©Doreen Hannes

On January 13^th, the second grueling day of the Morningland Dairy LLC marathon trial, ensued. For those who don’t know, court went on for ten hours on Tuesday and ten full hours on Wednesday. Early in the Wednesday proceedings there were approximately twenty people in the audience, but as noon approached the attendance grew to nearly forty-five. Wednesday was almost entirely devoted to defense witnesses with the exception of Sarah Blamely, technician from Microbe Innotech on behalf of the Missouri Milk Board. Miss Blamely testified to the processes she followed after receipt of the samples by courier. She stated that she believed Don Falls of the Missouri Milk Board was a representative of Morningland Dairy and that was why she allowed him to change information regarding batch numbers on Morningland samples.

Following Ms. Blamely, testimony was read into the record from State’s expert witness, Joseph Frank. It was interesting in that the three attorneys read lines of different characters like high school students reading for a play. You have to find some amusement in court or you would likely go tharn….and it’s a good thing that many of us in the audience had the capacity to think funny thoughts.

Defense Testimony Begins

Next was Denise Dixon, General Manager of the farmstead cheese plant. Both Morningland General Mangers, Joseph and Denise Dixon, were in Washington State at the American Cheese Society Convention on August 26^th, the day that the Missouri Milk Board embargoed, seized and condemned their entire cheese stock. Interestingly, although these terms, “embargoed, seized and condemned” were used repeatedly, no distinctions between the three terms were ever clarified.

Mrs. Dixon testified about general processes and her training in the operation of the cheese plant. She spoke of her concern for their customers and general impressions upon hearing of the notice from California Department of Food and Ag regarding their cheese and the inventory levels.  Mrs. Dixon also testified that there was an FDA recall notice sent out without their authorization and prior to their return to Missouri from the American Cheese Society convention Washington.

The Missouri Attorney General counsel, Jennifer Bloome, objected nearly every time a defense witnesses mentioned the  “FDA”, and made no exception to this mention by Denise Dixon. Defense Attorney, Gary Cox of FTCLDF (Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund) indicated that they did indeed have proof of this August 27^th recall notice regarding the objection of the Attorney General’s office at the admission of this testimony into the court record. Notably, the AG’s office did not object to the testimony of their own witnesses, Missouri Milk Board employees Gene Wiseman and Don Falls, both stating that they followed all FDA guidelines and procedures in their agency.

Perhaps the most revealing statement made all day came from Jennifer Bloome of the AG’s office in explanation of her objection to referencing the FDA involvement at Morningland. While I do not have the transcript in front of me, I wrote down what I heard her state, and am reasonably certain it is correct. Objecting to a reference of the FDA’s inclusion in testimony regarding invoices given to Don Falls of the Missouri Milk Board on August 27^th, she said, “The invoices were procured for a collateral matter and we would like to keep that separate from this case.” It would seem that the FDA and the Missouri Attorney General’s office are working together for further action against Morningland.

An inference was made by the AG’s office that the Dixons were trying to avoid discovery of listeria-laden cows in their herd. Ms Bailey-Brown of the AG’s office was questioning Denise Dixon and asked, “Do you expect us to believe that you sold cows after finding you had a listeria problem, and did not pick those cows?”  Joseph Dixon informed me that the cows they sold in the end of September or early October were dry cows due to freshen, and they simply couldn’t afford to continue to feed them, so they were sold. He said many went to slaughter at 54¢ per pound. Denise Dixon simply replied, “We were financially stricken.”  The Attorney General’s office pursued this reasoning for what seemed an inordinate amount of time to those of us in the audience remotely familiar with dairying…which was most of the audience.

An Actual Problem and “Standard” Driven Problems

Jedadiah York, Morningland’s Plant Manger testified next, and seemed understandably nervous. His testimony was mostly rudimentary, regarding the processes involved in making cheese. The most revealing thing in his testimony was that he picked the cheeses to be sampled straight from their cut stock with Don Falls present.  Previously, I understood that an employee had picked the cheese and neither Don Falls or Jedadiah were involved in that process. He also testified that he did not always record the date the first block of cheese from a batch was cut. He attested that the cheeses had always been aged at least 60 days, but he was occasionally busy and failed to make record of the dates certain batches had been cut. This is important because raw dairy cheeses are required to be aged 60 days, while no reports of illness or product complaints have ever surfaced, those lapses in record keeping are not helpful to Morningland Dairy’s plight.

