as is now rapidly occurring in the EU with identical (“harmonized”) bills, now law there.

(5) collect and maintain information relevant to public health and farm practices.
[There needs to be a pause here to consider the implications of each of those on someone’s home – their family’s farm. This is quite different from applying them to industrial sites where no one lives, and beyond that, these powers are so broad and vague, they are dangerous if only in that.

Those things listed open the door to total control, warrantless entry and perpetual surveillance. Notice how innocuous they have made it appear, even beneficial – always about public health. Yet, the insincerity of this is boggling – the USDA and Big Ag have worked to prevent inspections to the point where farmers have had to actully sue to get them done , even after offering to pay for them.]

(b) INSPECTION OF RECORDS.—A food production facility shall permit the Administrator upon presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner
[Who defines “reasonable”? Does a farmer have to go to court each time there is an “unreasonable” manner and time? How wide open do we push the door to Big Ag-corrupted government control over farmers – the people creating the only safe food?

Look carefully and realize the USDA right now is countenancing state ag departments conducting terrorizing raids on non-corporate farms across the country. Imagine it were your home and USDA agents banging on your door to demand paper work and if you don’t have it, facing fines that would bankrupt you in a moment and lose you your land and home.]

, to have access to and ability to copy all records maintained by or on behalf of such food production establishment in any format (including paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary to assist the Administrator—
[Imagine again.]

(1) to determine whether the food is contaminated, adulterated, or otherwise not in compliance with the food safety law; or
[Be aware that in Pennsylvania where there has been an aggressive effort to destroy fresh milk dairy farmers, the tests by the states repeatedly do not match those of independent testers but the harm to farmers from such false tests and reporting of them is done and can’t be undone. Be aware that the USDA has a record of creating test results damaging to small farmers while it refuses to inspect even when farmers ask to pay.]

(2) to track the food in commerce.
[This could mean farmers bringing food to markets with USDA agents surveilling.]

(c) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and representatives of State departments of agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish science-based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall—
[Everything in this bill is being left to be filled in however the “Food Safety Tsar” – “the Administrator” decides? Right now, to give people pause and to wake them up a bit to how this is not a wise idea but in fact absurd, it appears that person could be Michael Taylor, a Monsanto lawyer infamous for approving rBGH – the first genetically engineered product ever approved – over the objections of doctors, scientists who said the numbers were being rigged, and the public.

How can anyone leave a bill so utterly vague in the hands of anyone to decide later what it all means? Do we not make laws here with specific meaning anymore? Or do we simply let totalitarian rules be applied by industry against non-industrial entities like farms and homes in any way they wish and with immense police power behind what they, for their own interests, decide?]

(1) consider all relevant hazards, including those occurring naturally, and those that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced;
[GOODBY RAW MILK.]

(2) require each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards;

(3) include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, NUTRIENTS, HYGIENE, PACKAGING, TEMPERATURE CONTROLS, ANIMAL ENCROACHMENT, AND WATER;

[GOODBYE ORGANIC FARMING.]

(4) include, with respect to animals raised for food, MINIMUM STANDARDS related to the animal’s HEALTH, FEED AND ENVIRONMENT which bear on the safety of food for human consumption;
[GOODBYE ORGANIC FARMING AND GRASS FED ANIMALS.]

(5) provide a reasonable period of time for compliance, taking into account the needs of small businesses for additional time to comply;
[Oh, heavens, this looks like padding to throw in the word “reasonable” again but it has no explicit meaning whatever and so no safety for a soul.]

(6) provide for coordination of education and enforcement activities by State and local officials, as designated by the Governors of the respective States; and

[This appears to be where Homeland Security works with the USDA for such things as “depopulation of animals” – for which 6 meetings are already scheduled in June and into which livestock owners are not allowed though foreigners are.

These “depopulation” plans look like what is happening in Asia where animal disease caused by industry (and worth a fortune to the pharmaceutical industry ) are then used by industry to wipe out its competition in heritage breeds of animals on small farms and to substitute genetically engineered animals that are patented by industry and thus owned by industry.

(7) include a description of the variance process under subsection (d) and the types of permissible variances which the Administrator may grant under such process.

(d) VARIANCES.—

States and foreign countries that export produce intended for consumption in the United States may request from the Administrator variances from the requirements of the regulations under subsection (c)

.
[This is where the “fact” that foreign countries must meet our food safety requirements collapses by simply reading the bill.]

MYTH: The bill would implement a national animal ID system.?

then contradicts itself by citing COOL, which specifically prohibits mandatory tracking.

It justifies NAIS by claiming that the AHPA gives authority – but this is a bill (and supposedly a program) concerning interstate commerce (though any item of food for sale is “presumed” to be in interstate commerce, whether it is in reality or not.) and AHPA does not regulate interstate commerce.

How many contradictions in a single section do we need before red flags go up?
[YES, AND PUT UP RED FLAGS FOR WHOLE BILLS IF THIS CENTRAL PART IS SO CORRUPTLY BEING PUSHED.]

Below in CAPITALS [fonts altered – Dr. Rima] , Sue answers the absurd claim that NAIS is not mandatory. FWW has gotten this and many other items wrong. That would be fine if the whole organic movement and all our farms and freedom were not riding on our seeing these very real threats and stopping those bills completely – not compromising on them but demanding their complete withdrawal.]

(a) IN GENERAL – THE ADMINISTRATOR, IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC HEALTH, SHALL ESTABLISH A NATIONAL TRACEABILITY SYSTEM THAT ENABLES THE ADMINISTRATOR TO RETRIEVE THE HISTORY, USE AND LOCATION OF AN ARTICLE OF FOOD THROUGH ALL STAGES OF ITSPRODUCTION, PROCESSIN, AND DISTRIBUTION.

