NAIS Scrapped By USDA… but….

NAIS, for the meantime, has been shelved by the USDA. This sounds good, but…. and I say this with a capital “B”… that we should not reduce our vigilance where any sort of government intrusion into our food system is concerned.

Says USDA Secretary Vilsack, “We are committed to working in partnership with States, Tribal Nations and industry in the coming months to address many of the details of this framework, and giving ample opportunity for farmers and ranchers and the public to provide us with continued input through this process.” Let’s make sure this happens; that we who are committed to local food &  preserving our small farms stay on the ball and not get complacent. We are not to let our guard down, not even for a minute.

I am bothered by this:  These steps will include accelerating actions to lessen the risk from diseases–such as tuberculosis–posed by imported animals, and WHY do we have to IMPORT animals for our food? … improving response capabilities, and focusing on greater collaboration and analyses with States and industry on potential disease risk overall. Keeping in mind, here, that small farmers’ livestock has never contributed to the beef industry food recalls.

One of USDA’s  first steps will be to convene a forum with animal health leaders for the States and Tribal Nations to initiate a dialogue about the possible ways of achieving the flexible, coordinated approach to animal disease traceability Flexible should take into consideration the small farmers and consumers who own livestock.  They should not be lumped in with the massive feed lots, (CAFOS) and withor compared to facilities which breed disease.

ALL of us need to be more aware of where our food comes from and what’s in it.  Read this Organic Consumer’s article for a quick briefing.  It’s written by a farmer.

We CANNOT RELAX on this issue!  Special interest groups like Monsanto, Cargill, ADM and Tyson and major food retailers like Wal-Mart are NOT out to protect consumers!  Wal-Mart is aggressively raising the level of food imports as reported in Supermarket News.  U.S. food imports are staggering.  WHY should we allow the government to use us as Guinea pigs so that retailers can save money? Imports are on the rise, even since this 2004  article.

Across this land people are starting to wake up regarding our food:  what’s in it, where it comes from and how its produced.  Everyone who is concerned needs to voice their opinion.  The thousands of letters, e-mails and phone calls made obviously reached someone in the government.  The 100 organizations who opposed NAIS and millions of consumers who called, faxed or signed online petitions – accomplished something.

Now is NOT the time to quit!

HR2749: Don’t Let the USDA & Agri-Business WIN

KEEP UP the PRESSURE ON YOUR LEGISLATORS and CONGRESSPEOPLE!

DON’T LET BIG FOOD and the USDA WIN !!!!!

It will hurt ALL OF US!

If you calledyour government officials on HR2749 to say to VOTE NO – CALL AGAIN! Send this to your neighbors, friends, co-workers, church members, health care professionals…. ANYBODY who is CONCERNED about OUR RIGHTS for GOOD, HEALTHY, CLEAN FOOD and also the RIGHTS OF SMALL FARMERS! The government has WAY TOO MUCH POWER over what’s IN OUR FOOD and how it’s made. If this bill passes….. YOU and I will suffer.  The “Food Police” will effectively shut down many, many small farmers because of the cost and bureaucracy OF NAIS and governmental regulation!

An informed consumer is a POWERFUL consumer!

HR2749 missed passing only by a few votes today, but it could come back tomorrow, Thursday.

No committee report, three different bill versions presented, last minute closed-door negotiations – complete mayhem.  Congress had no idea what they were voting on.

It could come up Thursday if the Rules Committee permits another vote – which we see as a complete abuse of power – under a closed rule that prohibits amendments and requires only a simple majority vote, highly unusual for this type of legislation.  We are unsure what the Rules Committee will do or allow.

PLEASE continue calling – call your representative AGAIN to voice your opposition over this bill and to attempts to rush it through without debate.

Contact your Representative: htt://www.House.gov

The bill still includes:

1) unprecedented and sweeping authority granted to FDA – access to records without cause, the authority to regulate all farming practices, and ability to impose substantial criminal and civil fines without a showing of harm;

2) lack of protection for small, organic and diversified farms – regulations created for large industrial facilities will financially ruin smaller operations;

3) a $500 annual registration fee whether making jam in your kitchen to sell within your community or if General Mills selling worldwide.

There is no amendment that will “fix” this bill.  We want to stop this bill.

