Educating the Senate: Do Not Supress Organic and Small Farmers and Ranchers; Natural Food Products
| Farmers, Food and Freedom Under Attack... 11/17/09 - UPDATE: the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP Committee) will "mark-up" S.510, the Senate version of the (sic) "Food Safety" bill on Tuesday, November 18, 2009. This is the last step before a full Senate vote, which could happen in the next few days. The Senate bill can be read at: http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.510: -- this bill has an even weaker Family Farm and Ranch, Community and Home Garden exemption than the bill (HR.2749) which passed the House at the end of July. See our blog entry at: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4014 PLEASE TAKE THE ACTION BELOW TODAY! [Message goes to the President, your Senators and the HELP Comment Email Address] We did manage to get some protective exemptions into the bill for small farmers who sell food directly to consumers or to restaurants, but they are, frankly, weak and will not be enough to protect your food or our farmers. But the Senate bill has much weaker protections, just mentioning minor exemptions for restaurants once and farms twice. We need to rally people immediately to submit this letter to the Senate and to visit with their Senators at home during their August vacation break to demand accountable voting on this bill. The Obama administration is pushing new farm controls which will drive small and independent farmers off the land, literally leaving the field to Agribiz, (implementing all of Codex through complete HARMonization and allowing the FDA to declare Marshal law) through Congress as fast as possible and have coordinated the bills so there will be no debate and committee meetings are closed. Transparency, change, undoing Bush's regulations, giving the public time to comment, grassroots anything? None are visible in the current legislative process. Our entire food system, and thus our health, is being given to the last people with any interest in quality or safety: Big Abgribiz. This is going on in the absence of public scrutiny. Those who do know what is happening, of course, have zero access to the process and to the major media. Meanwhile, the media is absent while Congress is moving at warp speed to sew this up. There will be no direct, frontal assault on organic farming but an insidious process of "infecting" organic farming with regulations, "traceability" requirements, required practices and prohibitions enforced by truly draconian fines and prision terms for even minor offenses running to hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars and 8 years in prison for minor offenses. Example: imagine Joel Salatin's wonderful organic farm under the direction of the USDA, with detailed instructions on what he must feed and when, how he must medically "treat" his animals and with what, what he must "spray" and when, ... you get the picture. These bills will industrialize all farms and insure the farmers are forced to buy chemicals and drugs. Organic is dead. As well as human control over the food supply. As well as health. H.R. 2749 includes a weak exemption for farmer to consumer or restaurant sales because of the Push Back we generated. But the bill has now passed the House and it is imperative that it NOT pass the Senate. More Push Back is needed for more protection for farmers, gardeners, community farming, all local food production (including yours!) and food processing. We've set up an Action Item for you to send an unmistakable message to your Senators. We must educate the Senate that you value organic farmers and small farming and do not do not want independent farmers regulated out of existence. You do not want "Big Agra" regulations applied to organic and small family farms and ranches or to natural/organic food products, including Dietary Supplements. We have prepared the following Petition to Congress with regard to this matter: ------------------------- To Amend S.510 or Any Food Safety Modernization Act or Similar Bill By the Addition of the Natural and Family Food and Farming Exclusion Amendment To: The Members of the Senate of the United States of America: Whereas the proposed Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services should focus its activities on the significant public administration issues involving the capacity of large scale, industrialized agriculture to threaten public safety, Whereas organic and natural agriculture, family farms and ranches, and natural or organic food products, including dietary supplements are not a significant part of the food safety problem, and Whereas Congress previously provided for an exemption for natural food dietary supplements from the increased agency authority granted by the FDA Modernization Act of 2007, through a rule of interpretation, added as section 1011 of that Act, and has on numerous occasions exempted small and family farms from the same level of regulation as has been deemed necessary in the case of industrialized agriculture, The citizens ascribing to this Petition therefore hereby request that any Food Safety Modernization Act identical or similar to HR 2749 be defeated, or that it, or any substitute for it be amended to exclude organic and natural agriculture, family farms and ranches, and natural or organic food products, including dietary supplements, through a rule of interpretation, as follows: "Rule of Interpretation "No provision of this act shall be deemed to apply (a) to any home, home-business, homestead, home or community gardens, small farm, organic or natural agricultural activity, (b) to any family farm or ranch, or (c) to any natural or organic food product, including dietary supplements regulated under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994."
We also note the language of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 USC sec 203 (s) (2) which provides, "(2) Any establishment that has as its only regular employees the owner thereof or the parent, spouse, child, or other member of the immediate family of such owner shall not be considered to be an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce or a part of such an enterprise..." Language such as this would be helpful to allay our concerns. Furthermore, the ascribing citizens Petition the Congress of the United States to declare it the public policy of the United States that organic and natural agriculture, home and community gardens, family farms and ranches, and natural or organic food products, including dietary supplements shall be at all times free from suit, vexation, trouble, penalty, or loss of their goods, for the inestimable values they confer upon the public.
