Video: Does HR875 really mean the end of small farms?
posted at 12:18 pm on March 31, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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I’m getting e-mail about a new bill authored by Rosa DeLauro, HR875, claiming that it will mean an end to small farms and organic food, leading to the corporatization of farming. In doing some research this morning, I found little coverage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) outside of advocacy-group websites. Glenn Beck, however, did a lengthy segment on the issue this weekend:
The problem with Glenn Beck is that he’s one of the New Populists, a class of pundits that get ratings by claiming The End Is Nigh. It might be, but you need some independent corroboration before selling all your worldly possessions and heading for the wooden shack in the hills.
Some of what is claimed in this segment seems correct. The new Food Safety Administration, which would get created by the FSMA by merging the USDA with some elements of the FDA, does not define “farm” at all. In fact, the definition of “food production facility” appears to give the federal government the widest possible authority:
The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.
That would include family farms of the kind discussed in the Beck segment. Why is this important? The reporting and bookkeeping requirements appear rather onerous for small producers, especially locals. The FSMA would require producers to “track the food in commerce” without defining clearly what that means. Would that require farmers who bring produce to local, direct-sale markets to get names and addresses of their customers, as claimed in this segment? It seems unclear, but the record requirements appear to have that much leeway.
The effect of this legislation could push locals out of the business altogether in favor of large corporations that can handle reporting requirements more efficiently. That would be rather ironic, since the impetus DeLauro used to push FSMA was a peanut contamination at a larger producer that sold its products to hundreds of food producers, spreading salmonella around the nation and killing nine people. The FSMA appears at first blush to benefit big producers of the type that created the salmonella outbreak in the first place.
We need a lot more information on FSMA before Congress takes a vote on it. Perhaps our national media might think to give this a little more coverage, considering its potential impact. At least Glenn Beck seems interested in the topic.
Update: Lady Logician took a look at this last week.
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if it means more security for me provided by the federal government, I’m all for it /sarc
gatorboy on March 31, 2009 at 12:20 PM
Hanlon’s razor applies here, I think.
Remember the toy safety thing a while back? When the feds realized what they doing to small businesses, they postponed its implementation.
This is, really, a good example of how disconnected the political class is from reality. That’s all.
lorien1973 on March 31, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Do a search on Monsanto and you’ll find out what’s been brewing for a long long time…
Monsanto wants the patent power of every seed going ever produced….
Monsanto-seed-patent…
Stock up on seeds kiddies
katy on March 31, 2009 at 12:24 PM
No, actually we don’t. The precedent was long ago set and reaffirmed by the Stimulus bill and the bill that lorien references.
No more information. No reading of the bill. Pass it because it is “good” for everyone.
That’s just how they roll up in the DC.
myrenovations on March 31, 2009 at 12:24 PM
Such a great idea.
….
blatantblue on March 31, 2009 at 12:25 PM
every seed GOD ever produced….
katy on March 31, 2009 at 12:25 PM
WorldNetDaily also wrote a good article on it here.
Maxx on March 31, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Nothing on that Tedisco race? I presume a loss is expected there today?
lorien1973 on March 31, 2009 at 12:28 PM
This is awful, but realistically the small farms are going to be a thing of the past eventually. It would be much better if their demise came from an end to the damn farm subsidies instead of being regulated out of existence!
galenrox on March 31, 2009 at 12:28 PM
FSMA is a ruse.
Follow the money!
katy on March 31, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Here is Monsanto’s official statemnt on the bill.
No one is putting a gun to farmer’s heads to make them buy one particular line of seeds.
daesleeper on March 31, 2009 at 12:30 PM
I think they are trying to include even private vegetable gardens. We known the left has said that they want to use food as a weapon. This bill would give them nearly everything they need to accomplish that goal.
Maxx on March 31, 2009 at 12:31 PM
I see a future in black market farms.
Dr. Dog on March 31, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Yes, and Monsanto is going to give us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…
katy on March 31, 2009 at 12:32 PM
For the last 233 years, people have managed to eat all the farm products they chose to with very minimal cases of contamination leading to sickness or death.
So 233 years later, suddenly this contamination is a national emergency?
There is only one crisis facing this nation: the people currently in office.
Dissolve the legislative and executive branches, please.
MadisonConservative on March 31, 2009 at 12:32 PM
…What’s this do to wineries & vineyards that dot the entire National landscape???
ChipDWood on March 31, 2009 at 12:34 PM
I have been concerned about this since it popped up. Some in my family are small farmers and beef producers and this proposal/bill needs a lot of specific clarification.