DIET Green Tea ?

Isn’t GREEN TEA a low calorie drink ANYWAY?  Why in God’s name does there have to be Lipton DIET Green Tea?

An end-cap in a local grocery store touted Lipton ‘Sparkling” Green Tea and “Diet” Green Tea.

I almost fell over!

What IS wrong with the corporate mentality that comes up with this garbage that is supposed to pass as ‘healthy’ food? They’ve bastardized TEA into a chemical-laden beverage with absolutely no nutritional value; not that it has any in the first place!

The word ‘diet’ slithered its way into mainstream food back in the 60′s. To satisfy the American public’s desire for ‘healthy’ foods, they scientifically engineer this crap. With one hand in the ‘low fat’ potato chip bag and the other clutching an artificially processed drink, we Americans are chugging it down our three-chinned gullets like waters from the Fountain of Youth!  IF YOU MAKE IT – and LABEL IT ‘DIET’… ‘HEALTHY’ or  ‘NATURAL’ – THEY WILL EAT IT!

There is not ONE PERSON on this earth that will convince me that all the artificial crap in food ISN’T the cause of cancer and obesity.  Our bodies can’t figure out how to metabolize this junk.

Add to this that all of the meat, milk (and dairy products)  and eggs contain growth hormones – and that most of the people in this country…. the FATTEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD – never think what that animal was pumped full of during its miserable life on the stinking feed lot or in a putrid, overcrowded cage!

DO YOU EVER READ LABELS ON FOOD BEFORE YOU BUY IT?

If you can’t pronounce it, or don’t know WHAT it is – don’t eat it!

Food Safety: YOUR Responsibility, too!

An article appeared on Reuters news announcing new food safety standards are needed and the responsibility falls on state and local governments. Meanwhile, in the latest issue of “Organic Bytes”, Organic Consumers online newsletter, states that the Obama administration is considering former MONSANTO lawyer, Michael Taylor, has a long history of lobbying for Monsanto and fast tracking Monsanto’s controversial rBGH while at the FDA. Taylor is a case study of the “revolving door,” having worked within the USDA and FDA, as well as Monsanto. The long and short of this means that the AMERICAN PUBLIC needs to get involved in being proactive about food regulations. To learn more about current issues, go to the Organic Consumers website.

Stay informed, don’t stay DUMB!

We, the American people, have to take steps to TAKE BACK OUR FOOD.  For too long the government has had their hands in the food supply, making decisions that were in the best interests of big business’ bottom line – NOT- for the health and safety of the public!  Washington has been bought and bribed by agri-business for decades!

The results are now showing up in people worldwide:  increased cancer rates, birth defects, illnesses, allergies.

The government and big business would rather you -

“Don’t just DO SOMETHING….. SIT THERE!”

WAKE UP, People!

I am AMAZED every time I go to the grocery store or (infrequently) out to eat.  I watch what others are buying on the grocery line and eating in restaurants.  It’s SCARY !

Yo —-  300 pound woman over there on the checkout line;  her groceries consist of – CASES of DIET soda (yeah.., like that’s gonna make a difference!) bags of chips, frozen this, frozen that, canned goods, ‘flavored’ coffee and (oh gag…) the flavored cream stuff for coffee. Then she’s got SPLENDA, which she may as well be injecting friggin’ anti freeze or something because that stuff is POISON… literally!  She’s trying to get SKINNY eating this CRAP?????

The woman with the kids:  I want to smack the shit out of her for buying  garbage to feed them!

Again – SODA…. what the hell IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?????  Do you wonder why your kids teeth are rotting, why they’re so hyper, and why they – at such a young age – have gastrological problems like ACID REFLUX?  Not to mention these kids look like little blubber people!  This is why!

Here’s some info on ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS:

Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners Nutra-Sweet, Equal and Splenda in diet sodas and low calorie foods are ‘excitotoxins’, causing neurons to fire spasmodically. They are linked to headaches and allergic reactions. “Splenda” has no sugar compound in it rather its molecules are bound with chlorine. Researchers in Britain were looking for a new pesticide formulation when they ‘discovered’ it.  Aspartame metabolizes into formaldehyde.

