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http://www.leavemyfoodalone.org/LeaveMyFoodAlone.org: A Petition to Defeat HR 875

Tiller - Thursday, March 26, 2009

I've been noticing an increasing uproar in the blogosphere and the agricultural news community about H.R. 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009.

Introduced by Democratic Representative DeLauro, a Congresswoman

with indirect family ties to agricultural giant Monsanto, the bill

drastically revamps and overhauls the food safety mechanisms by which

the Federal government attempts to guarantee the purity and safety of

the food Americans consume.

Although my default position is to be somewhat skeptical of these

mass semi-panics, in this case there seems to be some meat to the

complaints. Many of the elements of the bill as it stands seem to put

the Federal government in a position of tremendous power over even the

smallest of agricultural producers – literally, the gentleman next door

growing a row of organic tomatoes – and requiring them to do business

pretty much the way that the giant agricultural companies do business.

Now, the big ag companies take a lot of unfair hits sometimes, but we

can all agree that not everybody wants to run their farm that way.

That's why there are thousands of organic farms, and plenty of

old-fashioned smallholders who do things their own way. Everybody wants

food safety – but very few people want the weekend hunter, the hobby

gardener, and the small organic operation treated like cogs in the food machine.

What's more, and troubling to anyone with a memory of the history of

government expansions of power, the bill puts all this authority in the

hands, not of the FDA (which has handled food safety at the national

level for more than a century) but in an ill-defined and shadowy `food

czar' working out of the White House. You don't have to be a frothing

partisan to be reluctant to put any President so directly in charge of

the food supply of the country. It's my view that, while there may be

ideas of value in this bill (although in my reading thus far I haven't

found any), the bill as it stands would be a terrible idea, one that

does nothing to enhance food safety but instead makes it impossible for small producers to compete with the big companies, often imposing what amounts to de facto bans on organic produce or naturally-gathered food and game.

As of now, H.R. 875 is in committee, meaning that the members of the

House Committees on Energy and Commerce, and the House Committee on

Agriculture, are reviewing the bill and listening (theoretically) to

citizen and lobbyist input. The word on the Hill is that companies like

Monsanto are all for the bill – although the bill would inconvenience

Big Ag, large companies are much better able to absorb the burden of

regulation than smaller companies, and thus are often advocates of

having lots of regulation simply because they know they can shoulder

the load and their smaller (annoying) competitors cannot. The good news

is that most bills never make it out of committee, and with H.R. 875

having to pass through two committees before getting out onto the House

floor, the odds are probably fairly good that the bill will never

become law. (especially if we as ag professionals take action)

To ensure that this terrible bill does not become the law of the

land, it is vital for ordinary Americans, most especially including

farmers and food producers contact their Congressional representatives

and let them know that we do not want to see another Federal

bureaucracy springing up and telling honest American entrepreneurs,

growers, and food producers how to manage their enterprises. There are

three ways you can help:

Sign my online petition, which will be delivered to

Congress to let them know that the people demand that our farm economy

not become the plaything of a few major corporations. Visit www.LeaveMyFoodAlone.org (no, it's not some political activist groups site; it's a simple petition website I put up.) Let your friends and family know about this bill and convince them to help stop it. Email them a link to www.LeaveMyFoodAlone.org so they can sign the petition too, or direct them to this blog. Write

to your Congressional representative to let them know that you do not

want this bill to pass. This will be especially effective if your

representative is on the two relevant House committees. Be civil and

polite, and avoid conspiracy theories and wild language – just let your

representative know that you oppose this bill and want to see food

safety laws that protect the rights of hunters, gardeners, organic

farmers, and other small producers. Below you will find a sample letter

that you can use as a guide, and resources to help you find your

Representative.

I suggest you do all three.

SAMPLE LETTER TO YOUR CONGRESSMAN

Dear Congress[wo]man XXX:

As a constituent, I am

writing to inform you of my strong opposition to H.R. 875, the

so-called Food Safety Modernization Act. Like most Americans, I believe

our nation's food supply must be safe, and that the government has an

appropriate role to play in ensuring that our citizens have nutritious

and safe food to eat. However, the proposed bill is a true outrage to

the liberties which Americans have enjoyed for more than two centuries.

I strongly urge you to vote

against this bill in its present form, and to vote against any food

safety or agriculture bill which does not make strong provisions for

the continued operation of America's family farms, organic farms, home

gardeners, wild game collectors, and others who produce the food that

keeps America strong.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME

You can find your Representative's contact information by using this form.

Space prohibits listing all the appropriate committee members – there

are more than a hundred of them – but you can find the Energy and

Commerce committee membership listing here, and the Agriculture committee membership listing here.

Contact information for each member of Congress is provided at their

individual links. Remember, every constituent contact will weigh

heavily when your member of Congress decides how to vote! If you don't

have time to write, give them a call, or drop them an e-mail, sign the

petition at www.LeaveMyFoodAlon