Homegrown may be no more. Time is running out please read bill, sign petition, add your comments so you are sure to be counted, share, and forward  to others. Safety is not addressed in the bill, it will NOT provide safe food.

HR2749 Eat from Factory Farms or No Food

Target:
Washington D.C. Senate, Congress and President
Sponsored by: 

Do you want to be forced to eat produce grown with insecticides and herbicides and who knows what other chemicals and dairy products from cows injected with rBGH (bovine growth hormones) a proven carcinogen in humans.  No, then sign this petition and add your own comments.

This is another bill, HR 2749 and HR 759; The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, being fast tracked in Congress.  This bill is more dangerous than HR875 and S425.  HR 2749 does not address underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply.  The industrial food system and food imports are badly in need of effective regulation, but this bill does not specifically direct regulation or resources to these areas.  The following are the most alarming government powers created by the government to enable the government to taking away our basic freedoms.   Since the government is fast tracking this one we need to fast track our response in the form of a petition against this bill and all those that are similar in their true intent of control not safety. 

This bill was introduced June 8th and pushed to House Energy and Commerce Committee on June 17th. The bill is an enhancement to H.R.759, and to a lesser extent, H.R. 857, previously proposed food safety bills in the 111th Congress. It is also co-sponsored by the same Representatives as the latter two bills, although new to the line of support is Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the House Energy and Commerce committee.  As a co-sponsor how can he be part of the review process, isn't that conflict of interest? Go to: Open Congress web-site - http://www.opencongress.org/bill/all  and read the bill and check out Rep. Waxman's profile and comments from his constituents in California. 

The issue is freedom, not safety.  "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin.

Food safety, through totalitarian bills in Congress, now threatens ALL FOOD IN THE US, our democracy and survival

ALARMING PROVISIONS:  * Power to Quarantine a Geographic Area; the FDA can also Halt All Movement of All Food in a geographic area. [This - "that has been used to transport or hold such food" - would mean all cars that have ever brought groceries home so this means ALL TRANSPORTATION can be shut down under this.  This is using food as a cover for martial law.]  Under this provision, farmers markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. The agency can halt all movement of all food in a geographic area.  This is also a means of total control over the population under the cover of food safety, and do it at any time.

* Random Warrant-less Searches of Business Records.  Used against small farmers and local food producers, without any evidence whatsoever that there has been a violation.  If these bills cover all who "hold food" then this allows for taking of records of anyone at any time on no basis at all.  Even farmers selling direct to consumers would have to provide the federal government with records on where they buy supplies, how they raise their crops, and a list of customers.  

* Regulation of How Crops Are Raised and Harvested.  How wrong this is, just read the heading.  HR 2749 puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers how to do what they have been doing successfully for generations.  (This astounding control opens the door to CODEX.  WTO "good farming practices" will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms, but will be forced into the purchase of industry's products.  They will be slaves on the land, doing the work they are ordered to do - against their own best wisdom - and paying out to industry against their will.   There will be no way to be frugal, to grow one's own grain to feed the animals, to raise healthy animals without GMO grains or drugs, to work with nature at all.  Grass-fed cattle and poultry and hogs will be finished.  So, it's obvious where control will take us.  And weren't these the "rumors on the internet" that were dismissed but are clearly the case?

 * Establishing a Tracing System for Food.  Each person who produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds such food (Is this not every home in the US?), would have to maintain the full pedigree of the origin and previous distribution history of the food, establish and maintain a system for tracing the food that is interoperable with the systems established and maintained by other such persons.  The bill does not explain how far the trace back will extend or how it will be done for multi-ingredient foods.  With all these ambiguities, [with all these ambiguities, it is dangerous, period, separate from the money] it's far from clear how much it will cost either the farmers or the taxpayers.  [It is massive and absurd and burdensome beyond the capacity of people to comply - is this not fascism? - so it is a set up for being used to impose penalties endlessly and/or to eliminate anyone at will.]

* Severe Criminal and Civil Penalties.   A prison term of up to 10 years and/or fines of up to $100,000 for each violation for each individual.  [Does it include judicial review, Congressional oversight, a defined and limited set of penalties and punishments for a defined set of "crimes?)  NO. It is entirely ambiguous and left to the whim and sole power of "the Administrator"?  Who is that person set to be?  Is it Michael Taylor, Monsanto lawyer and executive, as Food Democracy has said?  That is, do these bills set up an agency by which the entire US food supply will be turned over to the control of a multinational corporation under WTO regulations (and not to US farmers and not to US laws under the Constitution), with boundless freedom to do what it wants, and one infamous for harm to farmers and lack of safety of food?]  

