Green Pioneer

We so appreciate people who are out there doing that paradigm shift groove thing and coming up with great new ideas and innovations! Since we now have new chicks and more chickens and turkeys on the way, we've been reading up on poultry raising and happened onto several great sights with info on making chicken tractors or 'arks', egg-mobiles or this one...and various styles of coops and hen houses.

Sorry for the absence, but you know how busy Spring can be! The photo above is a view of our 'backyard' now as the leaves are just coming in. Nothing like Spring Green!

So what have we Green Pioneers been up to? We're now making our first go at brooding our own chicks. The children are loving this new form of entertainment! We've also been out foraging fiddleheads that have grown prolifically in the woods on our land!

We have some updates and info to share with you, too!

1. Update on NAIS

From the Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance:

Federal Updates USDA Announces Locations For Listening Sessions USDA is holding a series of listening sessions to get input on NAIS.  USDA and Congress appear to be headed straight towards a mandatory NAIS program.  These listening sessions are an important opportunity to show the widespread opposition to NAIS and to get press attention on this issue!  PLEASE COME! 

You can also submit written comments online - more information is below.

Read Rest of Article

This may sound crazy...what else is new?...but we checked out The Treehouse Book from the library last week and have been inundated with mind-whirring ideas ever since! The co-author, Peter Nelson, has corroborated on the one above and these other two books below as well...and they all have some really great...out on a limb...ideas! Find out more on their Treehouse Workshop, too...

Right now you can 'take a look inside' these books on Amazon, if you'd like to take a peek. It's really amazing what a person can do with a really small space...and a big imagination! On the Out n' About Outfitters site you can find out more on treehouse construction as well as their famous Treehouse Treesort & Institute where you can choose from several styles of treehouse lodging 'amenitrees' and/or attend classes on various aspects of 'elementree' to advanced treehousing.

We're beginning to look at the trees and woods on our land in a whole new light now! Click on the images to take a look at some 'far-up' possibilities.

If you're already wondering where you plan to take the family this summer for vacation, why not skip Disney World and opt instead for a 'Farm House' get-away! Better yet, make it a Working Farm get-away...replete with cozy lodging, lots of fresh air and open spaces...and fresh off the farm fare for all your meals...including a picnic or two!

Blackberry Farm in TN sets the bar, as does Mary Jane's Farm in Idaho, but there are many more nationwide...and even abroad. Check out Homestead on The Romantic Mom for more lovely locales...including Maine, of course!

Well, let's just say that small farmers and backyard gardeners can rest assured that someone got the message about HR 875 and outlawing organic farming.

Why?

Because now they're trying to silence the bleating sheeple into submission by exclaiming that "this was never their intention"...that this hoop-la over HR 875 is just a "myth" and that they have nothing against backyard gardeners..or even organic farmers. They're wondering what "all the ruckus" is about in blog-land. This bill wasn't meant to "hurt" anyone but to "protect" us from large corporate farmers and contamination. What large corporate farmers? The ones beholden to, manipulated and controlled by global, bloated corporate agribusinesses like Monsanto...the company Rosa DeLauro's husband works for?

[From Wikipedia: Stanley Bernard Greenberg (born May 10, 1945) is a leading Democratic pollster and political strategist who has advised the campaigns of the Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry, as well as hundreds of other candidates and organizations in the United States British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He is the founder and CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a polling and consulting firm, and co-founder, with James Carville and Bob Shrum, of Democracy Corps, a non-profit organization which produces left-leaning political strategy. He is married to current Rep. Rosa DeLauro, representative from the Third District from Connecticut.

Greenberg's corporate clients include British Petroleum, British Airways, Monsanto and General Motors. [1] ]


Don't believe it for a second...and we need to keep beating the drums to these politicians. R-Rosa DeLauro, whether she cares to admit it or not, has a major conflict of interest in even introducing a bill like this in the first place given that her husband works for Monsanto. She innocently claims that her hubby has nothing to do with this bill. Fine. It really doesn't matter who her husband is. But 'facts is facts' as they say. The verbiage of HR 875 speaks for itself. We are all fully aware of Monsanto's and all their related cohorts' dirty underhanded tricks. We can see what they have already done to small farmers in other countries around the world. We just witnessed their $1.4 billion CASH purchase of Seminis Seed Co.