There is a big agribusiness lobby in favor of it, so it doesn’t bode well for the small farmer currently eating into their business in a significant way.
eaglesdontflock on March 31, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Peanuts (and now pistachios) are the crisis;
more gubmit is the solution/opportunity (paraphrasing Rahm)
Brat on March 31, 2009 at 12:35 PM
One thing, here, most of the food borne illness contamination including ecoli has been traced to big operations. Go figure.
eaglesdontflock on March 31, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Democrats feel the need to have a regulation for everything. That way they can use the time honored method of selective enforcement to enhance their power.
zmdavid on March 31, 2009 at 12:36 PM
This is what govt ALWAYS does. It uses it’s monopoly on force to benefit those who contribute the most at the expense of everyone else.
Yet even here, there are some who believe the proper answer to govt abusing it’s power, is to give govt more power.
MarkTheGreat on March 31, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Life in the US in the near future…
We can’t say what we think.
We can’t protect ourselves.
We can’t eat what we produce.
We can’t drive what we want to drive.
We can’t earn what we want to earn.
we can’t heat our homes at the temp we want.
we can’t……
katy on March 31, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Push the little farmer out of business because he’s inefficient and hand it all over to those big industrial farms. Get rid of those pesky farmers markets where how many of us shop?
Big industrial farm, who’s unionized needs bailout money.
Boy King kicks out the CEO and takes over and is now in charge of our food supply and holds the keys to the breadbasket.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Knucklehead on March 31, 2009 at 12:37 PM
Will the feds raids on illegal farmers’ markets match their fervor in policing employers who hire illegal immigrants? Will it match our war on drugs?
I eagerly await the day that I can smuggle contraband tomatoes home from a roadside stand.
obladioblada on March 31, 2009 at 12:37 PM
We need a lot more information on FSMA before Congress takes a vote on it. Perhaps our national media might think to give this a little more coverage, considering its potential impact. At least Glenn Beck seems interested in the topic.
do you need to count your fingers and toes too before saying you have 20?
This bill is in plain english. It is a major power grab by the federal gov. It is the death of farming the last truely FREE industry in America.
If you have to track all your sales you also have to report all your income.
Most roadside sales are done on a cash basis which are not reported which allows small farmers to compete with big corp farms which reduce costs by using cheap illegal labor and machinary. the small farmer makes some of that up by using a cash business at times.
unseen on March 31, 2009 at 12:37 PM
Rermember the small business law where you had to Test every batch of everything you made?
Same thing here… just people in Washington having no conception, nor really caring, about the consequences of their actions.
Romeo13 on March 31, 2009 at 12:38 PM
I’ve often wondered what America would like were it a parliamentarian democracy instead, with the power of dissolution of government.
At this point, I think it would be a big bonus.
amkun on March 31, 2009 at 12:39 PM
A good junk of the media do not do their job of reporting. Scratch that, there are a lot of reporters who do good work and report on stories. And much like in the ACORN/NY Times story that was posted earlier today on HotAir, the reporter was doing good work, but it was the *management* that decided to kill the story. I think this is the root cause of the failure of the media to do their jobs correctly. The reporters on the ground do their work, get the information and the 5 W’s of the story. Then they turn it over to their higher ups, who then edit, twist, distort and modify the story until it is completely different.
This, now, Frankenstein of a story is put in the paper, spoken on air, distributed to the masses in the fashion that best fits the ideology of those who run the media company. Is it any wonder why company after company of well-established media outlets are filing for bankruptcy? They’re just collapsing in from their rotten, hollow cores.
Weebork on March 31, 2009 at 12:39 PM
When you kill off small farms, you also kill off MOST of your nation’s agricultural knowledge base. We already have fewer and fewer people growing up on farms, and learning from their parents how to keep livestock healthy and the soil fertile. That’s valuable know-how, and it only takes a couple of generations for it to be lost.
RBMN on March 31, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Industries are easier to nationalize once they are concentrated in just a few large corporations.
1. Pass law that destroys small business.
2. Blame the destruction on the big businesses that remain.
3. Nationalize the big businesses with the blessings of the mob that has been incited against them.
forest on March 31, 2009 at 12:41 PM
Also do a search on Genetically Modified Foods.
That’s what we will be eating. GM foods. This is a very dangerous thing…
VERY DANGEROUS!