 * Annual Registration Fee of $500.  Who do you think this would impact first and hardest the big Agro Corporation or your local small farmer that struggles to get by financially now?   

If it was not clear before how frightening these bills are, especially HR2749, this small section of provisions should make their actual, absolute control on all the people, clear now.  It goes way beyond food safety to absolute control over farms, animals, food, and us, including our movements and access to the food choice at all.   Please pass this information and petition to sign, and be sure to add comments, to everyone as quickly as possible.  I would like to be able to send the petition to Washington DC with thousands, hopefully tens of thousands of signatures. 

If you don't believe this type of control by the government could happen read the news articles on my Profile page and Share page.  It is already happening here in the USA.  Read news reports: PA Church Ladies Raided by ‘Food Safety’ Cops and  The Criminalization of Raw Milk-A Mennonite Farmer is Hauled Away by Linn Cohen-Cole.

There are currently individual state regulations/laws testing these types of overstepping government controls into our lives. This is one example of the fight for our freedoms going on right now.  In this one case this man's constitutional rights are being stepped on and ignored. The Mennonite culture and religious practices, and constitutional rights are being violated.  Keep watch in your own states and communities.   

If you want the links, more information or want to send me more information please send me a private email by clicking on my name in "Sponsored by" at the top of the petition.  When you sign the petition I cannot link to your information or any links you include.  

Thanks so much for your support.

Do you want to be forced to eat produce grown with insecticides and herbicides and who knows what other chemicals and dairy products from cows injected with rBGH (bovine growth hormones) a proven carcinogen in humans.  No, then sign this petition and add your own comments.

This is another bill, HR 2749 and HR 759; The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, being fast tracked in Congress.  This bill is more dangerous than HR875 and S425.  HR 2749 does not address underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply.  The industrial food system and food imports are badly in need of effective regulation, but this bill does not specifically direct regulation or resources to these areas.  The following are the most alarming government powers created by the government to enable the government to taking away our basic freedoms.   Since the government is fast tracking this one we need to fast track our response in the form of a petition against this bill and all those that are similar in their true intent of control not safety. 

This bill was introduced June 8th and pushed to House Energy and Commerce Committee on June 17th. The bill is an enhancement to H.R.759, and to a lesser extent, H.R. 857, previously proposed food safety bills in the 111th Congress. It is also co-sponsored by the same Representatives as the latter two bills, although new to the line of support is Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the House Energy and Commerce committee.  As a co-sponsor how can he be part of the review process, isn't that conflict of interest? Go to: Open Congress web-site - http://www.opencongress.org/bill/all  and read the bill and check out Rep. Waxman's profile and comments from his constituents in California. 

The issue is freedom, not safety.  "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin.

Food safety, through totalitarian bills in Congress, now threatens ALL FOOD IN THE US, our democracy and survival

ALARMING PROVISIONS:  * Power to Quarantine a Geographic Area; the FDA can also Halt All Movement of All Food in a geographic area. [This - "that has been used to transport or hold such food" - would mean all cars that have ever brought groceries home so this means ALL TRANSPORTATION can be shut down under this.  This is using food as a cover for martial law.]  Under this provision, farmers markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. The agency can halt all movement of all food in a geographic area.  This is also a means of total control over the population under the cover of food safety, and do it at any time.

* Random Warrant-less Searches of Business Records.  Used against small farmers and local food producers, without any evidence whatsoever that there has been a violation.  If these bills cover all who "hold food" then this allows for taking of records of anyone at any time on no basis at all.  Even farmers selling direct to consumers would have to provide the federal government with records on where they buy supplies, how they raise their crops, and a list of customers.  

* Regulation of How Crops Are Raised and Harvested.  How wrong this is, just read the heading.  HR 2749 puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers how to do what they have been doing successfully for generations.  (This astounding control opens the door to CODEX.  WTO "good farming practices" will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms, but will be forced into the purchase of industry's products.  They will be slaves on the land, doing the work they are ordered to do - against their own best wisdom - and paying out to industry against their will.   There will be no way to be frugal, to grow one's own grain to feed the animals, to raise healthy animals without GMO grains or drugs, to work with nature at all.  Grass-fed cattle and poultry and hogs will be finished.  So, it's obvious where control will take us.  And weren't these the "rumors on the internet" that were dismissed but are clearly the case?

