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The madness of it all astounds. Are we going to have to repeat the Montana 2nd Amendment pattern for food, too?
Critics say that the proposed Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (H.R. 875), introduced in early February by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), will “effectively criminalize organic gardening,” conceivably outlaw “seed banking,” and will serve as part of a concerted Monsanto conspiracy to drive all but corporate agri-business out of the food production racket.
According to the office of Rep. DeLauro, the bill was inspired by a recent wave of contaminated food recalls and is supported by consumer groups both organic and non-organic. The bill should also, if it has the effect of increasing consumer confidence in the food supply promised, be of ultimate benefit to big food production companies whose livelihoods depend on public trust in the food supply.* (Which means that they have every incentive to police themselves, and in the enormous staggering majority of the time they manage to do business without killing or harming their customers.)
This calls for another Zappa moment:
[s/music/agriculture/ in the following quotation]
CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER:
This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER...it is my responsibility to enforce all the laws that haven't been passed yet. It is also my responsibility to alert each and every one of you to the potential consequences of various ordinary everyday activities you might be performing which could eventually lead to The Death Penalty (or affect your parents' credit rating). Our criminal institutions are full of little creeps like you who do wrong things...and many of them were driven to these crimes by a horrible force called agriculture! Our studies have shown that this horrible force is so dangerous to society at large that laws are being drawn up at this very moment to stop it forever! Cruel and inhuman punishments are being carefully described in tiny paragraphs so they won't conflict with the Constitution (which, itself, is being modified in order to accommodate THE FUTURE). I bring you now a special presentation to show what can happen to you if you choose a career in agriculture . . .
Love that album! Ironically, Zappa was a rabid Liberal. I remember calling his hotline just before the 1992 election - after he had first gone on a rant about how bad Tipper Gore was for trying to censor music and was then all for getting Al Gore into office. Whoever answered that line, and maybe it was him, wasn't too pleased with me for pointing that out. I got screamed at about '12 years of greed and neglect' blah blah.
ReplyDeleteBut his music is still great. Too bad.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)...whose lawyer husband has Monsanto as his client.
ReplyDeleteThe bill should also, if it has the effect of increasing consumer confidence in the food supply promised, be of ultimate benefit to big food production companies whose livelihoods depend on public trust in the food supplyCDC: [A]n increasingly centralized food supply means that a food contaminated in production can be rapidly shipped to many states causing a widespread outbreak.
Even the progs are flipping out over this filthy Maoist bill:
A solemn walk through HR 875Monsanto's dream bill, HR 875Goodbye farmers markets, CSAs, and roadside standsThe corrupt, filthy corporatist bastards in DC are working my last fucking nerve.
What on Earth happened to the format of that post? It's a mess!
ReplyDelete"Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people."
--Henry Kissinger