We canNOT allow these people to deter and make us feel like idiots because we're alarmed over their outrageous deeds and misdeeds. Crank up the heat and keep it cranked. If Rosa DeLaura means what she says, then she will scrap this bill altogether. Note: she doesn't mention anything about not wanting to harm small farmers. She also never mentions backyard gardeners who might want to sell their produce or save their own seeds either.

Just take a stroll through the bill HR 875 and its implications. It's ALL right there. This frog won't suddenly turn into a prince. Rather it's like boiling the frog in the pot. Put a frog into warm water then slowly turn up the heat until the frog is cooked. That's how these people operate...and the only thing DeLauro's TRULY shocked about is the fact that people are actually onto their scheme...I mean, it's always worked so well before!

Recently my friend, Sherry, alerted us to the Monsanto buy-out of Seminis Seed Co. and how this was affecting one of our local seed companies here in Maine that we use...Fedco.

Fedco Seeds gave the run-down in this article about Monsanto's 1.4 billion dollar CASH payment for Seminis as well as assuming all of their unpaid debt. They do an excellent job of explaining the ramifications of what this means for seed companies and why this is such an ominous problem as they begin to explain the question:

Why Drop Monsanto?

The current industrial seed system rests upon the unholy trinity of biotechnology, corporate concentration and intellectual property rights. Each is mutually reinforcing and none of the three stands without the support of the other two.
Read Article

To me just the fact that Monsanto can slap down that amount of cash in the first place tells us something right there. Then the fact that they would slap down that kind of cash for a SEED COMPANY tells us even more. Please don't even begin to imply that Monsanto has no agenda here.

What I was so heartened to see, though, was that when Fedco polled their customers, they received an overwhelming response...and the major response was not to compromise...which means continuing to provide honest to goodness untainted-by-Monsanto seeds. Which also boils down to telling  Monsanto to take a hike!

Here are some the  responses Fedco provided in the article:

Fedco Drops Monsanto/Seminis

We responded to the news by polling our customers. Should we drop the Seminis/Monsanto line, phase it out, keep it but give it its own customer code, or maintain it without change? We received an unprecedented 1,157 responses. 54.8% voted for us to drop the Seminis/Monsanto line immediately, and an additional 17% to phase it out over time. Many included thought-provoking comments such as these:
• Drop the Seminis varieties unless this puts the entire coop in jeopardy. • Every dollar that goes to Monsanto does not go to a producer who is protective of agriculture, our world, our health. • You don’t need to sell your soul for a Sunsugar. • Let the customers decide! • Phase out as you find quality replacements. • Call upon my sense of adventure to try the new varieties you find! • Unbury the supplier codes and make them more prominent. • Give your customers a choice on their purchases for a transitional period…tax the b…ds for the public good…and spread the money like manure for our new crop of seed providers—breeders, growers and distributors. • It’s a hard thing to fight a Monsanto when we’re so deeply embedded in a system that produces Monsantos. Sort of like Jefferson hating slavery while owning slaves. • Buyers’ choice is real democracy. We, the buyers either keep them in business or put them out of business. • Double the retail price for Monsanto seed and send the additional receipts to those who suffer from Monsanto like Percy Schmeiser. • Monsanto should be Rounded Up and composted. • We’ll survive on the sweet tastiness of the moral high ground.
Read Article

I'm sure this decision's  going to cause Fedco some major readjustments, no small amount of disappointments, a bit of confusion, a likely hit to the bottom line...but at the end of the day, that's OK! Let's not compormise" was the resounding sentiment...and for that sentiment alone among so many is a triumph in and of itself.