 * Establishing a Tracing System for Food.  Each person who produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds such food (Is this not every home in the US?), would have to maintain the full pedigree of the origin and previous distribution history of the food, establish and maintain a system for tracing the food that is interoperable with the systems established and maintained by other such persons.  The bill does not explain how far the trace back will extend or how it will be done for multi-ingredient foods.  With all these ambiguities, [with all these ambiguities, it is dangerous, period, separate from the money] it's far from clear how much it will cost either the farmers or the taxpayers.  [It is massive and absurd and burdensome beyond the capacity of people to comply - is this not fascism? - so it is a set up for being used to impose penalties endlessly and/or to eliminate anyone at will.]

* Severe Criminal and Civil Penalties.   A prison term of up to 10 years and/or fines of up to $100,000 for each violation for each individual.  [Does it include judicial review, Congressional oversight, a defined and limited set of penalties and punishments for a defined set of "crimes?)  NO. It is entirely ambiguous and left to the whim and sole power of "the Administrator"?  Who is that person set to be?  Is it Michael Taylor, Monsanto lawyer and executive, as Food Democracy has said?  That is, do these bills set up an agency by which the entire US food supply will be turned over to the control of a multinational corporation under WTO regulations (and not to US farmers and not to US laws under the Constitution), with boundless freedom to do what it wants, and one infamous for harm to farmers and lack of safety of food?]  

 * Annual Registration Fee of $500.  Who do you think this would impact first and hardest the big Agro Corporation or your local small farmer that struggles to get by financially now?   

If it was not clear before how frightening these bills are, especially HR2749, this small section of provisions should make their actual, absolute control on all the people, clear now.  It goes way beyond food safety to absolute control over farms, animals, food, and us, including our movements and access to the food choice at all.   Please pass this information and petition to sign, and be sure to add comments, to everyone as quickly as possible.  I would like to be able to send the petition to Washington DC with thousands, hopefully tens of thousands of signatures. 

If you don't believe this type of control by the government could happen read the news articles on my Profile page and Share page.  It is already happening here in the USA.  Read news reports: PA Church Ladies Raided by ‘Food Safety’ Cops and  The Criminalization of Raw Milk-A Mennonite Farmer is Hauled Away by Linn Cohen-Cole.

There are currently individual state regulations/laws testing these types of overstepping government controls into our lives. This is one example of the fight for our freedoms going on right now.  In this one case this man's constitutional rights are being stepped on and ignored. The Mennonite culture and religious practices, and constitutional rights are being violated.  Keep watch in your own states and communities.   

If you want the links, more information or want to send me more information please send me a private email by clicking on my name in "Sponsored by" at the top of the petition.  When you sign the petition I cannot link to your information or any links you include.  

Thanks so much for your support.

There are so many of these "Food Safety," bills now it is disturbing, especially when they are more about controlling people and not food safety. Please read the comments from the people, your constituents. They are writing to you with their concerns, thoughts, feelings and mandates as citizens regarding this bill and the bigger issues it raises.    
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We signed the "HR2749 Eat from Factory Farms or No Food" petition!
# 360:
8:02 am PST, Feb 9, Liz Casey, Canada
# 359:
6:22 pm PST, Feb 8, Jelica Roland, Croatia
# 358:
5:19 am PST, Feb 8, Elena Pintilie, Canada
# 357:
3:32 am PST, Feb 8, Damir Valecic, Croatia
# 356:
2:57 am PST, Feb 8, Marcla Clarke, Florida
# 355:
9:00 pm PST, Feb 7, Marjolein Soederhuizen, Netherlands
Biologic dynamic food is the only answer for a healthy life, it will reduce costs for healthcare and make even betterminded ppl, thinking off the future off life, earth, nature, my sons never saw a hospital uptill now, they are 23 and 28, not even a doctor and yet they dont eat all the unpolluted d food they were use too, allthough the 28 yearold one is already coming back to the biologic food.........
# 354:
8:38 pm PST, Feb 7, Lois Higginbotham, Indiana
# 353:
5:24 pm PST, Feb 7, Patricia Herrick, Montana
# 352:
5:19 pm PST, Feb 7, H Nick Hardy, Florida
# 351:
5:17 pm PST, Feb 7, US Veteran, Montana
I have had enough of this governments corporate bullshit. It is time to March on D.C. and time to take back my country and take control of my government.
# 350:
4:59 pm PST, Feb 7, Robert & Carmen Santaigo, Washington
Are we trying to poison and kill ourselves? Passing this bill will do just that. You would be slowly killing yourself and your loved ones. Is this what you want?
# 349:
4:53 pm PST, Feb 7, KAY CHRONISTER, Pennsylvania
Keep "GM" pesticides out of our foods!!!!!!!!
# 348:
4:09 pm PST, Feb 7, Debbie Geno, Missouri
# 347:
3:54 pm PST, Feb 7, Jonathan Stephenson, New Hampshire
# 346:
3:53 pm PST, Feb 7, Karen Simmons, Canada
The prospects of the far reaching powers of government agencies to enforce this bill scares the heck out of me. I suspect industry was consulted on this bill, but I'm not sure all the stakeholders were consulted.....that being every food-consuming person in the US. Further, since US grown food is coming across the US/Canada border unfettered, Canadians will want to have something to say about the inputs into your food supply too.
# 345:
3:49 pm PST, Feb 7, Paula Sanders, Australia
# 344:
3:12 pm PST, Feb 7, Kay Smith, Texas
Stop putting deadly chemicals in OUR FOOD! MSG GMO Known to cause cancer.

