farmers – MyWellness Network

How the Food Safety Modernization Act (S.510) will destroy American jobs, farms and local foods

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) How will the new Food Safety Modernization Act actually impact small, local farmers who grow food for CSA’s, local restaurants and grocers? To find out, I took a road trip to Texas and interviewed several small, local farmers to ask them, face to face, how the S.510 Food Safety Modernization Act would impact them.

I spoke to Farmer Brad from HomeSweetFarm.com and captured the conversation on video. You can watch it here:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=3F59F82202D42A6E9CEFA2D1EABBFC4E

Here’s a quick excerpt from our conversation about S.510 and the small farm exemption in the Tester Amendment:

Farmer Brad: To me, that’s so un-American to say hey, you’re going to stay in this box, and you can never grow your business bigger than that. $500,000 [in revenue] is your cap.

Health Ranger: It’s destroying farming jobs.

Farmer Brad: It has made us start to totally re-look at our business plans and how we’re going to sell our food. We’re no longer going to sell wholesale, no longer going to sell to chefs or restaurants, it’s consumer direct only.

Health Ranger: So you’re actually pulling back from some of your expansion plans?

Farmer Brad: We are. We have actually, this last year as we’ve been watching this happen, we’ve been putting plans on hold, and pulling back our business… so again, that’s how this is going to affect the local food system.

Health Ranger: Right.

Farmer Brad: Because we don’t want to get too successful.

Watch the complete interview here:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=3F59F82202D42A6E9CEFA2D1EABBFC4E

If you ever wonder who is destroying America’s economy…

The answer, of course, is the U.S. Congress. By slapping onerous new paperwork and reporting requirements on small farmers (who aren’t even the source of the food problem to begin with), the U.S. Congress is forcing farmers out of business and causing agriculture jobs to be shifted to Mexico and elsewhere.

When you hear American farmers saying they are going to “scale back” their businesses because they “don’t want to get too successful” (to fall under the authority of expanded FDA tyranny over the food supply), you know the country is headed for economic disaster.

America was once founded on ideas of opportunity and that hard work is supposed to pay off. People who invest in their small businesses and grow them should be rewarded, not punished. But now, thanks to the U.S. Congress and the Food Safety Modernization Act, small farmers who find even a little bit of success selling food (because selling $500,000 worth of food is still a very small scale operation, and the actual profit on that might only be $50,000 for a full year of work) are about to find themselves punished for being successful.

So much for free enterprise in America. So much for local food production. Watch for food prices to skyrocket in the coming years, and watch as America’s local food security collapses under the iron fist of the FDA driving small farmers out of business.

But that’s what the empire wants, of course: Complete control over food production so that people are forced to buy their food from the sources Big Government tells them to. Those monopolistic sources are, of course, the powerful, centralized mega-corporations planting GMO crops and spraying them with chemical pesticides. Thanks to the FSMA, we are now living under a bona-fide system of food fascism.

But don’t take my word for it: Ask the farmers yourself! That’s what I’ve been doing, and their answers reveal a disturbing truth: America’s food security is headed South.

Watch my interview with Farmer Brad here:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=3F59F82202D42A6E9CEFA2D1EABBFC4E

And it might be a good idea to start buying some heirloom seeds while you still can, by the way. Before long, local food prices are going to skyrocket, and you’ll need to grow some portion of your own diet. That is, unless you want to eat mega-corporate “food” sprayed with Roundup and containing transgenic “biotechnology” approved by the FDA.

I bet that makes you hungry just thinking about it. GMO corn, anyone?

Organic and Local – The Food Revolution

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And saying goodbye to factory farms, Monsanto and GMO’s.

Yes it’s a long road to this goal. Americans, young and old, are awakening. It is very encouraging. We want to know who produces
our food and where it comes from. Organic, local, healthy…all good.
Farmers are good, the FDA is bad.