Next came the testimony of Tim Wightman, a dairy consultant, Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund board member and major force in the push for National Raw Milk Standards. While the Attorney General’s office questioned his expertise, they nonetheless had done their research on Wightman and used his own standards to effectively malign Morningland Dairy because of one milk sample where their somatic cell count (SCC) went over the state grade A level of 750,000. Results from one full year of Morningland milk samples were read into the record and the SCC’s were from 160,000 to a one-time-only spike of 1.7 million. The average SCC was 600,000 or lower with only that one spike and several in the 300,000 range. Most dairy people will tell you that the records are indicative of a very well run dairy with good herd health, and the spike was likely due to someone forgetting to turn on the tank to cool the milk.  An error, yes, but not one worth destroying a business over.

Nonetheless, the AG’s office used Wightman’s standards from his own literature to cast aspersions on the herd health of Morningland. Mr.Wightman also inexplicably stated that when you remove cows from the milking line it will reduce your SCC. He testified that his standards require SCC’s of less than 300,000 with any spike being indicative of a potentially severe herd health problem, not a potential human error. The push for National Raw Milk Standards is a deep concern for many in the raw milk movement, and the standards expressed by Wightman on the stand in this trial are good examples of some of the basis for these concerns.

Star Witness Takes the Stand

There was only one witness left and this was Dr. Ted Beals. An extremely well educated, highly credentialed medical doctor and microbiologist, Beals was the indisputable star witness in the entire trial. Initially, while he was reciting his credentials, Judge Dunlap said, “While we could ask when you received your medical license, that could reveal your antiquity and that is not the habit of the court”, which drew some laughs from the peanut gallery. Dr Beals was articulate, thought provoking and quite authoritative in his testimony, which centered largely on the extremely pervasive presence of bacteria in general, and both listeria monocytogenes and staph aureus in particular. These two bacteria, the two contaminates resulting in the Milk Board decision to destroy Morningland’s cheese, are evidently highly present in the environment and all over each one of us.

From time to time, Dr. Beals was guilty of falling into narratives, but despite the lessons in bacterial behavior, his testimony remained germane to the topic. Near the end of his testimony, AG Bailey-Brown was attempting to infer that Beals was an anti-government radical by citing points the AG’s office had harvested from a power point presentation he had given at a raw milk symposium. Ms. Bailey-Brown asked a question that began with “Isn’t it true that you believe that….” which was so long and meandering that no one could follow it, and to which Cox entered an objection and Judge Dunlap replied, “As long as it isn’t to the truth of the matter and only to the beliefs of the witness, the witness can answer the question….That is, if he can remember the question.” Beals asked her to re-state the question, and not too surprisingly, she couldn’t recall it either. It definitely provided some much needed comic relief.

One of Beals’ responses (among many) that bears repeating was, “There are millions more bacteria in and on humans than there are cells in the human body…..”  Kind of like, “Auuugh! Nature! It’s all over me!”  And also, when the AG evidently (okay, I’m being generous here) misinterpreted some of Dr. Beals’ testimony given in deposition regarding “listeriosis resulting in 100% fetal mortality”, he corrected her cleanly. His response was, “No, that is not what I said. I said that if listeriosis resulted in an abortion it would cause 100% mortality in a fetus.”

Is Advocacy Terrorism?

It was interesting that the Attorney General’s office seemed intent on showing some kind of collusion by inquiring of witnesses for the defense as to their membership and/or position in the FTCLDF organization. As if being a member of this group somehow was akin to being a card carrying member of a terrorist group or something similar. Obviously Denise Dixon, is a member of the group as Morningland Dairy is being represented by FTCLDF Lead Counsel Gary Cox, and you must be a member of the group to be represented by the group’s attorney. Is it really that much of a surprise that an organization designed to represent the interests of farmers and farmstead producers with a focus on raw milk, would use it’s own experts in a trial? It appeared that the attempt to deride the testimony of the defense witnesses on this basis held little weight with the judge as his facial expression didn’t change a bit when everyone asked admitted to some type of an affiliation with the organization.

