Gavin Newsom for US Food Czar!

Gavin Newsom is the mayor of San Francisco, CA and is one of a very few elected officials in this country who appears to be in touch with reality. I say Mr. Newsom goes to Washington. We desperately need some one like him whispering in Obama's ear. Check this out:

Newsom's fresh idea: mandates on healthier food
Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, July 9, 2009

He's already banned spending city money to buy bottled water and mandated composting citywide. Now, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is taking on something as basic as water and trash: food.

Newsom on Wednesday issued an executive directive he hopes will dramatically change how San Franciscans eat.

All city departments have six months to conduct an audit of unused land - including empty lots, rooftops, windowsills and median strips - that could be turned into community gardens or farms that could benefit residents, either by working at them or purchasing the fresh produce. Food vendors that contract with the city must offer healthy and sustainable food. All vending machines on city property must also offer healthy options, and farmers' markets must begin accepting food stamps, although some already do.

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

HR 875 and Seeds

Here is a nice article written by Linn Cohen-Cole that gives some good insight as to why HR 875, as it is currently worded, will put the hurt on organic farmers, farmers' markets, backyard gardeners, etc. It also helps to bring the "rumors" about how Monsanto and other large agribusiness entities will benefit from this legislation into better perspective. It's all about the seeds...

What follows is an excerpt and you can click the link at the bottom of this post for the entire article:

... (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;

Ah, such a little paragraph, and so much evil packed in it. Notice they mention harvesting, sorting and storage operations? Notice they never mention seeds but they are precisely what those words cover.

Now, watch how they will be able to easily criminalize seed banking and all holding of seeds. First, to follow how this will be done, you must understand that:

1.there is a small list inside the FDA called "sources of seed contamination" and

2.the FDA has now defined "seed" as food,

3.so seeds can now be controlled through "food safety."

Those seeds (so far) include:

seeds eaten raw such as flax, poppy sesame, etc.;
sprouting seeds such as wheat, beans, alfalfa, most greens, etc.;
seeds pressed into oils such as corn, sunflower, canola, etc.;
seeds used as animal feed such as soy ....

That is most seeds. It may even be all seeds, given how they are skilled at new definitions.

And what are the "sources of seed contamination" inside the FDA? They include only six little items:

agricultural water
manure (but not chemical pesticides or fertilizers)
harvesting, transporting and seed cleaning (sorting) equipment
seed storage (storing) facilities

Did you know that seed cleaning equipment is THE single most critical piece of equipment for sustainable agriculture? It is how we collect organic seed. It is the machinery used after the season, when plants "go to seed," to separate out (sort) the seeds from the plant material so the farmer can collect (harvest) and then save (put in storage) seed for the next year at little cost. With his own seed, the farmer also stays free of patented, genetically engineered, corporately privatized seeds.

This year, 2009, one item on the "sources of seed contamination" list is suddenly illegal in some parts of this country - seed cleaning equipment.

To get the drift, perhaps you need to know that the people who clean seed are being wiped out, as well.

How can they make such vital equipment illegal? Quietly, first of all, so as not to alert organic farmers who have a lot of political ties. And by saying it contaminates food. And by applying their innocent and reasonable sounding "minimum standards."

"Contaminate" is their favorite word since the public fears the deadly contamination that industry itself - not farmers - has caused. That fear is valuable. Scare the public and it is easy to get "food safety standards" set without anyone reading them. 39 progressive co-sponsors leap on, thinking this is about "food safety." But it is only about the use of "food safety," not the reality of it

For to eliminate seed cleaning equipment, the FDA simple set minimum "food safety" standards for seed cleaning (the simple separation of seed from plant) such that a farmer would need a million to a million and a half dollar building and/or equipment to meet the new requirements ... per line of seed.

On the ground, where reality lives, a farmer in the Midwest who has been seed cleaning flax for 40 years with his hand made seed cleaner now can't sell his flax on the market anymore. Never mind there are NO instances of anyone ever having gotten sick from seed cleaning equipment. And a farmer in another part of the Midwest who has been cleaning wheat, corn and soy for years with one single perfectly fine piece of equipment would now need three to four and half million dollars for three separate pieces of equipment, in order to satisfy the "food safety" standards.