The other thing that's really great is that so many more people out there are truly gettin' it...including myself! I haven't understood the whole corporate food dilemma entirely..it's taken me some time to connect all the dots. And I've learned so much about what's at stake not only for us here in America, but for all of us around the world... in really only the past couple of months or so. But now our children are gettin' it too...so much in fact that they call Wal-Mart 'slavery food' and want to pray for small farmers around the world when we say our bedtime prayers. That totally warms my heart and gives me some real hope for the next generation!

So "You GO Fedco" ... we're here to support you! And I hope this can encourage and strengthen all of us to bravely stand firm with our local food, farm, garden, and seed producers and providers as well!

Please tell me... is this your idea of limited government? Is it Republican conservatism...or Democratic liberalism? Or would a more appropriate definition be "Cloaked Corporate Fascism"...what do you think? Is this "protection" or is it really "policing"...where does one draw the line? Should we ask the regular person on the street in Russia, China, or Cuba what they think it is...or where they see the line being drawn?

I sent this e-mail out today:

I can't believe that Olympia Snowe calls herself a Republican... which used to imply limited govt. WHICH also means I voted for her. I'm absolutely cringing inside. She's been nothing but a complete trouble-maker! Now look at who she's in cahoots with!! Of course, the Rockefellers are long entrenched up here in ME so, no wonder...


Should President Obama have the power to shut down domestic Internet traffic during a state of emergency?

Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) think so. On Wednesday they introduced a bill to establish the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor—an arm of the executive branch that would have vast power to monitor and control Internet traffic to protect against threats to critical cyber infrastructure. That broad power is rattling some civil libertarians.

A new bill would give the President emergency authority to halt web traffic and access private data. —By Steve Aquino

The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF) gives the president the ability to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any "critical" information network "in the interest of national security." The bill does not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition would be left to the president.

The bill does not only add to the power of the president. It also grants the Secretary of Commerce "access to all relevant data concerning [critical] networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access." This means he or she can monitor or access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws.

Rockefeller made cybersecurity one of his key issues as a member of the Senate intelligence committee, which he chaired until last year. He now heads the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which will take up this bill.

Read Article Mother Jones News


Well, we can't have all these people out here questioning Obama's eligibility for the Pres. demanding him to show us "your papers, please" as well as coordinating Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Parties...among stirring up all sorts of other craziness...like opposing NAIS, HR 875, (BTW, turns out another Mainer, Rep.Chellie Pingree-D was one of the 39 who co-sponsored that bill!) and GMO's. We can't have stockholders actually requiring corporate execs to give them real numbers and making wise business decisions. Nope, can't have any of that going on!

You may be wondering how this fits in with "Green Pioneers" but if we don't maintain our freedoms in this country, there won't be much "pioneering" to do. We'll be given our marching orders and our rations for the day or week. It'll be Plato's Utopia pure and simple...in its most unadulterated form.

As coincidence would have it, WND's news breaking headline this morning was this:





Lose your property for growing food?
Big Brother legislation could mean prosecution, fines up to $1 million

...and jail sentences up to 10 years...for each separate infraction. Interesting, huh? And guess who the culprits are in submitting this legislation in the first place...

"House Resolution 875, or the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in February. DeLauro's husband, Stanley Greenburg, works for Monsanto – the world's leading producer of herbicides and genetically engineered seed.

DeLauro's act has 39 co-sponsors and was referred to the House Agriculture Committee on Feb. 4. It calls for the creation of a Food Safety Administration to allow the government to regulate food production at all levels – and even mandates property seizure, fines of up to $1 million per offense and criminal prosecution for producers, manufacturers and distributors who fail to comply with regulations."

DId you get that? DeLauro's husband, Stanley Greenburg, works for none other than that lovely, altruistic, looking-out-for-everyone's-best-interest...Monsanto!

OK and let's see which other highly-begrieved-over-our-food-safety Congress person introduced a similar bill...

"Another "food safety" bill that has organic and small farmers worried is Senate Bill 425, or the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act, sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Brown's bill is backed by lobbyists for Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland and Tyson. It was introduced in September and has been referred to the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee."