Stop shipping our food overseas to be processed. They have no regulatory system and how do WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE EATING. Funny how we have been getting all the recalls on our food and also our PET FOODS! HMMMM!!!!

# 343:
1:49 pm PST, Feb 7, Beth Stephens, Canada
Leave our foods alone.

How much more money do you want to waste, and you will never know what you get back.

# 342:
1:45 pm PST, Feb 7, Henriette Matthijssen, Canada
Our food is the gift to life & we do not want GMO in our food supplies. We need organic farmers to continue to grow nutritious & healthy wholesome food for the world as they have always done in the past with great success. Government needs to butt out & stay out of our food supplies. They screw up enough on so much already. We will deal with our food on our own!

Our food should be grown locally as much as possible to get the most nutrients & benefits. We do not want our food imported from other countries unless we are unable to grow it from local organic farmers

# 341:
1:35 pm PST, Feb 7, Kris Cunningham, Nevada
# 340:
1:30 pm PST, Feb 7, Barbara Harvey, Minnesota
# 339:
1:05 pm PST, Feb 7, Ivona Parkaceva, Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic Of
# 338:
12:58 pm PST, Feb 7, Kathy Beavin, Washington
Please do some homework and learn about what is being done to our food before you even think of voting this into law. 1) GMO food is not safe for human consumption and will not help "feed the masses" 2) Conventional farming "like our ancesters used to do" with crop rotation and NATURAL (not petrochemical based) fertilizers and pest controls is best for you, me, children and the planet. Again, please do independent research, do not believe what the lobbyists are telling you. Our future depends on it.
# 337:
12:39 pm PST, Feb 7, Catherine Turley, California
congress has to take into consideration that they are representing two distinctly different groups of people. those who are deeply concerned about their health and the environment deserve equal representation. this bill eliminates the voice and the rights of those people.
# 336:
11:59 am PST, Feb 7, Barbara Campbell, Texas
# 335:
11:47 am PST, Feb 7, Kari Dyrdahl, Minnesota
# 334:
11:34 am PST, Feb 7, Carol Vella, Canada
I live in Canada and we pretty much have the same problems here. I buy organic and try to be as much as a vegetarian as I can. We have a right to know what is in our food and then decided if we want to feed it to our family...
# 333:
11:25 am PST, Feb 7, Terrie Williams, Texas
# 332:
10:42 am PST, Feb 7, Name not displayed, New York
# 331:
9:38 am PST, Feb 7, Jaye Burnap, Oregon
# 330:
9:26 am PST, Feb 7, Joanne Cannon, United Kingdom
# 329:
9:10 am PST, Feb 7, Kim Stands for PEACE, United Kingdom
I have no taste for chemical waste and it is my human right to be able to purchase foods which are wholesome and natural. Keep politics and corproate deals out of our food supply!

In regards to food being shipped out of an area to be processed and then shipped back is not only stupid, but adds unnecessary food miles as well as takes jobs out of the community! Local food should stay that way!