The Conclusion Draweth Nigh…Maybe

The 7:00pm adjournment time was met with no time left for oral closing arguments. Judge Dunlap, whom as I’ve said previously, is a very unorthodox judge, allowed that if the State wished, they could bring in their own medical doctor as an expert to rebut Dr. Beals’ testimony, provided that the defense had opportunity to depose as well. Barring developments in that realm, closing arguments are to be presented in written format. Gary Cox asked if there was a page limit, and Dunlap replied, “I guess 40 pages,” shrugging shoulders slightly and leaning his head forward a bit, “Holding to the law and consonant arguments….Explain why your side should win.” The written closing arguments are to be submitted to the court on January 28^th.  In the interim, the judge will review the testimony.

Barring any further developments on a potential suit involving the FDA as alluded to by Missouri Attorney General Jennifer Bloome, there may not be any updates on Morningland Dairy’s continued crisis for an entire week or so. As always, I will keep you apprised if this fluid situation changes…..Meanwhile, please do visit the UnCheese Party and make any donation you are capable of making. If you haven’t grasped it before now, our nation is in a serious crisis for real food. If we have no real farmers, we certainly will not have any real food.

=end=

January 11, 2011,

Today was Morningland Dairy’s first day in court. Getting into the court room was almost like trying to get on an airplane, except for no one ‘touched your junk’, and I didn’t see any naked scanners there. You simply couldn’t even bring in a purse, laptop, cell phone or bottle of water. The law enforcement monitoring entry seemed to ease up a bit as the day wore on, but at first it was pretty durn tense out in the entry area.

Roughly forty five people were in the audience, and it filled the little spectator’s vestibule in the Howell County Missouri Court House. The unusual number in the audience drew Judge Dunlap’s attention and he commented upon it during his opening instructions on proper court room decorum. The presence of so many people on a very cold day when all area schools were closed because of questionable roads illustrates the importance of this case to the residents of South Central Missouri.

While this is just a small update for those who have been supportive of the dairy, there was a tremendous amount of detail that was covered in the testimony given today. The majority of the day was taken up with the testimony of Gene Wiseman, Executive Secretary of the Missouri Milk Board, and Don Falls, Environmental Specialist and lead Missouri Milk Board investigator and inspector of Morningland Dairy plant.

In my opinion, Gary Cox, attorney for Morningland from Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, did a pretty good job on cross-examination. As many of you know, I have been somewhat critical of Mr. Cox in the past, and I simply want to give credit where credit is due. He did a good job today. So, a hat tip to Gary Cox is in order, and I will give it!

Wiseman stated that he ordered an embargo on Morningland Dairy’s cheese without any actual knowledge of contamination. That he had never scheduled a destruction date with Morningland, and that the State of Missouri had assumed all FDA documents, except for the one Cox showed him about investigations of dairy facilities. There is no state statute or regulation that categorically states that Missouri has accepted and adopted all FDA guidelines or standards….and the Attorney General’s office tried to disallow questioning about the FDA as hearsay. But since Don Falls worked with the FDA on their investigation of Morningland, it was allowed after all.

Judge Dunlap is rather unorthodox in his courtroom manner. Initially I thought he was entirely too helpful and lenient with the Attorney General’s office. I have never seen a Judge help to rephrase counsel’s questions after objection in the way that he did. But he showed the same latitude with Mr. Cox’s cross examination, so I think it is just his demeanor and it wasn’t apparent to me that he was showing bias in favor of the prosecution. Additionally, his questions for his clarification of the two Missouri Milk Board witnesses were germane, intelligent, and astute. So it doesn’t appear on its face that we are actually dealing with a foregone conclusion in favor of the State in this case.

All who are able are encouraged to attend the trial at 9 in the morning…..just a few hours from this writing. While the pace of today’s proceedings seems to indicate that the trial would have to continue into Thursday, it is scheduled to wrap up on Wednesday the 12th of January, 2010. All who attended today are deeply appreciated!