There are many side effects associated with artificial sweeteners which include: mood swings, anxiety, headaches, increased incidents of hyperactivity, itching, cancers, ringing in the ears, fibromyalgia, dizziness, and as recently discovered, tendency to overeat.

Isn’t THAT lovely?  Isn’t this what you want to eat?

Make sure you’re giving them the recommended dose of CHEMICALS in their food.  Did you know that over 3,000 chemicals are added to our food?  Over 10,000 chemicals, solvents, emulsifiers and preservatives are put into the food we eat.  Is it any wonder why cancer is so rampant?

Parents: Please, PLEASE LOOK at what you are feeding your kids.  Look at what you are feeding yourselves.

Mothers-to-be: You are harming your unborn child with every mouthful of chemicalized, preservative-laden, pesticide coated food.  If you are eating JUNK food – STOP!  Your baby is at risk!  If you still drink soda while pregnant you are, in effect – slowly poisoning your child even before it’s born.

WAKE UP, PEOPLE!  Every day you have another choice!

What will YOU CHOOSE TODAY – especially for your children – who cannot choose!

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/02/19/common-toxins.aspx

Food & Wacky, Uncontrollable Kids

I picked up a book in a used book  shop:  “Why You Child Is Hyperactive”  by Ben F. Feingold, M.D.

Dr. Feingold was an allergist, who, back in the 70′s proposed that hyperactivity in children could be traced to chemical additives in food colorings.  His ‘Feingold Diet’ advocated strict adherence to a fresh food, chemical free life.  Parents of ADD and ADHD children were encouraged to keep a food diary.  The results were amazing.

Now, 40 years later, diet and the link to all sorts of disorders, in adults as well as children is mainstream medicine…. well,  practically.  There are still some parents and physicians who barely admit that what goes into a kid’s mouth will result in their little darling turning into the  creature from the black lagoon or Mr. Hyde.

If your child, or one you know, is out of their tree after eating a Happy Meal, you might do well to investigate…, that is unless you have stock in the pharmaceutical company that makes Ritalin!  Or maybe you’re totally oblivious to what it’s really doing to your kid and figure it’s just easier to keep shoving pills down his throat! Hey – if you don’t give a damn…. then keep having those prescriptions filled!

This is YOUR FOOD We’re Talking About

Corporate America is trying to take one more step to control food.  Small farmers are being threatened yet again by the federal government.  NAIS (National Animal Identification System)  is supposed to provide protection against these food recalls by tracking ‘food’ (in this case, animals) for their life.  Every time an animal is moved, mounds of paperwork have to be completed – for EACH animal. Moreoever – once again – this hurts the people who can least afford it – the SMALL FARMER.

Think it WON’T AFFECT YOU?

Think again.

If your kids have pet rabbits,  if you have a few chickens you keep for eggs or maybe you have a cow or two.  Goats for milking?  Those, too, will be required to be tagged and tracked.

No – what we do NOT need is NAIS.  We need BETTER conditions for these animals to begin with.  Not crowded, disease promoting facilities which harbor dangerous bacteria with lax monitoring systems!  The FDA and USDA cannot do it’s job, so they want to punish the small farmers and impose MORE TAXES on the American people.

Go to Organic Consumers to read more and tell your friends and contact your representatives!  Don’t let AGRIBUSINESS buy the saftey of the American people again!

Take Action: Stop NAIS

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been working for over five years to force a National Animal Identification System (NAIS) onto American animal owners. NAIS is designed to identify and track each and every individual livestock and poultry animal owned by family farmers, hobby farmers, homesteaders, and pet owners across the country.

USDA claims that NAIS is a disease tracking program, but has refused to provide any support for its claims. In reality, NAIS will:

Create expensive and time-consuming tagging and reporting requirements for small farms. The requirements are particularly burdensome for those farmers raising sustainable livestock on pasture. Ultimately, this will reduce the availability of grass-fed meats, eggs, and milk.

Give factory confinement farms a loophole through the use of group identification, providing yet another unfair advantage for factory farms. Not provide any information to the consumer, and does not improve food safety, because the tracking ends with the animal’s death.

Replace states’ existing, well-functioning disease response and brand inspection programs with an unproven, expensive, and unreliable system;

Impose high costs and government surveillance on every farmer and animal owner for no significant benefits, and will likely force many small producers out of business.