So our very concerned Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH is backed by whom..??? Let's see.. Monstanto, ADM, and Tyson. Minor detail. Hmmm. Does anyone smell a rat here..or several rats? Or is it just me?

Well, it doesn't end there. Please read the rest of the article. And please also understand that this is NOT about "food safety" here...or food "modernization"...give me a break. This is about controlling the food supply on a global scale that already allows these global corporate giants to poison us, hide it, and treat animals abominably. It's a cowardly coup is what it is. And we need to wake up and smell the coffee...or the rats.

And for those of you who think this is only about small farmers and so what? Our small farmers are our meal ticket to safe food. They're our only ticket to safe food...that is if you don't want to grow and harvest everything yourself. Backyard gardening and self-sufficiency is where our true security lies in this country. This is a Biblical precedent and it is fundamental to our Constitution and our liberty. Don't get wrapped up in the political spin and jargon. It's meant to scare, placate, and confuse...and they're very good at it.

Moving on..

I found another excellent article by Linn Cohen-Cole  relating again to this HR 875 and our "food safety" issue... or crisis...or whatever it's being termed at the moment. She states:

The "food safety" bills in Congress were written by Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc.  All are associated with the opposite of food safety.  What is this all about then?

In the simplest terms, organic food and a rebirth of farming were winning. Not in absolute numbers but in a deep and growing shift by the public toward understanding the connection between their food and their health, between good food and true social pleasures, between their own involvement in food and the improvement in their lives in general, between local food and a burgeoning local economy.

Slow Food was right - limit your food to what comes from your region and from real farmers, and slow down to cook it and linger over it with friends and family, and the world begins to change for the better.  

And as we face an unprecedented economic crisis, and it is hard to be sure what has value, one thing that always does is food.  Which is why the corporations are after absolute control over it.  But what obstacles to a complete lock on food do they face?  All the people in this country who are "banking" on organic farming and urban gardens and most of all, everyone's deepening pleasure in and increasing involvement with everything about food.

Farmers markets.  Local farmers.  Real milk.  Fresh eggs.  Vegetable stands. 

Those are things we not only all want, but things we are actively getting involved in, and things we very much need.  And where they are truly good, they are growing.

The international financial corporations which have wreaked havoc around the world with astounding nonsensical "solutions" that are destructive of everyone but them, are brothers to the international agribusiness giants (Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc.) which are just as aggressively after their own form of "taking."  Just seeds, animals, water, land.  

And freedom.

Read the rest of Goodbye farmers markets, CSAs, and roadside stands
And more of Linn Cohen-Cole's articles

If you simply can't imagine these corporations being capable of such cut-throat insidious practices, then please just view the video below. It's less than 5 minutes and is 4-5 minutes well worth watching.

Also see Monsanto Monopoly
Action Against NAIS (National Animal Identification System)
Outlawing Organic Farming HR 875

I just read this on the computer yesterday:

WASHINGTON – The nation's food safety system is a "hazard to public health" and overdue for an overhaul, President Barack Obama said Saturday as he focused on that task by filling the top job at the Food and Drug Administration. Obama used his weekly radio and video address to announce the nomination of former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg as agency commissioner and selection of Baltimore's health commissioner, Joshua Sharfstein as her deputy. Consumer groups applauded the picks.

Okay, so what does "food safety" really mean for us? What does "food safety" actually translate into for small and organic farmers? For homesteaders and gardeners who would like to sell their extra produce...and the local farmers markets? For U-Pick farms and orchards? 

What does "food safety" really provide for the people of our nation?  Once we wade through the stipulations and language of HR 875, who are the big winners and who are the big losers? Because there will be a few very big winners and there will be thousands - if not millions - of big losers....basically our entire country and others around the world who are already following suit. Such is the track record from this type of sweeping government legislation.

Find this following article on Campaign for Liberty

Posted by LydiaScott on 03/06/09 03:36 AM






HR 875  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:1:./temp/~c1112RD9bb:e11439:  

This bill is sitting in committee and I am not sure when it is going to hit the floor.  One thing I do know is that very few of the Representatives have read it.  As usual they will vote on this based on what someone else is saying.  Urge your members to read the legislation and ask for opposition to this devastating legislation.  Devastating for everyday folks but great for factory farming ops like Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo and Tyson to name a few.