I will do a more thorough overview of the court case itself in the next couple of days, but not being allowed a laptop for note taking purposes makes this part of my job a little more difficult! Just remember, if you come to the Howell County Court House, leave everything outside in your car except for your keys. You can put those in the little bucket and walk through the detector. ======= For more info on this case, search this blog or go to UnCheese Party

©Doreen Hannes 2011

Missouri farmstead cheese plant, Morningland Dairy is going to be in Howell County Circuit Court at 9am Central time on Tuesday, January 11^th. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is charging Morningland with 3 criminal charges and has also filed a “Preliminary Injunction” in hopes of getting a court order to destroy Morningland Dairy’s cheese.

It’s a sad time for a nation that espouses “freedom” as a mantra when food buying co-ops are raided at gun point and cheese plants that have been in business for 30 years with no illnesses can be put out of business and charged with crimes, seemingly for simply asking to have proper tests done before a State agency destroys their property. But that is where we are now in the good ole US of A. Pretending it isn’t happening isn’t going to be “healthful” or helpful for you or your progeny.

For those who would like to read a more thorough background on Morningland’s  legal issues, please visit the UnCheese Party website where many articles and click through links to many more articles are housed. The UnCheese Party began a fundraising effort to try to keep the raw cheese dairy from folding during the embargo that the Missouri Milk Board placed on their cheese on August 26^th, 2010.

Joseph and Denise Dixon are the General Managers and co-owners of Morningland Dairy LLC. Morningland is a licensed and inspected facility located in Mountain View, Missouri and they have lost nearly a full year of production and sales because of the embargo placed on the dairy by the Missouri Milk Board. It appears that the Milk Board is simply taking the lead position of the FDA in the federal agencies not-so-cold war against raw dairy. (Read FDA testimony for a better explanation)

The Charges versus the Facts

The Milk Board alleges that Morningland, whom they licensed and inspected and whom the State recognizes as a LLC in good-standing, has engaged in “Unlawful Sale of Dairy Products”, “Unlawful Interference with Milk Board Duties”, and (more here) “Failure to Comply with a Destruction Order”.

Morningland ceased all sales of its product after the Milk Board put an “embargo” notice on their cheese cooler on August 26^th. Hence, all sales prior to the 26^th were entirely within the bounds of the law, and therefore, lawful.  The FDA issued a voluntary recall –before- Morningland’s General Managers had opportunity to review the California Department of Food Agriculture tests that spurred the interest in Morningland by the FDA and the Missouri Milk Board.

Morningland never denied access to the Missouri Milk Board, nor did they refuse them the opportunity to test their products or deny them information. As a matter of fact, they asked that properly done, legitimate testing be done… and were told that the Milk Board didn’t have the funding, and would only test if someone had died from the product.  Morningland also followed a purely verbal instruction to cease production on their cheese. How could this possibly be construed to “interfere” with the Milk Board in their duties?

There was never a date given, nor an actual destruction order issued to Morningland to destroy or to have their cheese destroyed. All Morningland did was lodge their objection to the paragraph in the middle of a three page letter that said that the Milk Board would contact them to make an appointment to destroy their property and livelihood. So questioning the ‘belief’ of the Milk Board is now a criminal offense in the state of Missouri. How that jibes with “freedom” is beyond my ken. It certainly is a far cry from principles espoused by Thomas Jefferson….It’s a far cry from the principles associated with reason, logic, and due process in general.

The final point in the charges brought by the Missouri Attorney General is a “Preliminary Injunction” against Morningland and the cheese that has been languishing in their refrigerated cheese cave since August 26^th. The use of the term “preliminary” in this charge is very misleading. Should the court find for the Milk Board on this charge, the cheese, which is the evidence, would be destroyed quite quickly. In other words, “preliminary” means final, and “injunction” means destruction.

The Remedy?

Morningland Dairy is requesting a jury trial on all of these charges.

There is a general belief that the Missouri Attorney General’s office intends to try to separate the “preliminary injunction” (permanent destruction, rather) order from the other charges levied against Morningland. The hope is that the judge will see that the existence of the cheese in the cooler for scientifically accurate tests is integral to the case overall, and refuse to separate the “administrative” from the criminal. In my mind, the hope is that the judge will want to examine the real, whole milk straight from the farm instead of the ultra pasteurized homogenized version of milk that you find in your local grocery.  If you drink real milk, you know what I’m talking about here….If you don’t, you should!