Watch this inspiring young man and future organic farmer, 11 year old Birke Baehr, explain what’s wrong with the American food system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Id9caYw-Y\

Here is some other great info:

How to stop the usage of GMO’s Within a Week

The Future of Food (from Forbes Magazine)

Toxin From Biotech Corn Detected in U.S. Streams, Study Finds

911 Call for Farmer’s Markets and Food Groups/Co-ops

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Fund Announces New Affiliate Membership Program In Celebration of National Farmer’s Market Week

Offering Legal Services to Rapidly Growing and Increasingly Regulated Direct-to-Consumer Groups

Falls Church, Virginia (August 7, 2009) – Even as the USDA commends Farmer’s Markets in the week-long National Farmer’s Market Week, August 2 – 9, 2009, State and local health and agriculture departments are making participation difficult and expensive by cracking down on participating farmers.

Some Farmer’s Markets have become a victim of their own success, as regulators swarm over these events and nit-pick the farmers for fees, licenses and permits.

“We are seeing farmers quit the markets because they are besieged with burdensome regulations and overlapping licensing requirements that make doing business at the farmer’s market too costly,” said Fund President Pete Kennedy, Esq. The Fund seeks to support Farmer’s Markets and other direct-to-consumer food outlets with a new Affiliate Membership program that provides affordable, accessible legal guidance for these organizations.

“When Farmer’s Markets are open early in the morning or on the weekend, their Market Manager can call our Emergency Hotline to talk directly with legal counsel about a market problem” says Kennedy.

“When I joined the Fund I never thought I would ever need to call to the Emergency Hotline. In less than thirty seconds there was Pete Kennedy calling me back”, says Pam Lunn, owner of the Dancing Goat Dairy in Tampa, Florida. Pam had been ordered to stop selling milk by a misinformed inspector at the Saturday Market. “The money I spent on joining was the best money I have ever spent in a lifetime!”

Farmer’s Markets are the flagship of the innovative and rapidly expanding direct-to-consumer food trend fueled by the public demand for fresher, more nutritious food that is produced closer to home. Millions of food-savvy consumers are bypassing the grocery stores and flocking to innovative outlets like Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Cow-Share Programs, Private Buyers Clubs and Food Co-ops to access food for their families which is not available elsewhere in their communities. Because of the many recent food recalls, the draw to these outlets is fresh, safe, nutritious and non-toxic foods from known sources – local sustainable farmers.

The USDA reports that direct-to-consumer market is the fastest growing sector of the agricultural economy: “Over the past decade, the growth of direct-to-consumer food marketing across all regions far exceeded the growth of total agricultural sales. From 1997-2007, direct-to-consumer food marketing grew by 104.7 percent in the United States, while total agricultural sales increased by only 47.6 percent.” (USDA Facts on Direct-to-Consumer Marketing, May 2009).

“As our name suggests, the Fund was originally created to support the Farmer and the Consumer. Now, we feel it’s essential to support the “to” in our name, the non-profit groups and local food entrepreneurs who are recreating the way that America shops for food,” says Kennedy.

“Our Affiliate Membership Program is the next critical step in our mission to expand and encourage direct-to-consumer trade and ultimately provide our neighbors and communities with easy access to local, fresh and safe sustainably farmed products.” Candidates for Affiliate Memberships include Farmer’s Markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs), Cow or Goat-Share Programs, Private Buyers Clubs and Food Co-ops.

The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund defends the rights and broadens the freedoms of sustainable farmers, and protects consumer access to raw milk and local, nutrient-dense foods. Concerned citizens can support the Fund by joining at www.farmtoconsumer. org or by contacting Fund at 703-208-FARM (3276).

The Fund’s sister organization, the Farm-to-Consumer Foundation works to promote consumer access to raw milk and local, nutrient-dense food, and support for farmers engaged in sustainable farm stewardship. Visit www.farmtoconsumerf oundation. org.

Contact:

Taaron G. Meikle

Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund

703-860-1010