I have no doubt that this legislation was heavily influenced by lobbyists from huge food producers.  This legislation is so broad based that technically someone with a little backyard garden could get fined and have their property siezed.   It will effect anyone who produces food even if they do not sell but only consume it.  It will literally put all independent farmers and food producers out of business due to the huge amounts of money it will take to conform to factory farming methods.  If people choose to farm without industry standards such as chemical pesticides and fertilizers they will be subject to a variety of harassment from this completely new agency that has never before existed.  That's right, a whole new government agency is being created just to police food, for our own protection of course.  

 DO NOT TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, READ THIS LEGISLATION FOR YOURSELF.  The more people who read this legislation the more insight we are going to get and be able to share.  Post your observations and insights below.  Urge your members to read this legislation and to oppose the passage of this legislation.

Pay special attention to

Section 3 which is the definitions portion of the bill-read in it's entirety.
section 103, 206 and 207- read in it's entirety.
Red flags I found and I am sure there are more...........

Legally binds state agriculture depts to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the states power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.
Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic.
Effects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
Effects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game. 
Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal.  There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.  
Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation.  It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation.  Who do you think they are going to side with?  
Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities.  The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
Section 207 requires that the state's agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements.  This takes away the states power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.
There are many more but by the time I got this far in the legislation I was so alarmed that I wanted to bring someone's attention to it. (to the one person who reads my blog)

Didn't Stalin nationalize farming methods that enabled his administration to gain control over the food supply?  Didn't Stalin use the food to control the people?

S 425  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s425: 

A solemn walk through HR 875.
by Linn Cohen-Cole

www.opednews.com






People seem to expect the bill to be titled "The Criminalization of Organic Farming and the Take over of the US Food Supply," and when they don't see any words to that effect anywhere in the bill, they declare "this bill is fine" and those seeing dangers are "alarmists."  Do they think the industrial side is composed of fools? These are the same people who make cheery cereals with cartoon characters on the box when, inside, high fructose corn syrup is all over the cereal and it comes from Bt-corn associated with diabetes and HFCS is, too, and there is an epidemic of diabetes here even among children.  They know how to package. Why do people understand that industrial food inside a box can be a problem and yet are so innocent about looking at the bills, not realizing there is packaging there, too, or how much is at stake that the public and even legislators not see since this is about taking control.  The industrial side aren't idiots. 

Understanding parts of the bill at times depends on smelling smoke as you read it.  Here in the US, we still have only smoke ... an Ohio state ag department SWAT team raid on an organic coop, Pennsylvania ag department raids on horse and buggy Mennonites, California setting coliform levels so low fresh milk dairy farmers would need cows that produced pasteurized milk right out the udder, arrest and handcuffing of a single mother in front of her children for selling goat milk, the USDA paying its agents bonuses for foreclosing on farms, ...  But in the EU where 60% of the Polish farmers are now gone because of identical bills enacted into law there, and 60 UK farmers have committed suicide, there is fire.  And in Iraq, where they have been rendered helpless serfs by the theft of their country's seeds and criminalization of farmers' collection of their own seed, it is roaring.  And in India where 182,000 farmers have committed suicide since the WTO and IMF got hold of agriculture and our Big Ag firms went in there, and 8 million farmers have left the land, it is out of control.  

The WTO, run by the multinational meat packers and genetic engineering corporations, want HR 875, here.  The bills are "harmonized" rules for globalization of food and lower food safety standards to allow for it.  Those corporations are members of NIAA, a corporate consortium that brought NAIS, created by Anne Veneman, to the USDA to be made into law. 



GP: Great intro! They begin describing the myths, facts, and terminology. Now this is an area, for example, that I'd like to draw your attention to most particularly. This is found under Section 206(C):


(3) include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water;


GP: And here are their notes in regard to the above:


They never mention seeds but this is precisely how they will criminalize seed banking and all holding of seeds.  