NAIS does nothing to improve food safety for consumers or prevent animal diseases. This program is a one-size-fits-all program developed by and for big Agribusiness. NAIS will increase consolidation of our food supply in the hands of a few large companies and put the brakes on the growing movement toward local food systems.

The grassroots movement has already successfully stalled USDA’s plans for NAIS, which originally called for the entire program – premises registration, animal identification, and tracking – to be mandatory by January 2009. The proposed rule is an opportunity to get thousands of objections in the formal record, and have an even greater impact.

It is imperative that people speak up to protect our right to farm and our food supply!

Take action today! Go to: ORGANIC CONSUMERS to see the video and learn more.

The deadline to submit comments to the USDA is March 16th.

Remember:  This is YOUR FOOD and America’s SMALL FARMERS we’re trying to save.

(Source:  OCA Feb Newsletter)

We Are All LAB RATS

YOU and I are lab rats.  Your KIDS are lab rats, too. Unless you grow and consume all your food yourself, YOU are held hostage by the food companies.

Think about it.  Everything thing you eat -  e v e n   those so-called ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ foods probably are tainted in some way with something.

I know too much.  I have my roots in the local food movement, but they stretch way back to the environmental movement.  What I do here, and on my website an other blogs, is try to EDUCATE.

For the most part, the average consumer has their head up their butt when it comes to food and the environment.  They think it’s not their problem, that it doesn’t concern them and that it doesn’t affect them.

Do you send your kids to public  school? Do they play sports?  Do they eat school food?  Do you take them to fast food joints?  What do you buy for them at the  grocery store? Do you eat in restaurants? What DO you eat when you eat? What DO you drink when you drink?

What about your home life?  What products do you buy:  laundry detergent, body care products, beauty products, perfumes, lotions, hair dye, nail polish?  What do you paint your walls with?  Where did you get your furniture? Do you use any bug killing preparations?  What about your lawn?  Do you have a lawn care service and do you KNOW what they put on your lawn?  Have you had a pest company assure you their ‘chemicals’ are safe around kids and pets?  Do you go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and buy lawn care products to keep the nasty bugs away?  Do your KIDS PLAY ON YOUR LAWN?

Where do YOU choose to shop?  Is Wally-World your best buddy because you have fallen victim and been brainwashed by their  ‘save money, live better’  catchphrase?

Big business, especially the likes of Wal-Mart, does NOT give a shit about you.  Look at the way they treat their own employees?  They’ve been convicted on a vast array of charges in recent years of labor violations.  Going waaaay back, and I have a copy of the article in my files here…. they even wanted to move a Native American cemetery because they wanted to build a store!  Do you think, in this day of corporate greed, that it’s gotten any better, that they’ve become a kinder, more gentler Wally?

There are numerous links detailing environmental disregard -and- total disregard for human life on this planet BY food companies and agricultural chemical companies.  You and I and this planet are being POISONED by thousands of chemicals a day because the likes of Monsanto and Bayer… those kindly aspirin people.

DO THE RESEARCH.  Do it for your kids, your friends, your family, your friends and if you care enough – our planet.

Pesticide Producers OWN Seed Companies

A recent article on Organic Consumer’s website details how much of the world is owned by the pesticide manufacturers.

THIS IS OUR FOOD, folks!  Companies like Monsanto, a chemical giant, pro-GMO,  is the world’s biggest seed company; fifth largest company in the world.  Bayer, yes the aspirin people, is the largest agrochemical corporation in the world.

One third of all pesticide use is weed killers (herbicides) and 80% of the genetically modified seeds are herbicide resistant.

That means that HERBICIDES CAN and WILL BE USED ON YOUR FOOD because it will not kill the plant, just the weeds.  This is what these companies are all about:  getting their agendas passed and up and running without concern for the human race!  Cross pollination is also possible between GM (genetically modified) and non-GMO plants.  Worldwide, 14 species of weeds have developed resistance to ‘Glyphosphate’, (Roundup) which required farmers to use heavier doses.

More bad news:  Monsanto’s Round-Up which has led the market in herbicides for over 10 years, the  “Roundup Ready” patent expires this year which will make it possible for other manufacturers to market a Round-Up clone.

That being said, the poison producers have the world market cornered on food.

THAT’S NOT a good thing!