If you find yourelf on a site that starts with Monsanto or ends in .Gov, find another site and get the truth.
katy on March 31, 2009 at 12:41 PM
That would be rather ironic, since the impetus DeLauro used to push FSMA was a peanut contamination at a larger producer that sold its products to hundreds of food producers, spreading salmonella around the nation and killing nine people.
And add pistachios as the largest distributor has recalled its entire 2008 crop.
carbon_footprint on March 31, 2009 at 12:42 PM
It certainly puts an end to roadside vegetable stands.
crosspatch on March 31, 2009 at 12:42 PM
What’s up with saying the “The problem with Glenn Beck is…” and then giving him credit for covering a story no one else is?
CP on March 31, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Let’s make sure that the bureaucrats in this proposed agency are crawling up Michelle Obama’s a** to make sure that she’s complying with all record-keeping requirements contained this bill for that garden she made such great hay about planting.
BuckeyeSam on March 31, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Well, that is what Chairman Obama has decreed:
“We can’t drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times, whether we’re living in the desert or we’re living in the tundra, and then just expect every other country is going to say OK, you know, you guys go ahead keep on using 25 percent of the world’s energy, even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we’ll be fine.”
(Of course, the “we” in this statement doesn’t include him.)
Alana on March 31, 2009 at 12:43 PM
“Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned property! Do you mean the property of petty artisan and of the small peasant, a form of property that preceded the bourgeois form? There is no need to abolish that; the development of industry has to a great extent already destroyed it, and is still destroying it daily.” -Marx
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Summary of the Communist Manifesto (to be used as a score card in the years to come):
1. Abolition of private property
2. Heavy Progressive Income tax
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance
4. Confiscation of property of all emigrants and rebels
5. Central Bank
6. Government control of communication and transportation
7. Government ownership of factories and agriculture
8. Government control of labor
9. Corporate Farms, regional planning
10. Government control of education
Akzed on March 31, 2009 at 12:44 PM
I don’t know anything about agriculture markets.
It appears the reporting and paperwork requirements will be too onerous for many small farms and markets. Is this a ploy to force small farmers to sell goods to large wholesalers and/or co-ops rather than selling directly to buyers? Is there a corporate middleman that is feeling bypassed by current practices?
obladioblada on March 31, 2009 at 12:44 PM
Will ratting out illegal Farmers’ Markets count as mandatory national service?
zmdavid on March 31, 2009 at 12:45 PM
You’re joking, right? Have you missed what’s going on in this country?
trigon on March 31, 2009 at 12:46 PM
(Of course, the “we” in this statement doesn’t include him.)
Alana on March 31, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Of course…
katy on March 31, 2009 at 12:48 PM
“I’m from the government and I’m here to feed you.”
Face facts, this is simply the first step in the process of completely eradicating dirt farming from the earth in favor of Soylent products.
What they won’t tell you is that the ocean-based soylent farms don’t exist, they will merely be clever propaganda to fool the hungry masses from what they are really eating.
Keep a close eye on Grandma.
Bishop on March 31, 2009 at 12:48 PM
I think the Constitutional Representative Democracy that we have now is just fine. The issue is the willful abrogation of authority by the American people to government which has gotten us into this mess. The best way is to re-establish this authority away from government is through civic action. If enough people wanted to repeal many of the laws and regulations the government has put in place, they need to, as a collective society, demand their representatives do just that. And it would get done because, honest or not, elected officials, for the most part, want to be re-elected and will do the bidding of their constituents to do so. The very fact that this is not being done now just tells me there are not enough people who are demanding such repeal.
It’s either through said civic action that we change the government, or it’s violent uprising. I much prefer the former.
Weebork on March 31, 2009 at 12:51 PM
We’ve had the War on Poverty. War on drugs. War on Terror.
Now we’ve got the War on Food. We’d better hope this one works as well as the others have. If it works a little better than the others we’ll all be really skinny.
trigon on March 31, 2009 at 12:51 PM
All the people that suffered, sweat, sacrificed and died for this great country and it’s being undone in a matter of months….
I want to cry….
katy on March 31, 2009 at 12:52 PM
It certainly puts an end to roadside vegetable stands.
crosspatch on March 31, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Think of poor Mexico, having to fight a war against the drug gangs AND the vegetable gangs.
I don’t look forward to the day when I can be tossed in the clink because the cops found an ounce of carrot shavings under the front seat.
Bishop on March 31, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Personally, I believe something like this would be the left’s ultimate goal when it comes to food distribution. All private growth of food prohibited, most of the population dependent on a central authority for their ‘daily bread’, a powerful behavior-control tool.