Morningland reports that their Attorney believes that if the judge determines to hold the Milk Board responsible for proving that Morningland Dairy Cheese is contaminated, they have a great chance of winning. If the judge decides that Morningland has to prove they are innocent, like in the former Soviet Union, then there is a good chance they will lose.

Either way, on trial in Missouri is your right to decide what you want to eat. If Morningland loses this battle, the FDA will have one a precedent setting court case without even having to foot the Attorney bills. They will have won precedent of their assertion made in another FTCLDF (Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund) case that “You have No Right to any Particular Food”, “You Have No Right to Bodily or Physical Health”….and “You Have No Right to Contract”.

Hopefully the citizens of the Show Me State will Show Up and demand of the court that they do indeed have these rights, and that any infringement of these rights will be taken seriously.

I suggest that everyone with healthy dairy animals bring personal samples to the Howell County Court House to share amongst themselves…Otherwise, we can look forward to the new Food Destruction Agency catch phrase, “Tyranny, It’s What’s For Dinner.”….Or “Goat Milk?…Go to Jail.”

I like my dairy like I like my freedom. Raw.

©Doreen Hannes

As the Lame Duck Season ends in the US Capitol, several things become apparent. First is that we should have put the Lame Duck out of our misery. Not having done that, the most glaringly obvious thing is that we no longer have the semblance of a legitimate representative government left. At least not in any way that is meaningful.

It appears that we, as Citizens, are inclined to continue to do the same things, over and over again, hoping and praying that we can “take back our country” by calling, faxing, emailing, writing, reading, speaking and throwing the occasional coin in the wishing well. Guess what? It hasn’t worked.

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is one definition of insanity. It is also a sign of desperation.

No matter how many phone calls we’ve made, they’ve passed what we’ve called against. Obama Care, TARP, Food Safety, Real ID, the Patriot Act (again and again), NAFTA, CAFTA, SHAFTA, and everything else indecent, all “for our own good”. If it doesn’t make it through the Board Meeting that is Congress, we get it via Fiat, otherwise known as, Executive Order. It doesn’t matter what party it is that is in control. If it’s a goal of the global elite and necessary to break down the barriers of sovereignty, we’ll get it one way or another.

We now have a federal government with statutory authority to control everything you eat if you buy any part of it. We have a government that authorizes agencies to ‘touch your junk’, put you in preventive detention, read your mail, your email, and library history, listen to your phone calls, instruct your bank to “know their customer”, take your child’s DNA at birth, build “fusion centers” for re-education, control your land, your water, allow you to be guinea pigs without your knowledge or consent and more. And they keep us distracted by pitting Republicrats and Demicons against each other and getting us to call and plead for them to “please, please do the right thing” on this, that, or the other thing.

It’s so bad that I have the DC switchboard number memorized.

While I am not one for New Year Resolutions, I think it’s time that we resolve to quit wasting our time and energy on the Federal government.

Once the agencies have been authorized either via statute or Executive Order to exert their energy into a particular realm, they write regulations that we can spend energy commenting on and be handily ignored before they finalize the rule they just made. Like moving Plum Island to Kansas, and countless other issues.

All hope is not lost…Just almost lost. We have states where we can almost have a real effect, and the feds are truly dependent upon the states to enforce, enact, uphold, permit or otherwise carry out the federal initiatives, agendas, guidelines, standards or malarkey. State governments are smaller, and generally easier to hold accountable than the Federal government. For the most part, it doesn’t take an entire week away from home to directly interface with State representatives. Not that it is easy, but it is a lot easier to get to the state Capitol than to DC for almost everyone.

If we join together the various freedom oriented groups at the state level, be they Campaign for Liberty, Sovereignty Projects, Tenth Amendment Centers, Property Rights groups, Parental rights groups, Agriculture groups, Home School groups, or what have you, maybe, just maybe, there is a chance we can get some of the insanity headed our way from DC neutered, or at least constipated.