Seeds - How to Criminalize Them, by Linn Cohen-Cole

Just Who Do We Really Need Protection From?

I honestly try not to get on my political soapbox while writing this blog, but there are occasions when I am compelled and sometimes even obligated to yank out my apple crate, stand on the virtual street corner, and scream at the top of my lungs. If you don't care about food, food security, your children, your community, your personal rights and freedoms, or the sovereignty of our nation, then please don't bother to read any further. If you even think that what I'm about to rant about might possibly be the least bit related to anything you hold sacred about being a American citizen then I suggest you at least read what I have to say, do a little further research about what I am saying so you can find out The Truth for yourself, gather some confidence in your actions with a little inspiration from Thomas Jefferson, then do something about it right now. My family thanks you on behalf of our two year old daughter for being a patriotic American and for standing up for her and all of the other members of our communities who cannot speak out for themselves in a time of crisis. And I thank you for lending me your ear and keeping an open mind.

I've been slowly picking my way through H.R.875, H.R.814, H.R.759 and S.425 this past week to try to get a grasp on these proposed pieces of legislation and all of the ruckus they are causing. Go ahead. Do a Google search on either one. I also recommend doing a Google Blog Search since the mainstream media is unlikely to pick this story up anytime soon. The amount of outrage and cries for action are increasing by the day. Farmers are fearing for their future. I'm not going to try to summarize that for you here and now. You need to spend a few minutes searching for that on your own and reading what folks who are much smarter and better educated than I am have to say about the subject of food safety (check out this interview with Dr. Marion Nestle @ the Expatriate's Kitchen Blog). You also need to at least try, as I have, to read some of the proposed legislation yourself and decide if you see what I saw when I read it.

Let me tell you folks, if these bills are allowed to hit the Capitol floor as they are currently written, we are in for a world of hurt. We'll be feeding our children soylent green before the end of the next decade. Our nation's food security will have been compromised beyond the point of any hope of rescue. It is your duty as an American citizen to start writing, calling, e-mailing, tweeting, blogging and anything else you think of to get every man, woman, and child of this great nation to express their unilateral and absolute refusal to acknowledge this sort of draconian law as being even remotely acceptable. We must then contact our congressional representatives en mass and make sure that they have no doubt that we will ride their asses right out of town if they sell our personal freedoms, our states' rights, and our national sovereignty to the multinational, petrochemical agribusiness entities who are backing these two bills with every bit of political capitol they've got. This is a blatant and aggressive attempt to bring the future of good, ethical food policy and the opportunity for any further effort to create a strong, independent, localized system of food security to an end forever. The gloves are off and they are preparing to strike a death blow to our small farmers, CSAs, independent plant breeders, independent seedsmen, farmers' markets, artisan cheese makers, heritage livestock preservationists, Slow Foodies, local food reliant restaurateurs and added value producers, urban farms, SPIN farmers, community gardens, school gardens, farm to school food programs, low-income food garden programs, food co-ops...the list is so long and if you are still reading this you are probably on the list.

If I lived in Ohio, Colorado, Michigan, or Connecticut I'd be demanding information regarding campaign contributions, business association, and familial ties to large agribusiness entities to, DeGette, Dingell, Brown, and DeLauro (actually here's some info on DeLauro Monsanto is husband's client and agribusiness campaign contributions). I'd also work my tail off to make sure they were never elected again to be so much as the secretary for the PTA. Representative Dingell, Representative DeGette, Senator Sherrod Brown-OH and Representative Rosa DeLauro-CT are nothing but the same corporate kowtowing, self-centered, ignorant pigs that have spoiled and stunk up the government of our nation for far too long. I sure as heck hope that our newly elected president is able to see that the emperor isn't wearing any clothes if any of these bills hit his desk. If not, there is little hope left for this country other than to continue our rapid devolution into an Orwellian nightmare of despair, fear, and corporate controlled authoritarianism. At least at this chilly midnight hour I still find inspiration the words of the great Thomas Jefferson and I hope you do as well...

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.