HR 2749 Passed: Totalitarian Control of Food Supply

[rambone]

This bill passed the House July 30, 2009!! IT IS HALFWAY TO BEING LAW!!!

This will add heavy regulations to the way food-growers raise food. Small farmers will be essentially regulated out of existence. It will be too complicated and expensive to keep up with the demands of the government. You have to use government regulated feed, pesticide, etc. Foods not raised by government standard will be as illegal as heroin.

This is about government control! The Government doesn't like it when people can fend for themselves. This bill will make it nearly impossible to have a garden of your own. The FDA will own you. Seed saving will be forbidden.


HR 2749: Totalitarian Control of the Food Supply

HR 2749: Totalitarian Control of the Food Supply


Food Freedom

June 17, 2009

A new food safety bill is on the fast track in Congress-HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. The bill needs to be stopped.
HR 2749 gives FDA tremendous power while significantly diminishing existing judicial restraints on actions taken by the agency. The bill would impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme on small farms and local artisanal producers; and it would disproportionately impact their operations for the worse.

HR 2749 does not address underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply. The industrial food system and food imports are badly in need of effective regulation, but the bill does not specifically direct regulation or resources to these areas.

To read a detailed account of the bill, go to: http://www.ftcldf.org/news/news-15june2009.htm

(Read the section on tracing. That is NAIS, isn’t it? – highly disguised yet triggered by the word “trace.” )


Alarming Provisions:

Some of the more alarming provisions in the bill are:

* HR 2749 would impose an annual registration fee of $500 on any “facility” that holds, processes, or manufactures food. Although “farms” are exempt, the agency has defined “farm” narrowly. [What is the definition?] And people making foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, cheeses, or breads would be required to register and pay the fee, which could drive beginning and small producers out of business during difficult economic times. [Yes. There are laws against this corporate-size-destroys-the-little-guy policy, aren't there? Are home bread or cheese or lacto-fermented vegetable makers who make for their own families included in this?]

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested. It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers. [This astounding control opens the door to CODEX. WTO "good farming practices" will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms but into the forced purchase of industry's products. They will be slaves on the land, doing the work they are ordered to do - against their own best wisdom - and paying out to industry against their will.

There will be no way to be frugal, to grow one’s own grain to feed the animals, to raise healthy animals without GMO grains or drugs, to work with nature at all. Grassfed cattle and poultry and hogs will be finished. So, it’s obvious where control will take us. And weren’t these the “rumors on the internet” that were dismissed but are clearly the case?]

* HR 2749 would give FDA the power to order a quarantine of a geographic area, including “prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area.” [This - "that has been used to transport or hold such food" - would mean all cars that have ever brought groceries home so this means ALL TRANSPORTATION can be shut down under this. This is using food as a cover for martial law.] Under this provision, farmers markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. The agency can halt all movement of all food in a geographic area. [This is also a means of total control over the population under the cover of food, and at any time.]

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to make random warrantless searches of the business records of small farmers and local food producers, without any evidence whatsoever that there has been a violation. [If these bills cover all who "hold food" then this allows for taking of records of anyone at any time on no basis at all.] Even farmers selling direct to consumers would have to provide the federal government with records on where they buy supplies, how they raise their crops, and a list of customers.

[NAIS for animals and all other foods?]

* HR 2749 charges the Secretary of Health and Human Services with establishing a tracing system for food. Each “person who produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds such food” [Is this not every home in the US?] would have to “maintain the full pedigree of the origin and previous distribution history of the food,” and “establish and maintain a system for tracing the food that is interoperable with the systems established and maintained by other such persons.” The bill does not explain how far the traceback will extend or how it will be done for multi-ingredient foods. With all these ambiguities, [with all these ambiguities, it is dangerous, period, separate from the money] it’s far from clear how much it will cost either the farmers or the taxpayers. [It is massive and absurd and burdensome beyond the capacity of people to comply - is this not fascism? - so it is a set up for being used to impose penalties endlessly and/or to eliminate anyone at will.]

