For US readers - Organic food under threat

Posted by: Derek Wright on 02 April 2009

Flagrantly copied from another place:


There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next 2 weeks before people realize what is happening. The Bills are: House HR 875 and Senate S 425. The main backer and lobbyist is... you guessed it Monsanto. This Bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to "make sure there is no danger to the public food supply".

You can read the content of the bills on-line here:
House HR 875 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875

Senate S 425 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s425:

(Note that the Library of Congress doesn't presently have the House bill on-line).
Quote:
Five Minute activism - Things YOU can do:

1. Contact your members at 202-224-3121 and ask them to oppose HR 875 and S 425.

-While you are at it ask them if they personally have read the legislation and
what their position is?

-If they have not read the legislation, ask them to read it and politely let
them know that just because other representatives are not reading the
legislation and voting on it, does not mean they can do the same.

2. Get in touch with local farmers and food producers and tell them about this.

3. Find out who sits on your states agriculture and farming committee and
contact them with your concerns.

4. Take Action with the Grassroots Netroots Alliance
http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=12878056

With the G20 on these are good days to bury news... Please copy, paste and hand on.
Posted on: 04 April 2009 by Wolf2
UGH! another assault on organic food.

a year ago I did some work on my parent's landscape, house near the ocean. I had a dump truck spill in the drive 13 cubic yards of compost with manure, mild smell, I piled it 8" high in all beds. Just got the job done as big rainstorm was starting for a month long series. You have never seen plants green up so fast. No yellow leaves and the groundcover filled in in record time. I don't fertilize with the harsh chemicals. Plants naturally live with leaves slowly composting below.
Posted on: 08 April 2009 by winkyincanada
Hi Derek,

Where in the Bill is this requirement for the use of "specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays" (what other sort is there - don't non-poisonous insect sprays miss the point a bit?)? I couldn't find anything that I thought required this at all. All in all it seemed a reasonable piece of legislation.

The activism strikes me as typically mis-informed hysteria (combined with a healthy dose of zeonophobia) from the organic lobby. Their issue with milk from from small-scale "organic" farmers was a beat-up.
Posted on: 09 April 2009 by JRHardee
The bill appears to deal with the traceability of meat and poultry.
Posted on: 09 April 2009 by winkyincanada
Agree. It is mainly around record keeping. The overall intent seems to be more robust systems to ensure food safety through control of contamination and tracing of history.