Since we have plenty of evidence of the direction the FDA and her sister agencies are going to go with “Food Safety”, I think it would be good to see if we can force the State legislators to publicly declare whether they think we have the right to decide for ourselves what we want to eat. To that end, I’ve pasted what is known as Model Legislation below…. A bill that should be easily and readily passed in any state that thinks their Citizenry is smart enough to choose their own food. Believe it or not, a bill that has no Corporation that can benefit from its passage at all.

If we are to be free, we must be able to eat, and we must be able to produce food and exchange that food for other useful items:

1.  The direct trade of any non-genetically engineered farm-produced goods or products exchanged within the state of (Missouri) shall not be subject to any state or local regulation.  No fees shall be imposed, licensure required, or regulations promulgated for farmers, ranchers, gardeners, or producers of any non-genetically modified food or feed items for direct trade, or for individuals procuring such goods for their own use.

2.  The provisions of this section shall not apply to gross negligence or criminal acts in the direct trade of farm-produced products exchanged within this state.

I am completely aware that this will not preserve all family farms, nor is it the entire answer to the nation’s ills, or the individual state problems, but it is certainly a step. It should allow some to continue on the land without implementing HACCP, NAIS for turnips or keeping three years of records that are subject to the HHS Secretary’s “opinion” of your product. It also brings to a head the issue of the Tenth Amendment.

It’s past time to take it to the bottom line. If States are supposed to do what ever the Federal government wants them to do, then why do we have State government at all?

So they passed Senate Bill 510. More on this tomorrow, but I wanted to get the news out to everyone.

Back from the Dead: Food Safety Bill Passes Senate in Unexpected Last-Minute Move

December 19, 2010 8:29 PM

//

ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports:

In an unexpected move, the Senate today passed a sweeping food safety bill by unanimous consent, sending the bill back for a vote in the House before it will move on to President Obama’s desk.

“Very very important for our country,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said this evening on the Senate floor. “Perfect legislation? No. But a broad broad step in the right direction. We haven’t done anything in this regard for more than a hundred years for our country. With all the changes in processing food, it’s so very important. I’ve spoken to the Speaker tonight and this will pass the House when they come back Monday night or Tuesday.”

The surprising development is only the latest bizarre twist for the measure. Just a few days ago the food safety bill was seen as dead on Capitol Hill, but the Senate this weekend modified it to resolve a revenue technicality and managed to pass it.

That revenue issue is key in the long bizarre story of the bill.

In July 2009 the House first passed the bill, aiming to prevent massive outbreaks of tainted food by giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to order mandatory recalls and require more frequent inspections of high-risk food processing plants.

But the bill then languished in the Senate for 15 months in the face of opposition from Republicans who objected to it adding around $1.5 billion to the deficit.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., argued that the bill needed to be fully paid for and do a better job of addressing regulatory failures. However, in November the Senate finally passed the food safety bill.

Except for one problem.

A tax provision included in the Senate bill violated the revenue rule, so instead of getting sent to President Obama’s desk, the bill remained stuck in Congress.

The Senate then put the food safety bill into the massive $1.1 trillion year-end omnibus bill, giving supporters of the measure renewed hope that it might still get passed after all.

But no.

Last Thursday, Reid, in the face of widespread GOP opposition, decided to scrap the omnibus bill in favor of a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government into early 2011.

At that point the food safety bill was considered dead. Until Sunday’s surprising development in the Senate, that is.

Food Safety Bill Shenanigans from Campaign for Liberty…..and confirmed.

Posted by Tim Shoemaker on 12/08/10 12:19 PM
Last updated 12/08/10 12:35 PM

The Bill Number is HR 3082, and it is 423 pages, you can find it here….maybe today only.

Sources on the Hill have informed us the Food Safety Bill was folded into the House Continuing Resolution, which authorizes the funding of government into 2011.

As you may remember, the Food Safety Act was “blue slipped” by the House Democrats, after the Senate passed it, because Harry Reid included a section that raised taxes (which the Constitution requires to begin in the House).

Additionally, the House will consider Rep. Slaughter’s “Martial Law / Same Day Authority Rule through Dec. 18” H. Res. 1752, which will allow the Democratic majority to bring bills up with almost no notice through Dec. 18.

