It's time to put a stop to Monsanto

Tell congress to vote against excessive regulation of all food production
Soon to be up for a vote is a bill that could stop small and local
producers; HR-875 "Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009"

[copy and paste in the links - it's too much work to use the codes which
this drupal system requires - maybe someone knows an easier way to do it?]

There is a U.S House Resolution...HR875...entitled "The Food Safety
Modernization Act"...put forth by Rosa Deloro, a Dem. from CT, whose husband
is Stanley Greenberg, who works with many corporations, including Monsanto,
that wants EVERYONE who grows ANY food to register and report to the Feds.
Failure to do so results in large fines and potential seizure of property.
I've never been poisoned by anything at a farmers market, and it's none of
their business if i choose to grow a strawberry plant or a tomato!

Text of Bills:

HR-875

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875

S-425

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s425 :

HR-875 Meta Data:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h875/show

YouTubes:

1:40; INN report; Criminalize Organic Farming? EXCUSE ME?! BILLS: HR 875 and

S 425

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epXNJNjYBvw

5:22 (actually @ 2:25-4:20); Don't Panic! USGovernment to regulate ANY

"Farm" - Victory Gardens? RELOAD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cTzT8qRIS4&feature=related

8:15; The End of Local Food (HR 875)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkaNR-bqlrY

google video search:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&ei=lYjCSYahHKCltgeIv4zgCg&resnum=0&q=HR+875&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=rIjCSbrdM5_htgepkqXhCg&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title #

Text Editorials:

Monsanto's dream bill, HR 875 (followed by an excellent selection of
Monsanto GM quotes, and massive good commentary)

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Monsanto-s-dream-bill-HR-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090309-337.html

&

http://vegancowprotect.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/monsantos-dream-bill-hr-875/#comment-317
http://vegancowprotect.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/monsantos-dream-bill-hr-875/

Change We Can Believe In: How About the End of Farmers Markets? Say Hello to

H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009

http://cryptogon.com/?p=7362

HR 875 The food police, criminalizing organic farming and the backyard
gardener, and violation of the 10th amendment

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=12671

HR 875: The End Of Organic Farming?

http://thefinalhour.blogspot.com/2009/03/hr-875-end-of-organic-farming.html

HR875: Your homegrown tomatoes are illegal

http://open.salon.com/blog/gordon_wagner/2009/03/17/hr875_your_homegrown_tomatoes_are_illegal

The End of Organic Farming? How HR875 Could Kill the Farmers Market

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-End-of-Organic-Farming?-How-HR875-Could-Kill-the-Farmers-Market&id=2088965

Social Bookmarks:

http://digg.com/search?section=all&s=Food+Safety+Modernization+Act+of+2009

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/84r5m/hr875_which_would_give_more_power_to_monsanto_was/

Feel free to plagiarize my wiseacre comment below left on one of these
pages; better yet, write your congress person!

i'm so scared of organic food that i think the government should arm us with
assault weapons and rockets and train us to use such in self defense against
rabid tomatoes and broccoli

it would probably also make us a whole lot safer if we spread all our
nuclear waste evenly over all lands that might be used to grow food consumed
in the US just to make sure that even if organic farming techniques are
being used anywhere that i won't have to be attacked by any actually organic
food

as to those who would like to give me their extra homegrown zucchinis,
iwould be happy to entertain the idea of accepting them if you can submit
triplicate copies of the paperwork required by this bill to ensure your food
facility is safe enough for me and mine

growing vegetables next door without submission of this documentation will

require a response from my assault weapons

monte letourneau WI Green Party

Allness Unlimited

http://network.greenchange.org/people/monte

all general statements are false

==========

Critics sow doubt as 'Farmer Protection Act' hearing nears
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090315/NEWS01/903150311\

at 3/20/2009 1:15 PM MDT on greatfallstribune.com

My Comment:

This is another case of "the good guys" being so intimidated by the supposed
"free market conservatives" that they're afraid to even say anything, let
alone do anything, against the corporate monopolists. Witness Sen. Tester,
an organic farmer, who since being elected has never even mentioned Monsanto
or its long record of using the legal system and its power in land grant
colleges to suppress research and actually pass legislation which REQUIRES
the use of its own products. Ag broadcasters are nearly all on board as
well. I've had several occasions to tell the Northern Broadcasting network
that their stories promoting Roundup and other Monsanto products are
violations of journalistic ethics.

Years ago, I proposed that GFHS alumni press a class-action suit against
Monsanto for stealing the name of our yearbook, The Roundup. Apparently,
people thought I was joking.

Great Falls High School is not "Roundup Ready."