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Combine_technology#Ration_dispenser
Dark-Star on March 31, 2009 at 12:53 PM
But this could result in a creative boon for agriculture gansta rap, spitting out the rhymes about rakes and hoes.
myrenovations on March 31, 2009 at 12:57 PM
I sell produce at our local farmers’ market, and am a member of the Farmers’ Market Coalition. Here’s their take on the bill, as regards markets and roadside stands.
I’m not as trusting of Congresswoman DeLaura’s intentions, given the actual language of the bill. Neither, for what it’s worth, is the Organic Consumers Association.
(Although I feel a little dirty, whenever I’m in agreement with a bunch of hippies….)
notropis on March 31, 2009 at 12:57 PM
And we always get an abundance of information regarding congressional bills prior to passage. Just as we were suppose to get a government website posting of all bills 5 days prior to the president signing the bill into law.
All government bill information are belong to us!
mossberg500 on March 31, 2009 at 12:57 PM
This like a lot of the other government expansion plans can only end up doing harm. Thanks to a very liberal interpretation of the Commerce Clause the Feds have pretty much reached maximum “beneficial” intrusion into the marketplace a long time ago.
Federal intervention, where needed, should have been like surgery. Make a quick cut, remove the bad part and then close it up and let it heal. For too long they have simply left the wound open and have rooted around leading to more disease instead of less. Now they say it seems like it is dead and they will simply cut off the offending appendage and replace it with an artificial one which will work better than what we had. Does anyone want to volunteer to have a limb cut off to prove it?
I didn’t think so.
A word for our glorious leaders; close the wound and let it heal. Back away from the table and take the leeches with you.
Rocks on March 31, 2009 at 12:58 PM
All is the collective…
All will be assimilated…
Resistance is futile…
boy do i wish i was over reacting… but Democrats view Orwell as a gameplan, not a cautionary tale
phreshone on March 31, 2009 at 12:58 PM
This socialist government we have in power will use the guise of food safety to gain control over farms, once they cause food scarcity, which is the goal, no doubt they will be advising us to eat rats for our nourishment, just like this Berlin politician did.
You see, the real goal is NOT food safety at all.
Maxx on March 31, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Huh?
It was enacted in February, “and now the harm to thousands of businesses, charities and even public libraries is manifest.”
Quisp on March 31, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Everyone but Green Acres at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
stenwin77 on March 31, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Not so farfetched…they are smuggling detergent in Spokane, Washington.
Brat on March 31, 2009 at 1:05 PM
I read about this on Ace last night. They linked to this site:
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=14513
jcheney on March 31, 2009 at 1:05 PM
No kidding. During this administration’s first month in office I thought I just had a case of the sore losers and I was being too critical of their policies and decisions. No more. On almost a daily basis they’re coming up with new ways to increase the size of our government and bankrupt our grandchildren. Now we can’t even be trusted with our food supply without the watchful eye of big brother telling us what to grow and how much of it? It’s insane.
scalleywag on March 31, 2009 at 1:08 PM
It’s ok, you’ll still be able to sell your tomatoes in a food stand. I mean all you have to do is get your number.
- The Cat
MirCat on March 31, 2009 at 1:11 PM
P.S. The whole idea of wiping out small farms is that they will be harder to nationalize than say 4 large companies.
MirCat on March 31, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Anyone ever hear of Wickard v.. Filburn, 317 U.S. Ill (1942). The Court found that the power to regulate interstate commerce extended to the power to regulate a farmer growing grain for the use of his own livestock, never leaving the farm, and that a marketing penalty could be charged the poor farmer for daring to grow his own feed when the government wanted him to have to buy such grain, thereby propping up prices.
In other words, the Court has already allowed government to regulate ‘farms’ where the produce grown never leaves that farm. There is nothing to keep them from ‘regulating’ organic farms, small farms, home gardens, or anything else the government desires to stick its snout into…
JIMV on March 31, 2009 at 1:13 PM
The trolls are notably absent today. Still at the meeting/worship session perhaps?
loudmouth883 on March 31, 2009 at 1:13 PM
This bill will allow Government to controll prices on every food product that we consume.
Living in Tennessee has it’t advantages: Think I will buy a cow, chickens, hogs, and plant a veggie garden to sustain my family through the next 3.5 years. I never milked a cow. Oh well, google will give me tips……
TN Mom on March 31, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Surely you’re not this spectacularly naive? This bill will be passed without being read, per congressional modus operandi.
