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Note to self
Apr. 9th, 2009 01:15 pmArtist - Matt Costa
Album - Songs we sing
Song - Behind the moon
Album - Songs we sing
Song - Behind the moon
Apr. 9th, 2009
The three bad HRs
Apr. 9th, 2009 09:48 pmLetter to MD Congressman Van Hollen:
Letting you know that I am against the following three bills before congress:
H.R. 814: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h814/text
H.R. 759: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h759/text
HR 875: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h875/text
I do not like these bills. The problem of food safety lies in overcentralization, not in individual farms. The tainted peanut butter was tainted due to poor practices at a packaging plant, not a farm.
Any one of these bills alone provides too much regulating power to the government. HR 875 allows for frequent, random inspections without probable cause or warrant. While it doesn't target small farms or organic farms openly, the end result will be that small farms will not be able to meet the regulatory expenses and will be most likely to go under. Farmers who sell at local farmers' markets that are just across state lines will have to meet expensive regulations and fees to sell at their local markets. It will become more difficult to get or to grow fresh, organic produce and be self-sufficient.
Together, the three bills create a formidable triad that particularly affects small, local markets but also influences global markets.
What I find most troubling is the combination of "the Secretary shall promulgate regulations…" and criminal penalties for violating those yet-unknown regulations.
Also the applicability to "produce shipped in interstate commerce" doesn't include the local farmer at the local farmers' market, unless that local market is on the other side of a nearby state line. Which many of them are. I see these bills, if passed, greatly restricting cross-border marketing of local produce.
These bills need to be taken off the table. If you want to pass bills to promote food safety, attach these regulations and penalties to centralized packaging plants, not to farmers.
Please don't bother to answer me with cliches about safety. It didn't work when Bush tried to use the refrain of national security and terrorism to take away individual freedoms, and it's not working now that congress is trying to use food safety in the same manner to destroy small farmers.
Letting you know that I am against the following three bills before congress:
H.R. 814: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h814/text
H.R. 759: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h759/text
HR 875: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h875/text
I do not like these bills. The problem of food safety lies in overcentralization, not in individual farms. The tainted peanut butter was tainted due to poor practices at a packaging plant, not a farm.
Any one of these bills alone provides too much regulating power to the government. HR 875 allows for frequent, random inspections without probable cause or warrant. While it doesn't target small farms or organic farms openly, the end result will be that small farms will not be able to meet the regulatory expenses and will be most likely to go under. Farmers who sell at local farmers' markets that are just across state lines will have to meet expensive regulations and fees to sell at their local markets. It will become more difficult to get or to grow fresh, organic produce and be self-sufficient.
Together, the three bills create a formidable triad that particularly affects small, local markets but also influences global markets.
What I find most troubling is the combination of "the Secretary shall promulgate regulations…" and criminal penalties for violating those yet-unknown regulations.
Also the applicability to "produce shipped in interstate commerce" doesn't include the local farmer at the local farmers' market, unless that local market is on the other side of a nearby state line. Which many of them are. I see these bills, if passed, greatly restricting cross-border marketing of local produce.
These bills need to be taken off the table. If you want to pass bills to promote food safety, attach these regulations and penalties to centralized packaging plants, not to farmers.
Please don't bother to answer me with cliches about safety. It didn't work when Bush tried to use the refrain of national security and terrorism to take away individual freedoms, and it's not working now that congress is trying to use food safety in the same manner to destroy small farmers.