============

And I published the following related blog on the Tribune website:

The Death of Agribusiness? Monsanto must be prosecuted and banned from
Montana

Posted 3/18/2009 8:11 PM MDT on greatfallstribune.com
http://greatfallstribune.com/

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=70197bde91c340ac9cbf0bcd1259be31&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=pe
rsonaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostI
d=Blog%3a70197bde91c340ac9cbf0bcd1259be31Post%3acc5734af-85b9-46e2-936a-7b18
60e5a83a&sid=sitelife.greatfallstribune.com

There was an article in the March 18 Tribune from the Associated Press (but
not on the website) which reported on a hearing for a bill to protect
farmers from having their crops and harvests searched by Monsanto in order
to prosecute them for having any Monsanto patented "terminator seeds" in
their possession. This bill was opposed by the Montana Grain Growers
Association, Sugar Beet growers, and other corporate agribusiness interests.

According to the story, Monsanto representatives didn't testify, but they
had one of their lavish receptions at a Helena hotel for Montana
legislators.

This bill is like trying to fight a marauding grizzly (or maybe a bobcat)
with a cap gun. What is needed is an outright ban on the sale of all
Monsanto products in Montana, and a vigorous investigation on the federal
level to expose the billions of dollars of costs and thousands of deaths and
illnesses attributable to Monsanto products and policies.

Compared with WR Grace, Monsanto's damage to the people, economy, and
environment of Montana is 100's of times greater. Yet, Monsanto is being
treated like any other respectable business, and it is allowed to prey upon
farmers and consumers in ways which virtually no other corporation has ever
done.

Here is some information and links about GMO's and Monsanto's business
practices and use of the legal system to maintain its destructive, coercive
monopolies.

FROM INSTITUTE FOR RESPONSIBLE TECHNOLOGY

Obama's team includes dangerous biotech "Yes Men"

http://www.seedsofdeception.com/

Biotech "Yes Men" on Obama's team threaten to expand the use of dangerous
genetically modified (GM) foods in our diets. Instead of giving us change
and hope, they may prolong the hypnotic "group think" that has been
institutionalized over three previous administrations-where critical
analysis was abandoned in favor of irrational devotion to this risky new
technology.

Clinton's agriculture secretary Dan Glickman saw it first hand:

"It was almost immoral to say that [biotechnology] wasn't good, because it
was going to solve the problems of the human race and feed the hungry and
clothe the naked. . . . If you're against it, you're Luddites, you're
stupid. That, frankly, was the side our government was on. . . . You felt
like you were almost an alien, disloyal, by trying to present an open-minded
view"

When Glickman dared to question the lax regulations on GM food, he said he
"got slapped around
http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showArticle/?objectID=2308

a little bit by not only the industry, but also some of the people even in
the administration."

By shutting open-minds and slapping dissent, deceptive myths about
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) persist.

The industry boasts that GMOs reduce herbicide use; USDA data
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/GMFree/EducationalMaterials/January2008/index.cfm

show that the opposite is true.

We hear that GMOs increase yield and farmer profit; but USDA and independent
studies show an average reduction in yield and no improved bottom line for
farmers.

George H. W. Bush fast-tracked GMOs to increase US exports; now the
government spends an additional $3-$5 billion per year to prop up prices of
the GM crops no one wants.

Advocates continue to repeat that GMOs are needed to feed the world; now the
prestigious International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and
Technology for Development http://www.agassessment.org/ has joined a long
list of experts who flatly reject GMOs as the answer to hunger.

Food Safety Lies

Of all the myths about GMOs, the most dangerous is that they are safe. This
formed the hollow basis of the FDA's 1992 GMO policy, which stated:

"The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by
these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way."

The sentence is complete fiction. At the time it was written, there was
overwhelming consensus among the FDA's own scientists that GM foods were
substantially different, and could create unpredictable, unsafe, and
hard-to-detect allergens, toxins, diseases, and nutritional problems. They
had urged the political appointees in charge to require long-term safety
studies, including human studies, to protect the public.

Their concerns http://www.responsibletechnology.org/DocumentFiles/145.pdf

stayed hidden until 1999, when 44,000 pages of internal FDA memos and
reports were made public due to a lawsuit. According to public interest
attorney Steven Druker, the documents showed how their warnings and
"references to the unintended negative effects" of genetic engineering "were
progressively deleted from drafts of the policy statement," in spite of
scientists' protests.

______________

It is imperative that our legislators and other state officials get this
information in their hands and quit drinking the Monsanto cool-aid.
Agriculture is Montana's biggest industry and economic base. We must protect
it at all costs.