Much wailing and gnashing of teeth will ensue….but since Americans are generally lazy & spineless, and congress knows it, the ass-rape will continue unabated.
You get what you deserve.
LimeyGeek on March 31, 2009 at 1:14 PM
This leftist Congress hopes to continue making laws until everyone is a criminal.
Maxx on March 31, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Milking is easy, don’t fret ;)
May I suggest goats for both meat and milk?
LimeyGeek on March 31, 2009 at 1:15 PM
There’s a healthy ‘grey’ market around here – barter mostly – noone here will put up with this shit.
LimeyGeek on March 31, 2009 at 1:17 PM
Opening the door for Unions, of course!
TN Mom on March 31, 2009 at 1:17 PM
exactly right
katy on March 31, 2009 at 1:18 PM
Could it be that Obama plans to nationalize all farms, and then manufacture a famine in the wheat-belt to starve the red-state population? Kind of like what Stalin did to Ukraine during the 1930s?
I kid, I kid…
Norwegian on March 31, 2009 at 1:18 PM
Little hint: you’re only supposed to milk a cow from one side. Found this out the hard way when city-slicker me tried milking ‘backwards’.
Dark-Star on March 31, 2009 at 1:19 PM
Gross!
Kidding ;)
TN Mom on March 31, 2009 at 1:19 PM
“Hey man, you got the stuff?”
“Yeah, it’s really good. The capsaicin levels in these little beauties are off the charts.”
obladioblada on March 31, 2009 at 1:19 PM
We’re from the government and we’re here to help. LOLOLOLOL.
TrickyDick on March 31, 2009 at 1:21 PM
Dark-Star on March 31, 2009 at 1:19 PM
haha!
I’m thinking about forming a religous cult (TN Mom’s Hillbillys) so I can have cows, chickens, GOATS, & grow veggies) and the Gov’ment can’t touch me….
TN Mom on March 31, 2009 at 1:22 PM
Bad plan, your domicile will immediately become an interstate implicated farm with a $1,000,000 fine per violation per day to be assessed.
Not interstate you say? Has nothing to do with that? Well the law begs to differ.
Guilty until proven innocent. Anyone surprised that 39 Democrats and 0 Republicans are co-signing this?
Oh, and if the Feds want to search your house; they can easily claim any plants qualify as an interstate farm requiring inspection. Who cares if you’ve broken a law, or if they have sufficient cause. With this law they can search anyone anytime, with the law presuming they have the right to do so without any proof required.
How wonderful…
gekkobear on March 31, 2009 at 1:23 PM
There is nothing wrong, much less “dangerous” about GM foods. In fact you’ve been eating them for over a decade.
MarkTheGreat on March 31, 2009 at 1:25 PM
The device and it’s designers are fictional, but the concept behind it is not. And it has real followers.
Forming a religious ‘farm cult’ might work…interesting idea. I’m wondering how hard a hydroponics setup would be.
Dark-Star on March 31, 2009 at 1:25 PM
How long before Stalin seizes the farms?
PrincipledPilgrim on March 31, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Should I hold up on putting in those tomato plants this weekend?
flyoverland on March 31, 2009 at 1:27 PM
Or a moonshine still?
TN Mom on March 31, 2009 at 1:30 PM
The laws of unintended consequences continues to work.
roux on March 31, 2009 at 1:31 PM
The maximum beneficial govt intrusion into the market is somewhere between zero and none.
MarkTheGreat on March 31, 2009 at 1:32 PM
Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow… indeed.
juanito on March 31, 2009 at 1:33 PM
I thought liberals hated searches, wiretaps, etc. ?? Homeland Gal, Janet Napolotinao doesn’t want to search illegals…
TN Mom on March 31, 2009 at 1:34 PM
Adequate gunfire will inform them of their error.
LimeyGeek on March 31, 2009 at 1:37 PM
Careful what you say about Dear Leader.
As of April 1st, you will be a recipient of bailout funds via the $12 deduction in taxes on your paycheck.
..thus making you eligible for complete taxation and management by Dear Leader.
cntrlfrk on March 31, 2009 at 1:38 PM
You can’t eat moonshine, and drinking to forget doesn’t work for very long. On the flip side it might be a good barter item depending on where you live.
Dark-Star on March 31, 2009 at 1:38 PM
Think of poor Mexico, having to fight a war against the drug gangs AND the vegetable gangs.