* HR 2749 creates severe criminal and civil penalties, including prison terms of up to 10 years and/or fines of up to $100,000 for each violation for individuals. [Does it include judicial review, Congressional oversight, a defined and limited set of penalties and punishments for a defined set of “crimes”? Or is it entirely ambiguous and left to the whim and sole power of “the Administrator”? Who is that person set to be? Is it Michael Taylor, Monsanto lawyer and executive, as Food Democracy has said? That is, do these bills set up an agency by which the entire US food supply will be turned over to the control of a multinational corporation under WTO regulations (and not to US farmers and not to US laws under the Constitution), with boundless freedom to do what it wants, and one infamous for harm to farmers and lack of safety of food?

If it was not clear before how frightening these bills were, this small section of provisions, should make their actual fascism clear now. It goes way beyond “food safety” to absolute control over farms, animals, food, and us, including our movements and access to food at all.

Action to Take:

Contact your Representative now! Ask to speak with the staffer who handles food issues. Tell them you are opposed to the bill. Some points to make in telling your Representative why you oppose HR 2749 include:

1. The bill imposes burdensome requirements while not specifically targeting the industrial food system and food imports, where the real food safety problems lie.

2. Small farms and local food processors are part of the solution to food safety; lessening the regulatory burden on them will improve food safety.

3. The bill gives FDA much more power than it has had in the past while making the agency less accountable for its actions.
HR 2749 needs to be defeated!! Please take action NOW.

NOTE: You must focus on your SENATORS now, not your representatives. The H.o.R. already passed this bill and sold out America. Call and tell them to VOTE NO!! Attend Town Hall meetings and let your voice be heard!!

These fascist regulations intend only to tighten the stranglehold on the nation's food supply, so that Government can intrude any way it sees fit.

 

[tenring]

Is that why the Department of Homeland Security has a big office in the world wide headquarters of Wal Mart?

 

[SavageEagle]

I don't always trust infowars... but.... H.R. 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (GovTrack.us)

 

[jsgolfman]

Downloaded for further reading.

 

[DustinG]

The language of the bill could be interpreted to regulate all forms of produce (even the personal garden). I'm not saying that it is, but how can you get gun reguation out of the Constitution?

 

[ocsdor]

Here's who voted for it:
GovTrack: House Vote On Passage: H.R. 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009

Indiana
Aye IN-1 Visclosky, Peter [D]
Aye IN-2 Donnelly, Joe [D]
No IN-3 Souder, Mark [R]
Aye IN-4 Buyer, Stephen [R]
No IN-5 Burton, Dan [R]
No IN-6 Pence, Mike [R]
Aye IN-7 Carson, André [D]
Aye IN-8 Ellsworth, Brad [D]
Aye IN-9 Hill, Baron [D]

And, here's a blog on it at Campaign for Liberty:
Campaign For Liberty — HR 2749 passes, a travesty for small independent farmers-good for BIG Agriculture and special interests!

 

[agentl074]

They just don't stop now do they?

 

[rambone]

I can't believe there isn't more outrage about this! Its been all but ignored by all news outlets, left and right wing!

 

[SavageEagle]

Oh I've been passing it around. Don't know about any outrage yet though. I haven't seen any.

They pass this bill, I'm going to start my garden anyway. To hell with them. Shoot me over a garden, huh? Yep. I'd like to see that.

 

[agentl074]

Tell the Amish that they can't be Amish anymore....

 

[Paco Bedejo]

I'm outraged by it. Even the current farm bill is over the line, in my opinion. Subsidizing corn/wheat/beans & tariffs on sugar? C'mon...you guys know why we're such a fat nation, right? Now giving Monsanto free license to rape our nation's food supply is very dangerous.

My Congressman voted "No" on this bill. How do you guys find out how Lugar & Bayh are leaning and how do you contact them early to let them know your stance?

 

[SavageEagle]

Tell the Amish that they can't be Amish anymore....

What are they going to do about it though? Non-violent Amish people don't even protest.

 

[rambone]

Tell the Amish that they can't be Amish anymore....

I hadn't even thought of that, but yes, this bill would completely disrupt their way of life. And anyone else who homesteads or supplements their meals with homegrown food.

