Rosa Delauro's HR 875 Will Bring Sweeping Orwellian Police Powers To Milford's Farms.

House Resolution 875, or the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, was recently introduced by Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. It is worth noting that DeLauro's husband, Stanley Greenburg, works for Monsanto – the world's leading producer of herbicides and genetically engineered seed.

This legislation looks like a government grab to regulate smaller agri-business at the behest of larger more powerful agri-business interests.

According to this proposed legislation, Government inspectors would be required to visit and examine food production facilities, which is defined as "any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation". Government would review food safety records and conduct surveillance of animals, plants, products or the environment.

The Government would also "provide technical assistance to farmers and food establishments that are small business concerns (meeting the requirements of section 3(a) of the Small Business Act and the regulations promulgated thereunder) to assist with compliance with the requirements of this Act."

Michael Olson, author of "Metro Farm, said, "What the government will do is bring in industry experts to tell them how to manage all this stuff, It's industry that's telling government how to set these things up. What it always boils down to is who can afford to have the most influence over the government. It would be those companies that have sufficient economies of scale to be able to afford the influence – which is, of course, industrial agriculture."

According to the provisions of this bill, farms and other food producers would be forced to submit copies of all records to federal inspectors upon request, and refusal to register, permit inspector access or testing of food or equipment would be prohibited by law and a punishable offense.

So basically our local agricultural business, family farms and especially organic farmers and perhaps even small weekend farm-stand farmers will suffer under the weight of more government control and have to adhere to burdensome and onerous rules and regulations that are designed for bigger agri-business. In essence it is a means by which large industrial agriculture along with government will manage local agriculture.

Under this act, every food producer must have a written food safety plan and must adhere to standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water. And guess who sets those standards?

The government is going to bring in big industry to establish the protocols which could very well help to eliminate their competition by establishing expensive reporting and other expensive associated guidelines for growing food. This could cripple small American farms.

The penalties are also stiff and each offense is considered a separate offense - "Any person that commits an act that violates the food safety law … may be assessed a civil penalty by the Administrator of not more than $1,000,000 for each such act."

Another "food safety" bill that has organic and small farmers worried is Senate Bill 425, or the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act, sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

The government wants to establish a "food database" and to track everything grown, prepared, handled, manufactured, processed, distributed, shipped, warehoused, imported, and conveyed under the premise that they want to ensure the safety of the food. Never mind the poisonous additives and crap that the FDA already allows in most food products in American grocery stores. Now it seems more important for government to hassle organic farmers and small food growers.

As this seems to be a knee jerk reaction to recent salmonella outbreak among consumers of peanut products, and since of course no crisis should go to waste - it is a great opportunity for more government control with the help of companies like Monsanto.

Really all that is necessary to ensure food safety is to update a few outdated regulations and add some more inspectors. The peanut debacle would not have happened if inspectors would have done their job properly and saw the filth in that peanut plant to begin with.

In Conclusion A Parody Of What Delauro Finds Safe.

Economy Gives Mixed Signals

Connecticut resident, Glenn Beck often expresses great concern over the national economy. While many view Beck as a "Drama Queen" or an alarmist, that group is becoming the minority.

There is nothing more difficult, for any political official running for office, than to have to constantly address the negative elements of our great country. Our nation has always been the envy of the world with massive wealth, the worlds largest banks, and the highest standard of living.

Today our Federal government is now reaping the comeuppance of over 30 years of bad decisions. The punishment, unfortunately is not only theirs to bear but ours as well. How does main street affect your street? Well it is not hard to see, all you have to do is ask your neighbor what is going on with their stocks, 401K's, the value of their home, and the purchasing power of their dollars. We could then also pose the question has your income kept up with inflation? The answers are almost always somber and sobering, yet our citizens are correct when they say these problems are now so great they are beyond what our local or state leaders can repair.