# 328:
8:37 am PST, Feb 7, Jennifer Martino, California
# 327:
8:34 am PST, Feb 7, Scott Zorc, Georgia
Current legislation doesn't fully cover the elimination of GMO's from our food supply.
# 326:
7:49 am PST, Feb 7, Peggy Acosta, Pennsylvania
# 324:
7:44 am PST, Feb 7, Taylor Brooks, Sweden
# 323:
7:43 am PST, Feb 7, Julie Douglass, United Kingdom
I live in the U.K., within the E.U. where we are finding U.S. agribusinesses like Smithfield are moving in with their intention to take over the infrastructure of agricultural production e.g. slaughterhouses and packing facilities and stitch up the market so that small farmers have no other means of accessing the market. Cheap food comes at a terrible price in terms of animal welfare, pesticide use and the degradationof rural communities. Don't let the agibusiness moghuls rule YOUR country any more, and help to keep them out of MINE!
# 322:
7:13 am PST, Feb 7, Alice Diane, New Jersey
# 321:
7:10 am PST, Feb 7, Anne Kirkwood, Florida
# 320:
10:21 am PST, Feb 6, Laura Hovland, California
# 319:
2:30 pm PST, Feb 5, Mary Riley, Washington
# 318:
4:27 pm PST, Jan 31, Name not displayed, Washington
# 317:
11:26 pm PST, Jan 27, Richard Hollister, Arizona
# 316:
11:07 am PST, Jan 25, Kurt Valentine, Netherlands
Go stop HR 2749 and HR 759.
# 315:
5:20 am PST, Jan 24, Shaktiva Irahs, Netherlands
I rather starve than eat this and pollute my family tree, forever.
# 314:
1:07 pm PST, Jan 20, Kellie Smith, New Hampshire
# 313:
12:10 pm PST, Jan 20, Carole Sarcinello, Tennessee
# 312:
1:52 pm PST, Jan 18, Janice Mastin-Kamps, Ohio
# 311:
2:24 pm PST, Jan 15, Ian Down, Canada
# 310:
11:53 pm PST, Jan 5, Ben Harrison, Texas
Bills like this make me want to live "off the grid." Americans should not have to worry about our representatives passing ridiculous regulations that do nothing to help us. This bill reduces freedom and increases dependency on government and large agri-business. We do not want this paternalistic style of government that is "watching out" for us. We are being treated like children by the state. Personal responsibility is necessary in order to pull ourselves out of the downward spiral that we are in. The message from our federal gov. right now should be one of independence. State government needs more independence from the central gov. and the citizens need to regain control over their personal lives.
# 309:
1:52 pm PST, Dec 19, Gabriela Saenz, California
# 308:
9:44 am PST, Dec 18, Alex Saenz, California
# 307:
4:50 pm PST, Dec 12, Emily Greenwood, Nebraska
no, i have the right to eat what i want, and to have the mass amounts of food made readily available to me be fresh, chemical free
# 306:
10:06 am PST, Dec 3, Didzis Karklins, Ireland
# 305:
4:15 pm PST, Nov 28, Walter Graue, Florida
Our food safety actually begins with people who sign these petitions reading rather than scanning the content. Current "fast tracking" of bills (such as HR 2749 and HR 759, as well as HR875 and S425) is in itself a red flag. Why, in a lawmaking system which normally moves like cold molasses is something being accelerated through? Could it be that it should appear for as short a time as possible to escape public scrutiny?

Shipping foods overseas for cheap processing and returning them is good for profit, not for us. Case in point: china and the melamine scandal. A foreign processor could poison a significant part of our population, not only lowering resistance to invasion, but costing us money we now don't have trying to treat a large number of people. The solution is for our huge corporate food suppliers to tolerate reduced profits for a period of time. The executives in these corporations probably would not even miss the few million dollars it would cost them, but money begets greed. Food, the lack of it and the distribution of it has historically toppled the British, French, Russian, and many more governments. If our elected politicians don't quit playing games with the food issue, as other governments historically have, they are inviting violence from within. I predict that just as drugs and gambling are addictive, so is greed. I also postulate that the majority of our government are addicts to greed. the rest I will leave to your logic.

# 304:
8:15 am PST, Nov 11, Ruth Heath, Arkansas
# 303:
8:18 pm PST, Nov 1, Joan Baker, Missouri
Small family farms should have the right to produce. If corporate farming takes over, it will create more unemployment. Sending things overseas for processing and then shipping it back is the most absurd thing ever. It just forces the prices up. We don't need this when our utilities ,medical, medicare prices are being increased. I love farms, I grew up on one, Let us prserve them!
# 302:
2:13 pm PDT, Oct 30, Miranda Rumpf, Missouri
# 301:
1:41 pm PDT, Oct 29, David Nicewarner, Arkansas
David B Nicewarner
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