 

[JustGone]

I read the bill...and can't find where it makes having ur own garden illegal? can someone point out which parts of the bill make this illegal...it seems to only effect farms and people who sell the food that is grown to the public.

 

[RachelMarie]

I will read more into this later...Kind of busy right now.
But what I am seeing is truely disturbing. And like others, it wont stop me from having a garden. Be it outside in my yard...or inside in my basement (with the right equipment obviously), I WILL continue with my garden...I will continue with my canning.
The person(s) that try to stop me will get one heck of a fight. I pay for my land, my house....and I will do what I want with it.


RM

 

[steveh_131]

Ok, I read the bill. I encourage you to do the same, here: GovTrack: H.R. 2749: Text of Legislation, Referred in Senate


Disclaimer: I am certainly not a lawyer, so if I say anything incorrect, I welcome any informed corrections.

This bill appears to be an amendment to the previously FFDCA. Under the FFDCA, I believe that facilities are already required to register with the FDA. This bill ultimately adds some new restrictions to these facilities as well as refining the definition of "facility". Here is the definition, per the bill:

(b) Annual Registration-

(1) DEFINITION OF FACILITY- Paragraph (1) of section 415(b) (21 U.S.C. 350d(b)) is amended to read as follows:


‘(1)(A) The term ‘facility’ means any factory, warehouse, or establishment (including a factory, warehouse, or establishment of an importer) that manufactures, processes, packs, or holds food.


‘(B) Such term does not include farms; private residences of individuals; restaurants; other retail food establishments; nonprofit food establishments in which food is prepared for or served directly to the consumer; or fishing vessels (except such vessels engaged in processing as defined in section 123.3(k) of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulations).


As far as I can tell, this definition pretty clearly excludes home gardens (private residences of individuals). It also pretends to exclude farms. I don't know much about farming, but I think any livestock farms are already required to sell their meat through a "facility" so these restrictions will apply to them, even though the bill pretends that it won't. I'm not sure about produce farmers, does anybody care to speak for them?

The FFDCA was a terrible piece of legislation to begin with, and this makes it even worse. This bill is an obvious and disgusting attack on the small farmers in favor of the huge corporations, and I'm sure will have only negative effects on food safety, in addition to putting a lot of good people out of business.

But I think your home gardens are safe, for now.

 

[SavageEagle]

That doesn't excuse the fact that they are once again overstepping their legal authority.

 

[steveh_131]

That doesn't excuse the fact that they are once again overstepping their legal authority.

I assume you were responding to me.

I wasn't excusing anything. I oppose this legislation as much as anyone. I would, however, like to see it opposed for factual reasons. And there's no shortage of those with a horrendous bill like this!

 

[rambone]

‘(1)(A) The term ‘facility’ means any factory, warehouse, or establishment (including a factory, warehouse, or establishment of an importer) that manufactures, processes, packs, or holds food.

‘(B) Such term does not include farms; private residences of individuals; restaurants; other retail food establishments; nonprofit food establishments in which food is prepared for or served directly to the consumer; or fishing vessels (except such vessels engaged in processing as defined in section 123.3(k) of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulations).

As far as I can tell, this definition pretty clearly excludes home gardens (private residences of individuals).

Okay, good call. Careful examination of the bill should be given for when the word "facility" is used.

As for the article I quoted, the only time they mentioned "facility" was for the annual fee of $500. So gardens may be exempt, but it is possible that the other rules & regulations may apply to everyone, not just "facilities." Have to check on that.

Regardless, it is still Totalitarian Control of the Food Supply.

 

[steveh_131]

Okay, good call. Careful examination of the bill should be given for when the word "facility" is used.

As for the article I quoted, the only time they mentioned "facility" was for the annual fee of $500. So gardens may be exempt, but it is possible that the other rules & regulations may apply to everyone, not just "facilities." Have to check on that.

[Correction:] I meant to say that HR2749 only defines "facility" once, because the original legislation was made applicable to these facilities. When you read portions of 2749 that do not specify that they apply only to these facilities, you have to check the original legislation to see who and what they apply to.

Again, I'm not a lawyer. If I'm wrong, I welcome any corrections.

Regardless, it is still Totalitarian Control of the Food Supply.

Hell yes it is.