Former governor Ventura on a GCN radio show told his listening audience that in his opinion and in the opinion of the economists he spoke to the only way we could begin to rectify our economy is to restore faith in the U.S. Dollar. This can occur by first addressing our national debt now estimated at 9.6 trillion dollars, ending our costly wars, and next (in my opinion) raising interest rates to attract foreign investors who have dollar wealth.

The weakening dollar has been blamed for the high cost of everything, while our Federal Leaders in Congress are blaming speculators on Wall Street for driving up energy prices, the reality is that this is only part of the problem. The weak U.S. dollar now fetching a record low of 1.60 Euro is as responsible for its loss of purchasing power as the Wall Street speculators.

America has now sadly reached a point where manufacturing has shrunk to less than 10% of all jobs, our banks are failing or are in serious trouble, Americans finding it difficult to afford their homes, health care is all but affordable, a nursing crisis exists, we import 70% of our Oil creating a disturbing transfer of wealth to foreigners and our capitol is paralyzed by global corporations who has a vested interest in eliminating our national sovereignty in favor of global trade agreements.

Television, and our American news reporters are nothing more than the spawn of "puppet masters" who report trite that fails to connect with the true nature and gravity of our nations peril. While the media calms the public, and often outright mocks our national issues with hundreds of channels of game shows, soap opera's, music video's, reality shows, and slanted feudalistic opinion shows we are in a state of our greatest national crisis since 1930.

There was a time when our national prosperity was so great that we, as a society became victims of our own complacency, we made a public oath never to discuss religion or politics... absolute lunacy for anyone who knows that the founders of America built our country with the moral foundations of religion and every citizen was either a minuteman or a freedom fighter vying to break the death grip of British occupation.

Today we have a population that polls 70% against the war in Iraq and yet one of the top Republican contenders John McCain vowed to keep us in Iraq for 100 years if necessary . Things are strange, and reality is often stranger than fiction. The future is posing challenges that have been all but forgotten but thoughts of preparedness, and survival are increasingly on peoples minds.

What you decide to do for yourself and family are entirely up to you, but during these hard and unpredictable times we can take nothing for granted. We need to be proactive and preemptive in our future plans for our families. Not being prepared for an economic anomaly can severely impede our quality of life.

Credit Card Debt Soars to One Trillion!

Some time ago I warned that the faltering subprime credit mess would put pressure on consumers to turn to their credit cards for money. The start of 2008 is showing just that, many American's have now "balooned" their credit card debt to a record one trillion dollars.

This is an enormous problem as our entire economy is built on a system of credit. Debt is what makes it possible to own a home, buy a car, build a business and believe it or not retire. But why does a person need credit to retire? The answer is that inflation, low Social Security payments, and stock market madness has led to a revolution in "Reverse Mortgage" retirement. This allows an elderly person to sell their home to the bank before they pass on.

Identity theft has compounded this debt problem, and resulted in a decrease in FICO Scores. The signs of contracting credit is placing a burden on all areas of the American Economy. Banks afraid of more defaults are eliminating subprime lending, creating superfunds to absorb losses and even borrowing from overseas investors.

Today Gold hit $900.00 per ounce, this is an indication that world markets are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the U.S., and possibly the Global Economy. The real challenge will emerge when the new bankruptcy law is imposed against Americans who believe that going broke is an option as if like it was for our parents. This may not be the case anymore, because the level of difficulty in having your debt pardoned, and being granted a fresh start is not what it used to be.

Bailing on your debt has more in common with trying to bail on child support today. Although there is no "official" debtors prison we do have "contempt of court" of which is the same thing. For now America's future economic fate is no longer in Americas hands. We have something called a "Dollar Peg" that is in the hands of foreign nations who are mired with troubled dollars they no longer want.

Many nations are already distancing themselves from the U.S. currency, while Americas leaders continue to ignore all the warning signs even those from Americas chief accountant David Walker who has gone public on the debt and credit fiasco undermining our national sovereignty.

David's message, recently was again on Glenn Beck.