Thursday, September 30, 2010

IT'S NOT JUST THE CREAM POLICE ANYMORE...NOW IT'S BLACKWATER MERCENARIES AS WELL

All is well. Nothing to see here. Move along.

OMG! A THREAT TO THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF THE NATION ITSELF! CALL THE GOAT GESTAPO!


Of all the problems going on in the world and the nation today, especially economic, you would think the fed.gov might just have something important to do rather than hassling the few people left who are engaged in the business of farming in general and milking in particular.
First, from one of the gang over at FRUGAL'S:
“We have a very small farm in the middle of nowhere. This morning we were doing morning chores and just starting to milk (goats) when a car pulls in the driveway and out come 3 people from the USDA wanting to know if we sold raw milk. I said no. They went on to ask why we advertised (Realmilk.com) and I told them that at one time we sold milk a long while ago. I did not want to answer their questions. They stated that they could go and get a warrant if I did not answer their questions. Now we have not sold raw milk in about 2 years and live just outside a town of about 2500 people. If the USDA can come all this distance to harass us for selling a food product, what is the government capable of?”
What the hell do these idiots have against milk anyway? And where in the Constitution does it say Fed.gov has any right whatsoever to dick around with it? But wait, there’s more, further proof that the government is completely out of control and has to create business for itself.
Then we have SENATE BILL 510, or the “Drop your overalls and bend over, Farmer Jones” bill, a 12-point plan to destroy the remaining 8 independent farmers in the country.
#1 All food production facilities in the United States will be required to register with the U.S. government. No food will be allowed to be grown, distributed or sold outside this bureaucratic framework unless the FDA allows it.

#2 Any food that is distributed or sold outside of U.S. government control will be considered illegal smuggling.

#3 The FDA will hire an army of new inspectors to enforce all of the new provisions in the bill.

#4 The FDA will be mandated to conduct much more frequent inspections of food processing facilities.

#5 The fees and paperwork requirements will be ruinously expensive for small food producers.

#6 S. 510 would place all U.S. food and all U.S. farms under the Department of Homeland Security in the event of a major "contamination" or an "emergency". What exactly would constitute a "contamination" or an "emergency" is anyone's guess.

#7 S. 510 mandates that the FDA facilitate harmonization of American food laws with Codex Alimentarius, which impinges on US sovereignity.

#8 S. 510 imposes an annual registration fee on any facility that holds, processes, or manufactures food. It also includes draconian fines for paperwork infractions of up to $500,000 for a single offense. Just one penalty like that would drive a small food producer out of business.

#9 S. 510 would give the FDA tremendous discretion to regulate how crops are grown and how food is produced in the United States. Basically, farmers will now be forced to farm exactly how the federal government tells them to. This could be a particular problem for small farmers selling direct to the public, many of whom are organic farmers because that is what their market wants to buy. It is feared that the U.S. government would soon declare that many organic farming methods are "unsafe" and would outlaw them.

#10 S. 510 will give the FDA the power to impose a quarantine on a specific geographic area. Basically the FDA would have the power to stop the movement of all food in an area where a "contamination" has been identified. This would be very close to being able to declare martial law.

#11 S. 510 will give the FDA the power to conduct warrantless searches of the business records of small food producers and organic farmers, even if there has been no evidence at all that a law has been broken.

#12 Many farmers are concerned that S. 510 would eliminate the right to clean and store seed. Saving and using your own seed is a traditional frugal practice of many farmers.

Then there’s a few more nails in the small farmers’ coffins from, you guessed it, the EPA.
“Lincoln ticked off examples of onerous EPA intrusions: unworkable "spray drift" pesticide regulations; proposed ambient air-quality standards that would impose impossible dust-reduction requirements on farmers; "wetlands" regulations that put even bone-dry areas off-limits to agricultural use; an ideological bias toward environmentalists when resolving Clean Water Act lawsuits.”

Who seems to be miraculously untouched by all of this? You guessed it again. MONSANTO! Now, apparently it’s just not enough to have a complete monopoly on everything ag from seed to slaughter and a nice collection of the best politicians money can buy. No siree. Now they need mercenaries (many of them former Federal agents…go figure) from Blackwater to infiltrate and spy on groups who oppose genetically altered foods.
All of this could be a backdoor approach to gun control, as well. In Frenchtown, Montana, a woman defended herself and her dog against a raiding black bear with a ZUCCHINI! Just imagine if Fed.gov hadn’t “allowed” this woman allowed to have a garden! She would have been defenseless against the 200-pound beast, and probably killed.
The blood will be on your hands, Fed.gov!
First they came for the zucchini, then they came for the milk, then they came for vegetables people actually like to eat, then they came for the assault rifles…

6 comments:

Jim Fryar said...

This is over; laisser faire declines in favour; our legislation grows authoritative, grows philanthropical, bristles with new duties and new penalties, and casts a spawn of inspectors, who now begin, note-book in hand, to darken the face of England. It may be right or wrong, we are not trying that; but one thing it is beyond doubt: it is Socialism in action, and the strange thing is that we scarcely know it. - R L. Stevenson, "Lay Morals."

Anonymous said...

Those girls are in DANGER!! Oh the agony of looking at that picture :) Scrawny goat..

Thanks, just what I needed for my Thursday morning. This makes NAIS look like a grocery bill.

-Mark

strandediniowa said...

I've tried to read the text and it's hard to figure out what's still left in the bill. And I noticed our own senator from the Bahama, le' douche Harkin has had his hand in it.

Bastards.

They will sneak this in under some other bill similar to the takeover of student loans or the 1099 reporting for business transactions were placed in the heathcare bill.

We are fast approaching the point of no return.

Ben said...

I'm afraid you gentlemen have been misinformed. The Democrats are currently in charge in DC and they help the LITTLE GUY.

strandediniowa said...

I am a little guy and both the Democrats and Republicans screw me over with equal vigor.

The laws of reciprocity will be obeyed.

Anonymous said...

I wrote to my senator's office about this bill last year.

Part of his reply was, "There has been some concern expressed regarding legislation introduced in Congress intended to strengthen the safety of the American food supply. Constituents that have contacted me have referenced blogs and forwarded emails which suggest the organic community and backyard gardens are unduly targeted by the legislation. I am not a co-sponsor of this legislation, but I also do not believe these bills have been accurately characterized. There appears to be a large degree of misinformation. There is no effort in Congress to unfairly target organic agriculture or backyard gardens through food safety legislation. It is not entirely clear where the source of this unfortunate misinformation originated which has concerned many people."

I read the Congressional Research Service's summary of the bill, which led me to believe that this was essentially giving the govt. the power to regulate whatever kind of farming it wanted. Since the kids with goats, farmers' market vendors, and neighbors with too much zucchini are unlikely to have a powerful lobby to shape the legislation or the regulations that will be drafted later, I tend to believe that they will suffer before ADM or Monsanto.

I did not reply at the time, but I wish I had said "I don't trust you. believe that you, and the entire Iowa delegation, are in the pockets of the large agro-conglomerates and will make decisions to benefit them at the expense of the American public."