We Need Organic Food – Let’s Not Kill Organic Farms

Organic farmers need you!

Note:  This is an old article, originally published in 2009.  However, you’ll see that organic farmers still need us to speak up for them!

Big farm money wins in Washington DC.  Factory farms do produce a lot of, well, produce, but it’s laced with pesticides, herbicides and chemicals.  And those things end up inside of us! 🙁

So, I wrote to my legislators.  The responses I got were not even related to my letters to them.  I’ve attached them at the end of this post. ~~~~~~~

We need organic farmers, too.  Chemical companies are poisoning us and our children.

This bill, HR 875, will prevent organic farmers from doing what they need to do to get organic food to us.

I hope you can take the time to read, and please pass this along.  If you have never written to your legislator before, this would be such a good time to start.  Below is my letter to my legislator.  Below that, is his response to my previous email to him.

Re: Organic Seed Harvesting & Use HR 875

Monday, April 20, 2009 11:21 PM
From:
“Kathryn Merrow”

To:
“Congressman John D. Dingell”

Dear Congressman Dingell,

I have been puzzling over your response to my email.

I believe it is in the best interests of ALL Americans that organic farmers be able to harvest and use their own organic seeds.

How else will we, Americans, be able to get organic produce?

Why are you willing to put the growing business of organic farms out of business?

Of course!  That’s it, isn’t it!

If organic farmers are not able (I didn’t say “allowed” because THIS IS AMERICA!)  to harvest and use their own organic seeds, then they will be forced to buy genetically modified and otherwise polluted and altered seed if they are able to stay in business at all.

And, who would benefit from that?

The American People?  Of course not.

But the chemical manufacturers would.  The people who will make more money from altering our natural sources of food would.

Have you wondered why the fruit that tasted so wonderful when you were a child tastes rather plain now?  It is more beautiful than ever.  Almost looks like plastic, it’s so perfect.  Almost tastes like plastic.  Getting real close to almost BEING plastic.

I realize that you are getting up in years now and may no longer be concerned about your own health, but what about your grandchildren and their children?  What about their health and their choices to eat healthy, organic foods and produce?

What about all of the children–AMERICAN children–who are getting sick.  Children are getting more and more sick and the cause is the garbage they are forced to eat.

Chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, and altered genes are allowed to be placed into the things in our markets that people eat.  THIS is what you, as a representative of the American People should be protecting us from.

These food “additives” are causing obesity, autism, migraines in children who are only 6 years old, and more illnesses.

Please!  Protect us from the Chemical Giants not from the organic farmers.

Who benefits our health the most?

The answer is obvious:  It’s not Monsanto or other big agricultural companies, it’s Joe the Organic Farmer.

One more thing, Sir.

The first part of your response to my last missive talked about the problems with the recent peanut butter contamination.

Because???  I’m sure that processes were already in place to provide safety in processed foods.  If those processes failed, that has nothing to do with organic farmers.

Big companies generally want to squash little companies so they can make more money.  That’s what’s behind this addition to the bill.

Organic produce is becoming a bigger opponent of “better living through chemistry” now, because more and more people want to have better health.  More and more Americans seek out organic foods.  We want to have better health and a longer, healthier life.

When big business notices little companies becoming popular, what do they do?  They try to get rid of them so they can get the money that is going to the little companies.

Don’t let the guy with the big money win this one.  He doesn’t care about our health.  He doesn’t put love into his produce.

Unfortunately, politics is so…political.

Sincerely hoping you will remove this offensive portion of this bill,

Kathryn Merrow

— On Wed, 4/8/09, Congressman John D. Dingell  wrote:

> From: Congressman John D. Dingell
>
> Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 4:09 PM
> April 8, 2009
>
> Kathryn Merrow

> Dear Kathryn:

>            Thank you for contacting me in regard to H.R.
> 875, the Food
> Safety Modernization Act of 2009.  I appreciate hearing
> from you.
>
> Recently, eight people were killed and over 500 people
> across the
> country fell ill with salmonella after eating contaminated
> peanut
> butter. As if that were not enough, federal officials found
> that the
> peanut plant that produced the peanut butter knowingly
> shipped out
> contaminated goods 12 times in the past two years. The
> Peanut
> Corporation of America found salmonella in internal tests
> between 2007
> and 2008, but sold their products anyway.
>
>                As you may know, Representative Rosa DeLauro
> (D-CT)
> introduced H.R. 875 on February 4, 2009. This bill proposes
> the creation
> of a Food Safety Administration within the Department of
> Health and
> Human Services and directs the administrator implement a
> national food
> safety program to ensure that persons who produce, process,
> or
> distribute food prevent or minimize food safety hazards.
> The
> legislation was referred to the House Committee on Energy
> and Commerce,
> of which I am Chairman Emeritus.
>
> I understand the importance of protecting consumer freedom.
>  You may be
> interested to learn that I, along with Representatives
> Frank Pallone
> (D-NJ) and Bart Stupak (D-MI) introduced H.R. 759, the Food
> and Drug
> Administration Globalization Act, on January 28, 2009. This
> legislation
> is a critical step toward equipping the FDA with the
> authorities and
> funding it needs to regulate what is now a global
> marketplace for food,
> drugs, devices, and cosmetics.
>
> The Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act would
> guarantee FDA
> the funding needed to significantly increase inspections of
> food
> facilities and improve outdated information systems. The
> legislation
> requires food producers to have preventive food safety
> plans in place
> and subjects the plans to FDA inspection, requires food
> imports to meet
> all US standards, closes the loopholes in FDA’s ability
> to trace the
> source of contaminated products, and imposes stiff
> penalties on
> companies that violate safety standards.
>
> Additionally, this bill requires parity between foreign and
> domestic
> drug and device facility inspections, increases the number
> of
> pre-approval drug inspections, prohibits the entry of drugs
> into the
> United States lacking documentation of safety, requires
> manufacturers to
> ensure the safety of their supply chain, and grants FDA
> authority to
> mandate recalls of unsafe drugs. The bill also creates a
> dedicated
> foreign inspectorate to increase FDA’s ability to
> monitor foreign
> facilities producing food, drugs, devices, and cosmetics.
> Please rest
> assured I will keep your comments in mind as these pieces
> of legislation
> move forward.
>
>            Again, thank you for being in touch.  For news
> on current
> federal legislative issues, please visit my website at
> www.house.gov/dingell <http://www.house.gov/dingell>
> ; you can also sign
> up there to receive my e-newsletter.  In the meantime,
> please do not
> hesitate to contact me again if I may be of assistance with
> this or any
> other matter of concern.
>
>            With every good wish,
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
> John D. Dingell
>
> Member of Congress