HR 875 Outlaws Organic Farming?

Have you guys heard the chatter about this bill? I saw some commentary on it a few minutes ago, but I'm having trouble finding out what exact portions of the bill people are opposing. It's posted here http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875 but I haven't had a chance to read through it yet.

Just wondered what you guys think about it. Is it a real threat? What I've picked up so far is that it may allow big agriculture to regulate all agriculture, which sounds like a really bad idea to me.

Hmmm. It may have been exactly what I suspected. Lots of clicking and sending before thinking and researching. Here's an article that dispells the rumors I initially ran across: http://crooksandliars.com/nonny-mouse/monsanto-and-hr-875-take-two

Hey there, Indy v -- and anyone else interested -- there is a great thread discussing all this in the Sustainable Alternatives forum: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/961171/

I looked through the bill and definitely didn't see anything that would suggest in any way that they would be eliminating organic practices. Food establishments that fall under the jurisdiction of the bill will have to prove that they are processing food in a safe manner without introducing things that could harm people, and that has nothing to do with whether it was produced organically or not. You can run into contamination either organically or non-organically, and you can produce "clean" food via either method as well. My concern with the bill is that trying to prove compliance with the new food safety regulations will probably be a disproportionate burden on smaller farmers vs the larger operations. So indirectly it could affect availability of organically grown things because the larger operations are probably doing less organic growing and the smaller farmers are doing more, but in terms of regulating how people choose to grow things I don't see anything in there that would suggest that's the case.

In the other thread I got the sense that it didn't have much chance of passage, but that organic growers were also being encouraged to provide input as the bill moved along.

As the discusion on the Sustainable Alternatives forum has pointed out, a big concern with this bill is the vagueness of it. There is concern that it is a one-size fits all approach to deal with factory farming issues that would make it onerous and excessively expensive for small farms to comply. Poorly written regulations lead to lots of expensive litigation.

But a bill is always vague begore it gets passed. It's vague because all the different sides of an issue have to put their two cents in, struggle over its content, and then remember, it has to go from one house to the other and be modified, etc. So it could say anything at this point. It doesn't mean anything.

Thank you. I have a gazillion tabs open.

It sounds like some clueless politicians initiated some vague legislation and got a heated response from an army of citizens with seeds in hand and chicken poop straw piles steaming in the background, and they heard that the people close to the land might have a point and a substantial voice.

From the midwestern land of strip malls and chain restaurants and not knowing where anything comes from, thank you for caring.

As for me I don't trust anything coming out of Washington. More regulations are always a gamble concerning the little guy whether it concerns growing food or freedom of supplements.

As far as gettings "things" hammered out as a bill goes along, who can forget the "stimulus" bill that was basically unread??!!