[Notice they mention harvesting, sorting and  storage operations, then watch below.   

To follow how this will be done, you must understand that: 

1.  there is a small list inside the FDA called "sources of seed contamination" 
2.  in which they have now defined "seed" as food,  
3.  so seeds can be controlled under "food safety."   Those seeds (so far) include: 

seeds eaten raw such as flax, poppy sesame, etc.; 
sprouting seeds such as wheat, beans, alfalfa, most greens, etc.; 
seeds pressed into oils such as corn, sunflower, canola, etc.;
seeds used as animal feed such as soy ....  

That is most seeds.  Seeds are essential to life and thus to freedom.

The "sources of seed contamination" include six little items:

agricultural water
manure (but NOT chemical pesticides or fertilizers)
harvesting, transporting and seed cleaning equipment 
seed storage facilities. What you must realize is that seed cleaning equipment is THE single most critical piece of equipment for sustainable agriculture.  It is how we save organic seed.  It is the machinery used after plants "go to seed" to separate out (sort) the seeds from the plant material so the farmer can collect (harvest) and then save (put in storage) seed for the next year at little cost.  With his own seed, the farmer stays free of patented, genetically engineered, corporately privatized seeds.

You must also understand that Monsanto is getting rid of the people who do the seed cleaning and many other means of our having access to seed .

This year, 2009, seed cleaning equipment is now illegal in some parts of the country which tips us off to both the intent to control seeds in this way and to how they could do things under this bill.

How can they make such vital equipment illegal?  Quietly, and by saying it contaminates food.  

"Contaminate" is their favorite word since the public fears the deadly contamination that industry itself - not farmers - has caused.  Scare the public and thus push for "food safety standards" to be set.  

And to eliminate seed cleaning equipment, they haven now set the standards so seed cleaning (the simple separation of seed from plant) will now require a million to a million and a half dollar building and/or equipment ... per line of seed.  

So, a farmer who has been seed cleaning flax for 40 years with a hand made seed cleaner can't sell flax on the market anymore, though there are NO instances of anyone ever having gotten sick from seed cleaning equipment.  A farmer who has been cleaning wheat, corn and soy each year with the same perfectly fine equipment would now need three to four and half million dollars for three pieces of equipment to continue.

(The FDA isn't so bar-setting when it comes to other things like melamine in baby formula, though it is proven to sicken and kill infants), initially denying the melamine was in our baby formula and then quickly inventing a "foods safety" standard to okay it.) 

Organic farmers are not aware of this happening, perhaps because the left is being treated with kid gloves until HR 875 and related bills were passed.  But meanwhile the FDA and USDA have been tromping on traditional (many of them farming organically, by the way) farmers for years.  The organic community is disconnected from them so hasn't been aware of what is happening to them, and they [farmers] have a history of no one listening to them, which is too bad because it is they who are the ones bringing the warning that these bills are deadly.  The organic community, measuring against its own seeming safety, hasn't heard or understood.

Notice, though, that because a single "foods safety" bar has been raised, in time no one will be able to get organic seeds in any number because it will be illegal for all farmers to sell them to anyone.

Now, look at the last item on the list - seed storage facilities.

They would be careful not to ban them all outright given the extreme reaction they would get.  But now the method is more clear.  "Food safety" is the weapon and public fear is the driver and they only need to set the bar at the level that is impossible to meet.  


Farmers, gardeners, seed saving exchanges, seed companies, scientific seed projects, and seed banks, all require "seed storage facilities."  All are working overtime to protect biodiversity that is rapidly disappearing because of ... genetic engineering.  

Set the standard for "food safety" and certification high enough that no one can afford it and punish anyone who tries to save seed in a multitude of ways that have worked fine for thousands of years, and presto, you have just criminalized seed banking.  

The penalties, I will assume, will be tremendous, the better to protect us from nothing dangerous whatsoever, but to make monopoly over seed more absolute.  One is left with control over farmers, and end to seed exchanges, to organic seed companies, to university programs developing nice normal hybrids.