[March 7, 2009 - This Petition was prepared by Ralph Fucetola JD, a Trustee of the Natural Solutions Foundation, for educational purposes – www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and modified on July 31, 2009 and November 17, 2009] |
Sign the Citizen's Petition
Please sign the Natural Solutions Foundation Citizen's Petition now, or if you need to know more, continue reading about it below.
What the Citizen's Petition Is About
When you think about a petition, do you see yourself in front of the grocery store signing a piece of paper with some fifty-odd names on a card table, with a plastic table cloth and a hand lettered sign?
Well, a Citizen's Petition is a very different tool for action. A Citizen's Petition is a legal means to focus a government agency's attention on an issue of concern to you. Once a Citizen's Petition has been entered, a "docket" to debate is opened and public comment is accepted. A Citizen's Petition does have one thing in common with the more familiar ones, though. Any number of people can add their names to it and become co-petitioners.
The current pro-Codex Alimentarius policy of the U.S. Codex Office is in violation of U.S. law. With our Citizen's Petition, we are asking the U.S. government to change its policy on Codex Alimentarius to comply with U.S. law.
The Natural Solutions Foundation Citizen's Petition is a ground-breaking legal approach to compel the US Government to amend its Codex Policies, hold public hearings and move from a pro-illness Codex position to a pro-health one.
If we don't like the response, the law allows us to proceed to court.
So far, about 30,000+ people have joined our petition. And what's more, three members of Congress have written a Congressional Letter in support of our Citizen's Petition.
When you click on the link below, you will be sending this letter to the US Codex Manager, Dr. Edwin Scarbrough, and Dr. Barbara Schneeman, Head of the FDA's Office of Nutritional Products:
F. Edward Scarbrough, PhD
US Manager for Codex
US Department of Agriculture
South Building, Room 4861
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington DC 20250Barbara Schneeman, PhD
Director, Office of Nutritional Products
Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville MD 20857-0001Docket No. FSIS-2006-0004
Dear Drs. Schneeman and Scarbrough:
I am deeply concerned about health and health freedom in the US under the continuing assault of both Codex Alimentarius and those domestic forces which seek to undermine my access to natural health promotion options (including nutritional supplements, natural remedies and clean, unadulterated food). Therefore I wish to join the Natural Solutions Foundation in urging you to support the adoption and implementation of international and national policies, through legislation and regulation that would promote consumer access to Natural Solutions and accurate information of their potential health benefits. Such an approach to regulation would strengthen and solidify the principles of DSHEA for the benefit of the health of both the populace and the Wellness Industry. Please direct Codex Delegates to foster those policies and do so in your domestic policy dealings as well.
I urge you to adopt US Codex policies which support the spirit and the letter of the protective tradition, regulation and legislation representing the best of public policy. Those policies should be strictly in line with US law preventing harmonization with any international standard or guideline which conflict or contradicts United States law as specified in the Citizen Petition and its Amendments provided to your offices by the Natural Solutions Foundation in 2005 in support of the positions, hearing requests and Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline presented in that Petition as delineated in the most recent Amendment (submitted to you on October 14, 2005 by the Natural Solutions Foundation), and to the Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Transportation, Commissioners of the EPA and FDA, President Obama, Vice President Biden and the Majority and Minority leaders of both Houses of Congress.
I wish to join the Petition and add my voice to those of other Americans who want their health and health freedom supported by their government domestically and internationally
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. Codex standards, guidelines and regulations threaten our rights and laws in serious ways by lowering the protective bar to satisfy trade, not health, considerations. This is highly detrimental to us all and is a violation of the significant protection offered to us in this country by laws like DSHEA and similar statutes. If the FDA is too busy attempting to deal with the deadly mistakes of the pharmaceutical industry to promote access to safe foods, including those offered with health benefit claims for which there is any reasonable scientific evidence, then perhaps it is time to divest the FDA of its food safety and claims authority.
Please bring US Codex Policy and activities of the US Codex Office and FDA back in line with US law and the public's demand for access to Natural Solutions.
Yours in health and freedom,
(Your Full Name)
(Your Full Address)
(Your Phone)
(Your Email)
(Today's Date)
This important letter adds your name to the growing number of people who are making it clear that the US Codex policy violates their wishes AND violates US law.
Please sign the Natural Solutions Foundation Citizen's Petition now.
The Obama administration is pushing new farm controls which will drive small and independent farmers off the land, literally leaving the field to Agribiz, (implementing all of Codex through complete HARMonization and allowing the FDA to declare Marshal law) through Congress as fast as possible and have coordinated the bills so there will be no debate and committee meetings are closed.
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