The "food safety" bills have become a disturbing treasure hunt - the more different people look, the more they are finding. In an article called "Monsanto's Dream Bill - HR 875," the author saw the bill as directly threatening organic farming, gardening, seeds, etc. But a comment on the article actually suggested that the writer only scratched the surface and explained that HR 875 even has CODEX hidden in it.
An introduction to CODEX is in order.
CODEX Alimentarius is a plan by the pharmaceutical industry and the WTO to take control over all nutrients worldwide by declaring them toxins and putting them under governments' control. This ensure that no one has adequate access to natural substances, supplements, vitamins, or minerals to treat their own health, conveniently leaving only expensive pharmaceuticals available for treating diseases.
http://www.youtube.com/...
In the EU, CODEX Alimentarius has meant people can pay upwards of $150 for supplements that come in only miniscule doses of 5 or 10 mg, making purchase of enough nutrients for any benefit out of reach for most people. Canadian Bill C-51 is part of the same Big Pharma plan to take over nutrients. It even redefines the word "sell" to mean to "distributing to one, two or more people even without consideration," so sharing or giving or donating become a "sale." Make herbal tea from your garden for your sick child and you just sold a minor a controlled substance.
Penalties include 5 million dollars and 2 years in prison for producing, taking or "selling" such dangerous substances as vitamin C.
Well, I've gone through the whole bill now, and wrote notes totaling 12 pages... I'm not going to post them - don't worry.
This bill scares the hell out of me.
"The bill is monstrous on level after level - the power it would give to Monsanto, the criminalization of seed banking,the prison terms and confiscatory fines for farmers, the 24 hours GPS tracking of their animals, the easements on their property to allow for warrantless government entry, the stripping away of their property rights, the imposition bythe filthy, greedy industrial side of anti-farming international "industrial" standards to independent farms - the only part of our food system that still works, the planned elimination of farmers through all these means."
Considering the author of the bill [Monsanto], this author's fear is entirely valid, but the wording in this paragraph could easily be brushed aside as sensationalistic conspiracy theory - a great thing for the bill's supporters. Through pointing at people likethe author, they can say "see, it couldn't be as bad as he says it is, so it must be fine. If you question it, you must be as crazy as he is!"
Everything that he's saying is entirely possible, and probable, but in order to get serious attention, his tone should change. It needs to change, because the truth of the first line in the paragraph above goes waaaaaay beyond the surface he's scratched.
Yes - this bill would be devastating to small farms, and an enormous boon to both Monsanto and Stanley Greenburg. Even if he's not appointed as the "Administrator of Food Safety," and someone who didn't introduce rBGH was installed for political reasons, the bill provides for the hiring of "Experts and Consultants" who receive both a salary and ALL expenses covered while in the Agency's employ, and the creation of "advisory committees that consist of representatives of scientific expert bodies, academics, industry specialists, and consumers."
Either of these positions could create a figurehead situation like the Bush/Cheney relationship, leading to Monsanto's continued growth and influence, and the continued push toward a world where all food is patented. These things are all probable, but unsubstantiated in the language of the bill.
The really scary stuff is in the text of the bill itself, and goes beyond peddling influence to Monsanto.
The really scary stuff is the direct paraphrasing of Codex Alimentarius initiatives opportunistically wedged between seemingly rational improved safeguards for the general public in food production and distribution that will be readily accepted by a populace scared to death by their peanut butter and baby formula. These provisions are dissected into a form that most people won't have the time or patience to digest, due to incomprehensibility that one gifted in legalese can create when they want certain negative specifics overlooked in deference to the overall facade they wish to be seen.
http://yupfarming.blogspot.com/...
The commenter lays out the ease with which the bill could outlaw raw milk and define normal vitamins as contaminants. And he show how the bill explicitly covers home gardens.
This bill, as the author of the article above states, can mandate treatments for crops and livestock that it deems necessary to prevent contamination, such as mandating which products are acceptable to do so - I'm sure DOW lobbyists are squeeling with delight for the prospects of the new toxic pesticides they're developing...
You may think that all this regulation and oversight may pertain solely to those who distribute food as a business, but no - this pertains to your home garden. There's a provision that demands:
"a comparison of the safety of commercial processing with the health hazards associated with food that is harvested for recreational or subsistence purposes and prepared noncommercially..."
[As the video tells, a woman in the EU where CODEX is operative, has been charged for growing herbs.]
so at some point in the near future, if you grow your own food, you may be required by law to spray it with round-up.
All in all, I haven't seen a more devastating attempt at infringement on an individual's personal way of life than the USA PATRIOT act. This must be stopped... at all costs.