When you know that Monsanto with the help of the US government plundered ancient and rare seed banks in Iraq that held seeds with a genetic heritage (a biohistory belonging to all of us) going back 1000s of years and then made it a crime for farmers there to collect or use their own normal and non-patented seeds off their own land, you see how extreme the intent to control is.  

Now, perhaps it is possible to see how the identical thing is being done here, only it comes in a heavily, heavily disguised way - through "food safety" that isn't at all - and in only one tiny little paragraph within a very large bill.  

The Iraqis are now abjectly dependent on Monsanto and the US for survival itself and will have to pay whatever prices are set for food.  They cannot just grow their own and be free.  So, no matter what form of government they may have, they are now slaves because the control over them is that extreme.  Kissinger was right - control food and you control people.

We are inches from this ourselves.  The left needs to wake up.

This trick of setting bars above any ability to be in the game, is similar to how blacks had been treated.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Farming--Why-Obama-s-gove-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090125-421.html

This trick of setting bars above any ability to be in the game while imposing fines that destroy people who fail to meet that standard, is sadistic.  Then, taking the land as confiscatory payment, is theft by government become totalitarian and colonizing [enslaving] its own people.

There are other items of the list which surely will be controlled as well.  In toto, that little list is the deconstruction of farming itself and given the inclusion of manure, especially of organic farming.]


It's worth going through the rest of this article and their accompanying notes to realize the full impact of what's being done here. I'm afraid this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Current submissions to Congress

Note: For more background, please view the astounding documentary The World According To Monsanto and Patent for Pigs which specifically exposes Monsanto's grab for complete control over all breeds of pigs...eventually livestock. The precedent was set with seeds. Find links  here. The trailer is below.

How many of you have heard of Monsanto? Ask a local farmer and I guarantee you he knows ALL about Monsanto. On some level, he stands in mild to all out quaking fear of Monsanto...or at least of Monsanto lawyers.

Monsanto has designated itself as the global provider of all food supplies for the entire world...from field to fork ...that's their ultimate goal. Somewhat ambitious, but hey...if you're a multinational global corporation, owning the world's food supply is your deal...it's your noble quest...a manageable goal...right? It's not about simple market share...forget that! Child's play! It's about global monopoly.

So what's the game plan here? The Monsanto modus operandi is to take existing seeds (and now they're moving into animals) which contain a particular DNA or genetic structure and then patenting that genetic structure. Once that seed is patented, Monsanto owns the rights to that seed. If a seed found on a farmer's property contains this patented seed property...which obviously most or all will indeed contain them...since they're a seed...then that farmer can be sued by Monsanto on the grounds that he is illegally using a patented seed owned exclusively by Monsanto. This sounds crazy but farmers are being sued by Monsanto deep-pocketed henchman lawyers not only in the U.S. but around the world...even as far away as Australia.

Their next ambitious plan of attack is to focus on the pig. They are now bringing to the patent offices of the U.S. the DNA or genetic structure of the pig to have it patented. So what are the implications of this? It means that anyone owning a pig on the farm that contains this patented genetic structure will have to pay Monsanto fees for having this pig on their farm. This not only applies to the specific pig but also includes the pig's offspring. Why stop with just one pig...or all existing pigs...when you can collect fees on all future pigs, too...??? Hmmm. And who determines the fees? Well, Monsanto, of course, who else? You think I'm crazy. It IS crazy!! It's insane. Unfortunately, this may very soon be a reality. It's already impacting the seed supplies and how farmers are allowed to do business in this country.

The above is Part 1 of a documentary done on Monsanto concerning who they are, their questionable history, the GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms) and health of our food, etc.

And the one below is Part 1 of a documentary on the latest development on patenting the pig. Obviously, if this can be done on the pig, then what's going to stop them from applying this to all livestock animals? Nothing. If Monsanto's goal is to own the food supply of the world, which is their stated commitment, then the next logical step is to address and monopolize the livestock, too. I mean, it's all in a day's work...for Monsanto.