Federal farm bill action item

[Guest guest]

This just in from Cassandra.

In Knowledge, Health & Freedom,

Doc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

I have found the people at DownsizeDC to be pretty reliable in what

they say about legislation and their priorities.

 

I hope you will use this alert to contact your Congressional

Representative.

 

Best,

 

Cassandra

 

 

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

 

Quote of the Day: "You can

make a small fortune in farming - provided you start with a large one"

- Anonymous

The bill we warned you

about

THIS IS AN URGENT ACTION ITEM...

We've been told a vote is likely to occur Wednesday.

When we first launched our Freedom to Farm

campaign back in April, we mentioned that House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman

said "he intends to pass a strong

food safety bill soon."

This bill we warned you about, the 109-page H.R. 2749,

is Waxman's promise.

The good news is that some of the

most

egregious trial balloons from earlier bills such as H.R. 875 have gone

by the wayside . . .

* There will be no new

Food Safety Administration bureaucracy

* The bill seems to define "farm" in such a way that backyard gardens

won't be included in the regulations

* Direct farm-to-consumer, farm-to-restaurant, and farm-to-grocery

store transactions will be exempt

* There is no implementation or incorporation of the National Animal

Identification System (NAIS)

YOU are to be thanked for this. DC

Downsizers were part of a large army of concerned citizens that killed

earlier bills.

But the bad news is very bad. This bill . .

..

* authorizes warrantless searches of farms

* imposes a $500 tax (or "registration fee") of all operators in all

steps of the food production chain

* imposes civil penalties

up to $20,000 per individual for each violation

* creates a food trace-back system, burdening farms and small

businesses with reams of new paperwork

* empowers the Dept. of Health

and Human Services

to micro-manage the raising and harvesting of crops (you might have

assumed that Congress would've handed the U.S. Dept of Agriculture this

terrible power).

In essence, Congress wants to punish the

innocent

and protect the guilty. It is not small farms and businesses that were

the source of contaminated food scares, but rather the processing

facilities of large corporations. Yet this bill will only drive small

farms out of business, which means reduced competition and higher

prices in an already-bad economy.

Please use DownsizeDC.org's

proprietary Educate the Powerful System to send a letter to Congress

telling them to defeat H.R. 2749. Tell them the bill will only hurt

competition and put undue burdens on small farmers. Let's send

enough messages to frighten Congress and kill this bill.

And due to the urgency of this vote, if you have time, please

call

your local House Representative as well. His or her contact info is

presented on the campaign page, once you're logged in.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer,

Jim Babka, President

DownsizeDC.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attachment: vcard [not shown]