Fwd: "Food "Safety" Reform and the Covert Continuation of the Enclosure Movement" by Nicole Johnson

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Linn Cohen-Cole <lcohencole@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, May 1, 2010 at 9:54 AM
Subject: "Food "Safety" Reform and the Covert Continuation of the Enclosure Movement" by Nicole Johnson
To: farmon@googlegroups.com

Food "Safety" Reform and the Covert Continuation of the Enclosure Movement

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Food-Safety-Reform-and-t-by-Nicole-Johnson-100426-437.html?show=votes

p. 5

"But the proposed legislation focuses its regulations on produce growers, who are the victims of the CAFO-generated pathogens that have polluted the environment. If enteric pathogens are to be reduced, you simply have to address CAFO pollution. Making produce farmers responsible for its appearance on farms is as backwards a solution as making downstream meat processors responsible for USDA-approved contaminated meat coming out slaughterhouse plants. Preventing E. coli O157:H7's spread requires changes in animal husbandry. Does the absence of this requirement indicate the presence of another agenda?

"The practices of industrial livestock enterprises are entirely ignored by the pending food safety legislation. And, many in the local food movement find that the source of enteric pathogen pollution are also being ignored by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), a group that represents the interests of those involved in sustainable and local agriculture, in its analysis of the legislation. NSAC has been involved in trying to soften the blow of the legislation, but it has only really tinkered with various details, while leaving fundamental problems alone. The group's representatives just don't seem to be fighting hard enough to protect the interests of its membership. All this leads me to ask: Has NSAC become a controlled opposition group?Does it appear to advocate for the interests of its grassroots membership while actually advancing the agenda of vested interests?

"If you examine NSAC's membership list, you'll find that among its participating members is the Wallace Center at Winrock International.[63] Winrock International was founded by Winthrop Rockefeller and counts in the long list of its funding partners numerous foundations, government agencies, international agencies, private sector groups and more, all of whom are aligned with vested interests that want international standards harmonized in order to eliminate barriers to international trade. Winrock International receives financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, the DOE, USAID, the US Department of State, the USDA, the World Bank, the FAO, SYSCO and the Tides Foundation.[64]Winrock International also has long-standing ties with Monsanto, which has benefited from Winrock's help in introducing its products to farmers in developing nations around the world. It's hard to image that any organization advocating for the grassroots could be in partnership with a group funded by the likes of these powerful vested interests and not be subject to their influence or control.  ...

"The Senate must reject out of hand this unnecessary, dangerously flawed and game-changing bill. It fails to accomplish is stated purpose and will result in unacceptable consequences."

--
"Science is not truth ... it may be learning but what you learn is not necessarily the truth, it's a piece of the truth not the whole.
 
Applied science that divorces itself from the consequences and effects of these isolated truths and says everything else is an untruth is the crux of the problem.
 
There are other valid truths which this kind of hubris refuses to see. Balance for one."
 
Shaharazade at Dailykos

--
Palash Biswas
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