(b) APPLICABILITY – TRACEABILITY REQUIREMENTS UNDER THIS SECTION SHALL APPLY TO FOOD FROM FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITIES, FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS, AND FOREIGN FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS.

(c) REQUIREMENTS-

(1) STANDARDS- THE ADMINISTRATOR SHALL ESTABLISH STANDARDS FOR THE TYPE OF INFORMATION, FORMAT, AND TIMEFRAME FOR FOOD PRODUCTION FACILTITIES AND FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS TO SUBMIT RECORDS TO AID THE ADMINISTRATOR IN EFFECTIVELY RETRIEVING THE HISTORY, USE AND LOCATION OF AN ITEM OF FOOD.

(2) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION- Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring the Administrator to prescribe a specific technology for the maintenance of records or labeling of food to carry out the requirements of this section.

(3) AVAILABILITY OF RECORDS FOR INSPECTION- Any records that are required by the Administrator under this section shall be available for inspection by the Administrator upon oral or written request.

(4) DEMONSTRATION OF ABILITY- The Administrator, during any inspection, may require a food establishment to demonstrate its ability to trace an item of food and submit the information in the format and time frame required under paragraph (1).

(d) Relationship to Other Requirements-

(1) CONSISTENCY WITH EXISTING STATUTES AND REGULATIONS- To the extent possible, the Administrator should establish the national traceability system under this section to be consistent with existing statutes and regulations that require recordkeeping or labeling for identifying the origin or history of food or food animals.

[Does this mean consistent with international laws under the WTO? Is this a means of locking everything together into Smart Grid or NAFTA or CAFTA or GATT and even, the worst of all,

?]

(2) EXISTING LAWS- For purposes of this subsection, the Administrator should review the following:

(A) Country of origin labeling requirements of subtitle D of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. 1638 et seq.).

(B) The Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act of 1930 (7 U.S.C. 499a-t).

(C) Country of origin labeling requirements of section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1340).

(D) The National Animal Identification System as authorized by the Animal Health Protection Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 8301 et seq.).

EC. 210. TRACEBACK REQUIREMENTS.

MYTH: The bill is supported by the large agribusiness industry.?

FACT: No large agribusiness companies have expressed support for this bill.

This bill is being supported by several Members of Congress who have strong progressive records on issues involving farmers markets, organic farming, and locally-grown foods.

[Who almost certainly have not read the bills or can’t interpret how it will work to destroy farmers, organic food, seed banking, and all of us.]

Also, H.R. 875 is the only food safety legislation that has been supported by all the major consumer and food safety groups, including:

[Perhaps others know details on each organization and why they might be supporting a bill that is so threatening to real food safety and to the survival of our farms and organic farming.]

?– Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention

?– Center for Science in the Public Interest

?– Consumer Federation of America

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is a long-standing consumer organization based in Washington, DC. However, it has accepted funding from the ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION to “develop an optimum regulatory regime” for genetically engineered food.

?– Consumers Union?– Food & Water Watch

[Food and Water Watch just put out a description of the bill in which it is apparent they do not understand what is in it and what it will do. With that as their starting point, they support it.]

?– The Pew Charitable Trusts

[They are also connected to the ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, and involved with them in mandatory vaccinations programs around the world and issues of reducing population.]

?– Safe Tables Our Priority ?– Trust for America’s Health

[There is no list here of groups opposing this bill, which include the people whose lives are most at risk from it and who know its dangers the best and who should have been the first people consulted. Instead, they have been shut out and when they have tried to report extreme dangers, they have ignored, dismissed, marginalized. Perhaps the other organizations listed here are as unfamiliar with the bill’s contents and ramifications as FWW.]

If you consider that not only is Rosa DeLauro married to Stanley Greenberg, who boasts Monsanto as one of his clients, but also that she receives the largest donations from agribusiness PAC’s of just about anyone in Congress, does industry NEED to come out and say they support this particular bill? If cash to the sponsor doesn’t count, and if formal positions supporting various specific aspects of the bill do not count, then what does? Would there not be massive public backlash against it if industry DID take a formal stand on every bill they want to see passed?

By the same token, I’ve not seen a single industrial ag company come out and oppose this bill, either. They have all been conspicuously silent. I seem to remember that they threw up quite a fuss over COOL, and caused enforcement to fall behind by more than 7 years… Not to mention the garbage with loopholes we’ve had to deal with since enforcement began. (What good does a “Canada, US, Mexico” label do for anybody? Especially with BSE in Canada and TB coming in daily from Mexico?) Where’s the hoot and holler over this?

MYTH: The bill will pass the Congress next week without amendments or debate.?

FACT: Food safety legislation has yet to be considered by any Congressional committee.?

I can’t speak to the time frame. [Note from NSF: our sources “on the Hill” told us they believed these bills had been “fast tracked” to be passed during President Obama’s “First 100 Days”]

[It came from those who first discovered the bills were there, inserted only one week after Vilsack had said the USDA wasn’t even considering centralizing the FDA and USDA at this time, so people saw how similar the bills were, knew who fast other things were being shoved through Congress without even reading those bills, and estimated how fast this could happen.

Perhaps with people alerted now, these bogus “food safety” bills can be stopped by the organic community once it realizes they will utterly destroy it.]

However, since I did have the luxury of listening to the farce taking place on the floor of the House of Representatives on March 11 concerning HR1105 (which FUNDS NAIS among its hundreds of other projects) while awaiting the Livestock, Dairy and Poultry subcommittee hearing on NAIS – I have no doubt that this bill will move quickly now that 1105 has passed and since it has so many co-sponsors.

The “ominous Omnibus Act” as several Representatives called it, went from introduction to the President in less than 13 working days.

I really have to question just who’s side those groups are really on that are in support of this bill…..