hr 2749 Another Bill to Put an End to Backyard and Organic Gardening

Yet another bill, H.R. 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, has been just passed the house that may unfairly penalize. This bill will grant new powers to the FDA including the warrentless searches! Two other bills, H.R. 875 and S 425 were already introduced in February of 2009 and have been drawing the ire of backyard gardeners, small family farms and bloggers since. Perhaps that explains why someone felt it was necessary to introduce .R. 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 in June and ram it through the House in July. It is not too late to fight this bill. Contact your senators NOW and demand that they read this bill and protect your rights to grow your own food. This bill as well as the other is supposed to make food safer but instead just adds more beaurocracy and infringes on your rights. Even if you don't grow your own food or visit farmer's markets this bill could have a huge impact on your grocery bill. These bills are poorly worded and ill conceived. Please don't sit by while our government continues to trash our liberties. Stand up and let yourself be heard!

Government Puts and End to Backyard and Organic Gardening

There is a disturbing new bill before the House and the Senate in Washington D.C. that could put an end to small farms and even backyard gardening, even if you're the only one that eats the food produced. Before you decide that this bill doesn't affect you and choose not to act, please read further. One important thing to remember: Even though there has been a lot of emphasis on farming, all food production could be affected by this bill if it becomes law. No more bake sales, homemade jerky, processing wild game, and many more aspects of everyday food production that I can't seem to think of. I guess one good thing might come of it. It might make giving homemade fruit cakes for Christmas illegal.

While the bill does not specifically name backyard gardening as prohibited, the bill itself is so vague and overreaching that any food production operation that doesn't meet it's unattainable standards will be considered in violation. This bill would introduce very strict and costly regulations that small producers will never be able to comply with. A huge farm company like Monsanto (also a pesticide company) will have no problem complying with a $200,000.00 addition to there production facility, while a small family farm would be forced to stop production. would you be willing to pony up big bucks to keep that tomato plant on your front porch? This could well happen. There are NO provisions in this bill to exempt or protect the small farmer.

The Bill will create a panel of 'experts' from the major factory farm corporations (like Monsanto, Tyson, and Sodexo) and allow them to decide what restrictions to impose. By the way Monsanto is one of the main backers of this bill, I wonder why... Sounds like a good opportunity for the big guys to price the 'little guys' right out of business. Can you imagine if they put Walmart in charge of making laws for retail establishments? How long would it would take before every 'Mom and Pop' store gets shut out because they can no longer afford to do business? Still the worst is that the vagueness of the bills could make personal food production a crime subjecting private citizens to fines and seizure of property. For further reading see Campaign for Liberty and Educate Yourself. Or if you don't feel like reading watch this video.




Of course I don't expect you to take my word for it. You can take a look at the bills yourself and decide. If the links below stop working you can go to the Thomas section of Library of Congress and search using the bill names.
Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)H.R.875.IH
Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (Senate Version) S 425

You can track the progress of the bill below,
Track H.R. 875
Track S 425

So what can YOU do?
There are several Online Petitions that you can 'sign' though I don't know if they are viewed as legitimate by the politicians. Still couldn' t hurt.
Contact your representatives and politely remind them that they work for the PEOPLE. Ask them to READ the bills before voting (most never read the bills they just go by what they hear so here's you chance to be heard) and encourage them to vote NO on a vaguely written law that will seriously inhibit the freedoms of theire constituants. Click this link for Complete Contact Information for US Congress and Governors.