This is nothing more than an attempt to keep the American people in the dark and prevent them from mobilizing in opposition to their statist power grabs.

Contact your Congressman today and tell them to take the Food Safety language out of the Continuing Resolution and to oppose H. Res. 1752, which would allow the Democrats to ram through their statist agenda with little transparency.

One method to use….but CALL often!!!

RalphFucetolaJD
Newton, NJ http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=12 00289

S.510: Hidden in House Amendment to Senate Amendment to House Bill! HR 3082 now hides S 510! Well, It’s Not Hidden From US! Take These 3 Steps NOW to Protect Food Freedom

1. Take Action NOW for each member of your household to tell your Representatives that you STONGLY OPPOSE adopting the language of S. 510 in this or any other amendment or bill:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KE Y=5303

2. Visit http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt, enter your zip code to find your Representative’s name and phone number. CALL IT! Yes, the line may be busy. Keep trying. Give the person who answers this message:

“I am calling to strongly opposed adopting the language of S. 510, the so-called Food Safety Modernization Act. This language is currently attached to ‘CR/Food Safety House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 3082 – Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011/FDA Food Safety Modernization Act’. I urge Representative [name] in the strongest possible terms to vote against this amendment and to oppose this language in any bill or amendment.”

The phone lines may be busy. Keep trying. This is literally an 11th hour attempt by Big Agribiz to control every bite you eat, and make sure it is to their liking, not yours.

3. Using Social Media like Facebook and Twitter, using your phone lists and your email contacts, get the word out, urging everyone you can contact to do the same:

1. Take the Action Item

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY =5303

2. Call the House of Representatives to deliver the message above

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

3. Take the message viral to THEIR contact and so on….post and cross post, please.

America’s Done—Stick a Fork In Her!
S. 510 Hits a Snag, But Be Wary
©Doreen Hannes 2010

Senate Bill S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, passed the Senate on November 30th, 74-23. Not a single Democrat crossed party lines. This bill is the coup on food in the US. Even though the Tester Amendment was included to dupe those who think it will stop small farmers and processors from being put right out of business, it will only slow down the demise of some small farms.

Then it came to light that a Constitutional issue that had been staring all of us in the face was present. The Senate did not pick up HR2749, which passed the House in July of 2009; instead they took up their own monster in S 510. They also began revenue generation in the Senate (Section 107 of the bill), which is expressly forbidden by the Constitution.

Faced with a patently un-Constitutional bill, that violates Constitutional process, we have to remain vigilant until BOTH houses have adjourned for the winter recess prior to the next session of Congress. Talk about roller coasters.

If the Constitution means anything at all, the House should “blue slip” S. 510, which would preclude them from taking the bill up and very likely run out the clock for passage in this session.

However, there are four choices available for the legislation to move forward before they adjourn on December 24th. The first is for the Senate to bring it back and get unanimous consent to remove the offending section. Since Senator Coburn of Oklahoma will not consent, that avenue is cut off.

Second is for the Senate to bust S. 510 down to the original “compromise” amendment, remove the funding section and the Tester amendment and try to ram it through the entire senate process again before the 24th. This seems unlikely, but don’t trust them as far as you can throw a semi trailer loaded with lead.

Third, the Senate could take HR2749, which has already passed the House, and rush it through the Senate, and it would go straight to the President’s desk with no process with the House necessary. This also seems rather unlikely. The bills are very similar and would have the same detrimental effects for everyone, but the Senators are not familiar with the bill, so it could be really tough.

Fourth, the House Ways and Means committee could pass the bill through and forgive the Constitutional infraction and refuse to blue slip the bill, then vote on it before the 24th and we’d have the bill albeit there would be legal issues brought forth that could possibly ensnare the regulations they want to write under this bill. This appears to be the most likely potential for S. 510.

Make no mistake about this, SB 510, or HR 2749 are worse than the Patriot Act, the Health Care bill, and the Federal Reserve Act combined. We can all live without little pieces of paper, and many of us can live without doctors, and we have been living with the increasing police state since 911, but none of us can live without food and water. If we lose food and water, we won’t be able to fight anything else.