Bishop on March 31, 2009 at 12:52 PM
“Hey man, you got the stuff?”
“Yeah, it’s really good. The capsaicin levels in these little beauties are off the charts.”
obladioblada on March 31, 2009 at 1:19 PM
ahahaha
Leave it to our government to turn a tomato into a controlled substance.
scalleywag on March 31, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Whisky was, for some considerable time, used as currency.
LimeyGeek on March 31, 2009 at 1:42 PM
Ed, again, you guys are way behind Alex Jones on another important subject. No disrespect to you all, but the kooks (me included) are just that much further ahead on this kind of alternative news.
This means that organic farms will be pushed out and only genetically modified food will be used. Genetically modified food that does not reproduce, which means that the means of production will only come from the government/corporate companies control the food supply. A long held dream of the elite.
Combine this with the soon to pass federal land grab bill and we are in for some hurting. Less land for farmers, regulations geared towards benefiting government sponsored corporations and you can see the writing on the wall.
That’s all that us kooks do, we just look at all the pieces of the puzzle and attempt to put the picture together before it becomes a reality. This is a perfect example. Explaining the finished picture sounds like insanity, something we kooks have to deal with, but the pieces of the puzzle are all there.
God Bless
True_King on March 31, 2009 at 1:42 PM
Right on Quisp. They delayed the Feds taking action but didn’t delay the onset of legal liability so private lawsuits can commence immediately.
I refuse to believe all the Congress are braindead oafs. Assuming that it is apparent they have a program to use “Product Safety” as a shield for a classic fascist merging of corporate and government power.
The Fear & Crisis for the CPSI was begun by large corporations subletting process to the Communist Chinese. The Congressional response was to shut down all private competitors of those same corporations.
Now food safety concerns which, other than the recent peanut contamination, have been from imported crops and which have all been from larger producers is designed to eliminate the small farm. The woman in the clip makes a very important point about the exponential growth of small farms in the US. I know in Oregon and California rural niche farms are sprouting up all over. These are specifically aimed to sell direct to restaurants and through Farmers Markets or smaller chains like Sprouts or Wild Oats. All of this is targeted for destruction by our corrupt “Representatives” in Washington.
They are tyrants not legislators. They deserve to be treated as such.
rcl on March 31, 2009 at 1:43 PM
Subsidies allowed the existence of large farms in the first place I’m afraid.
Chaz706 on March 31, 2009 at 1:43 PM
the funniest part is to go to the websites of the organic farmers that are all up arms screaming about too much regulations. I would venture to guess 100% of them voted for Obama. Hey you moonbats in Vermont, Half Moon Bay,etc., You reap what you sow (excuse the pun)
Ricki on March 31, 2009 at 1:44 PM
I don’t picture ACORN community organizers doing farm work. The collective farms in Russia were a failure. In america, Obama will have us race to be a net importer of food if he has his way. Too bad he has nio clue how much sewage is in the water used to raise imprted foods.
seven on March 31, 2009 at 1:44 PM
We have a few pigs on our farm just for our kids to show in 4-H. We had to get what’s called a “Premise ID #.” It’s really no big deal for us. All we have to do is provide the Premise ID# to the market that’s buying the pigs and that’s it. I imagine the paperwork gets more and more cumbersome as it goes up the chain, but for us, a VERY small pig farmer, it’s nothing.
It’s lot traceability actually. Manufacturing facilities do it in the event there’s a recall.
Oink on March 31, 2009 at 1:47 PM
I do not eat them. In fact I go out of my way not to eat them. I realize they are on the market in many forms and not labeled as such.
The research on GM’s has not been going on long enough to make any serious long term evaluations on their effect on human tissue and DNA. The tesing is tainted and insufficient.
The testing that has been done by independent science is finding GM’s do have adverse affects on health.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/08/01/genetically-modified-organisms-are-a-looming-threat.aspx
katy on March 31, 2009 at 1:48 PM
katy on March 31, 2009 at 1:48 PM
The testing has been going on more than long enough.
Where did you get the absolutely insane idea that GM crops can affect your DNA.
The so called “independant” investigators that you site have as much credibility as do cryptobiologists. In a word, none.
MarkTheGreat on March 31, 2009 at 2:07 PM
I don’t picture these guys doing anything that most of us would call work.
MarkTheGreat on March 31, 2009 at 2:09 PM
Have you ever heard of RoundUp Ready soybeans? Looked at any soybean fields lately? See any with grass or weeds?
a capella on March 31, 2009 at 2:09 PM
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