HR 2749 a terrible threat to distributist enterprise
HR 2749 -- the "Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009" is a terrible threat to distributist enterprises in food and agriculture. Playing on concerns regarding food safety and bio-terrorism, the bill grants unprecedented and drastic new powers to the FDA to regulate the production, distribution, and harvesting of vegetable crops. It imposes new fees and record-keeping requirements on farmers.
The bill was brought up on special rules on Wed July 29th, which allowed no debate and no amendments, and required a 2/3 majority to pass. It fell 6 votes short. The Rules Committee made some minor cosmetic changes, and is bringing it up for consideration again today, with only one hour of debate allowed and no amendments. This is a profoundly undemocratic method of enacting legislation. The politicians responsible for this are presently engaged in a disinformation campaign claiming that the bills problems relating to small farmers and organic agriculture have been fixed, but this is simply not true. See my Analysis of Rep. Dingell's Dear Colleague Letter in Support of HR 2749 , for the truth about this legisltion.
Please contact your representative in the US House today. You can get contact info at http://www.house.gov , simply enter your zip code in the form in the upper left corner of the page. Contact friends and family who live in other congressional districts. If the bill passes today, the battle moves to the Senate, so contact your US Senator. You may want to print and fax my analysis of Dingell's letter, since many congresspeople may be misled by his disinformation.
Once more to the barricades, folks. I need a yellow flag with a cabbage on it and the phrase "Don't tread on me."
4 comments:
I'd say that the government is trying to make it as difficult as humanly possible for people to live self-sufficient lives, but then I would be called a "conspiracy theorist".
All we can "hope" for is that things will "change" - like the Presidency (and the House and the Senate).
I spell fascism P E L O S I
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HR 2749 passes House, goes next to Senate.
HR 2749 passed the U.S. House today, Thursday July 30, by 283 to 142, mostly along party lines. This is not a party issue. We need to reach our Senators during the August recess and request they oppose this bill when they return.
Supporters of this bill say it will "catapult the FDA into the 21st century." There are better places to catapult it.
We have not yet had time to read and analyze the version of the bill that passed today, and we'll post an update when we have more information. It's unlikely, however, that any changes in this bill affect the underlying causes of the food contamination problems, namely centralized production, centralized processing, and long distance transportation. Nor are the changes likely to have removed small farm/local food concerns. Please stay tuned.
Yours for small farms and real food,
Deborah Stockton, Executive Director
National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (NICFA)
nicfa@earthlink.net
http://www.nicfa.org
It is bills like this that, in my opinion will "catapult" the USA (now the USSA) into oblivion. And to tell you the truth, I really see no way to recover unless it happen.
Must continue to work around system if one cannot confront it head on.....system will fall....
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