Heads up on Legislation!!!

Hello friends. The U.S. Congress is in the process of rushing through legislation that would form a food safety agency of the US government, with sweeping powers to enter, inspect, confiscate, and punish farms of any size that produce food. This legislation requires coding, packaging, labeling, and tracking that is burdensome in the extreme, and that gives an unfair advantage to corporate farms. This is a thinly-veiled attempt to pander to companies like Monsanto and Cargill that would like to see the end of family farms, organic and eco-farming, and the existence of local food systems. The Senate and House Bills are very similar. The last reading was about a week ago, and the Senate Bill was referred to the Food and Ag Committee, on which our own Senator Amy Klobuchar sits. Please take a moment to contact your Senators via their web sites, or by phone.

Here is the text of the message I sent this morning to our Senator, Amy Klobuchar.

“Dear Senator Klobuchar, as a farmer, and your active and voting constituent, I respectfully ask that you oppose the passage of S.425, the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act. This bill will place an unreasonable burden on small farming operations, and will undermine the efforts we have made in Minnesota to develop local food initiatives that promote the health and economic security of our citizens. My farming colleagues and I are concerned that this bill and its House counterpart, will give an unfair advantage to corporate farms and sponsors of corporate farming, genetic engineering of food, and chemically enhanced farm produce. It will diminish the choices Minnesota consumers value with respect to being able to choose unaltered, organic or eco-farmed local food products for their families. It will diminish the ability of Minnesota communities to create food security by supporting their neighboring farms and farm families. I would like to see you support a size limit on these tracking initiatives (including N.A.I.S.) that target only corporate farming businesses, and not family farms.”

—
Michael L Sams
10144 95th Ave SW
Staples MN 56479
Cell 320-241-2227