The Tester-Hagan Amendment—Lipstick on a Pig

The largest deception played on the public in S. 510 is the inclusion of the Tester Amendment. This amendment was sold as the complete exemption for all small farms grossing less than $500,000 per year. But if one reads the actual amendment, it is evident that it will not do what it is purported to do for the vast majority of small producers.

The Tester Amendment has strident restrictions on those who may be “exempted” from HACCP (Hazard and Critical Control Point) implementations. HACCP is 50 pages of instructions that require a certifier to sign off on the plan, and a team to be trained in ensuring the plan is followed on the farm. The requirement of this plan put about 40% of small meat processors out of business several years ago. If you fall under the “protection” of the Tester amendment, you won’t have to do it….but let’s see how protective the Tester Amendment really is.

First, the Tester Amendment purports to exempt farms with less than $500,000 in sales from the requirements of S.510. However, to be “exempt” one must sell more than 50% of their products directly to consumers or restaurants within a 275-mile radius from production, and keep records substantiating those sales. The records are open for inspection and verification of the exemption. In other words, you have to prove you are playing by their rules through record keeping and approval of those records, or meet the more onerous requirements of S.510.

You must “apply” to be included in the “protections” of the Tester amendment. You must substantiate through your records for three years that you fit the category of selling more than “50% of average annual monetary value” within this 275-mile radius. So, if you sell on the roadside or at a farmers market, you must have a map handy and ask for ID from everyone who purchases from you or lose your exemption. Nice, huh?

Proof of Residence for Food? Really?

I can see it now….A lovely early June day, with the birds singing and the smell of freshly mown hay hanging in the air like the best memory from childhood. A young mother pulls into the Farmers Market and readies herself for a wonderful shopping experience.

She approaches the first stand with her mouth nearly watering at the bright display of fresh produce. “I’d like 3 cucumbers, please”, says the lady with her 3 kids and cloth grocery bag.

“Great! Can I see your ID?” replies the guy in bibs.

“Oh, I’m paying with cash” she replies with a smile.

“No matter”, says the farmer, “We have to make sure you’re within a 275 mile radius of our farm in order to sell to you”.

She looks perplexed and says, “Well, we aren’t. We’re on our way to visit my parents and I wanted to make a special dinner for all of us, using their locally produced foods so they could remember how good home grown veggies are….So I can’t buy from you without an ID?”

The farmer scratches his head and says, “Now see, I have to be very careful. I belong to a CSA that sells to a Chipotle that’s 276 miles from us, so all of my sales at market have to be local or I lose my exemption and will have to hire 5 people to take care of the paper work and then I just go out of business. So no, I can’t sell to you. What’s more, all the vendors here are part of the CSA, so no one here can sell to you. You have a nice day now!”

No Surprises-It’s Locally Global

What we have in Tester is local Agenda 21 Sustainable Development. In sum, “control over all human impact on the environment”. Everything will need to be within the ‘food shed’, and if you are outside of the food shed, too bad for you. It’s a great way to surveille and monitor food production and distribution. And you still fall under the broad based “reason to believe” of the Secretary with the Tester amendment. If the “Secretary”, meaning the head of the FDA or HHS thinks you may have a problem, or deems what you produce to be ‘high risk’, you will be shut down until they say you can begin again. All of your product is subject to mandatory recall; that’s why you have to keep records of everyone you sell to. And you will have to register as a facility under the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, referred to as Sec 415 throughout the bill. (Knock knock—this is “premises identification” as in NAIS)

So please, don’t tell me how great the Tester Amendment is, and that the expansive powers being granted to the DoD, DHS, HHS, FDA and USDA in this bill will be helpful to small farmers and local food production and make my food safe. Wake up and smell the coffee!!! Oh, wait. The only state that could produce coffee within 275 miles of itself, is Hawaii. Never mind. Wake up, and smell the tyranny, please.

(The best thing to do right now is to call the members of the House Ways and Means Committee as well as your own Representative and tell them they MUST blue slip S. 510. While I know it gets frustrating to call the Congress critters, the more they know that we know, the better the chance at slowing down the destruction they have planned for us. The switchboard number for Congress is 202-224-3121.)