EcoRadio

Category: Sustainable Settlement and Agriculture

The Generator is founded on the simple premise that we should leave the world in better condition than we found it. The news items in this category outline the attempts people have made to do this. They are mainly concerned with our food supply and settlement patterns. The impact that the human race has on the planet.

  • Analysis of US food safety act

    Is this Change we can believe in? Maybe it is for Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture, Tom “I Fly with Monsanto” Vilsack.

    For the rest of us, this is a nightmare.

    For the original of this article visit Cryptogon

    Let’s take it piece by piece:

    What is the legislation called? H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009:

    111th CONGRESS
    1st Session
    H. R. 875

    To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.

    How does this affect farmers who just sell fruit and vegetables at farmers markets?

    SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    …

    (9) CATEGORY 5 FOOD ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 5 food establishment’ means a food establishment that stores, holds, or transports food products prior to delivery for retail sale.

    …

    13) FOOD ESTABLISHMENT-

    (A) IN GENERAL- The term ‘food establishment’ means a slaughterhouse (except those regulated under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or the Poultry Products Inspection Act), factory, warehouse, or facility owned or operated by a person located in any State that processes food or a facility that holds, stores, or transports food or food ingredients.

    Does this really apply to fruit and vegetables? Yes.

    SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    …

    (12) FOOD- The term ‘food’ means a product intended to be used for food or drink for a human or an animal and components thereof.

    Registration:

    SEC. 202. REGISTRATION OF FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS AND FOREIGN FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS.

    (a) In General- Any food establishment or foreign food establishment engaged in manufacturing, processing, packing, or holding food for consumption in the United States shall register annually with the Administrator.

    (b) Registration Requirements-

    (1) IN GENERAL- To be registered under subsection (a), a food establishment shall submit a registration or reregistration to the Administrator.

    (2) REGISTRATION- Registration under this section shall begin within 90 days of the enactment of this Act. Each such registration shall be submitted to the Secretary through an electronic portal and shall contain such information as the Secretary, by guidance, determines to be appropriate. Such registration shall contain the following information:

    (A) The name, address, and emergency contact information of each domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment that the registrant owns or operates under this Act and all trade names under which the registrant conducts business in the United States relating to food.

    (B) The primary purpose and business activity of each domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment, including the dates of operation if the domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment is seasonal.

    (C) The types of food processed or sold at each domestic food establishment or, for foreign food establishments selling food for consumption in the United States, the specific food categories of that food as listed under section 170.3(n) of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, or such other categories as the Administrator may designate in guidance, action level, or regulations for evaluating potential threats to food protection.

    (D) The name, address, and 24-hour emergency contact information of the United States distribution agent for each domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment, who shall maintain information on the distribution of food, including lot information, and wholesaler and retailer distribution.

    (E) An assurance that the registrant will notify the Administrator of any change in the products, function, or legal status of the domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment (including cessation of business activities) not later than 30 days after such change.

    (3) PROCEDURE- Upon receipt of a completed registration described in paragraph (1), the Administrator shall notify the registrant of the receipt of the registration, designate each establishment as a category 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 food establishment, and assign a registration number to each domestic food establishment and foreign food establishment.

    Inspection, Category 5 Food Establishments

    SEC. 205. INSPECTIONS OF FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS.

    (a) In General- The Administrator shall establish an inspection program, which shall include statistically valid sampling of food and facilities to enforce performance standards. The inspection program shall be designed to determine if each food establishment–

    (1) is operated in a sanitary manner;

    (2) has continuous preventive control systems, interventions, and processes in place to minimize or eliminate contaminants in food;

    (3) is in compliance with applicable performance standards established under section 204, and other regulatory requirements;

    (4) is processing food that is not adulterated or misbranded;

    (5) maintains records of process control plans under section 203, and other records related to the processing, sampling, and handling of food; and

    (6) is otherwise in compliance with the requirements of the food safety law.

    …

    (5) CATEGORY 5 FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 5 food establishment shall–

    (A) have ongoing verification that its processes are controlled; and

    (B) be randomly inspected at least annually.

    (c) Establishment of Inspection Procedures- The Administrator shall establish procedures under which inspectors shall take random samples, photographs, and copies of records in food establishments.

    What happens if you own a farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation that does not prepare or serve food directly to the consumer?

    I hope you like having Feds crawling all over your property and telling you what to do.

    SEC. 206. FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITIES.

    (a) Authorities- In carrying out the duties of the Administrator and the purposes of this Act, the Administrator shall have the authority, with respect to food production facilities, to–

    (1) visit and inspect food production facilities in the United States and in foreign countries to determine if they are operating in compliance with the requirements of the food safety law;

    (2) review food safety records as required to be kept by the Administrator under section 210 and for other food safety purposes;

    (3) set good practice standards to protect the public and animal health and promote food safety;

    (4) conduct monitoring and surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the environment, as appropriate; and

    (5) collect and maintain information relevant to public health and farm practices.

    (b) Inspection of Records- A food production facility shall permit the Administrator upon presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner, to have access to and ability to copy all records maintained by or on behalf of such food production establishment in any format (including paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary to assist the Administrator–

    (1) to determine whether the food is contaminated, adulterated, or otherwise not in compliance with the food safety law; or

    (2) to track the food in commerce.

    (c) Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and representatives of State departments of agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish science-based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall–

    (1) consider all relevant hazards, including those occurring naturally, and those that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced;

    (2) require each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards;

    (3) include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water;

    (4) include, with respect to animals raised for food, minimum standards related to the animal’s health, feed, and environment which bear on the safety of food for human consumption;

    (5) provide a reasonable period of time for compliance, taking into account the needs of small businesses for additional time to comply;

    (6) provide for coordination of education and enforcement activities by State and local officials, as designated by the Governors of the respective States; and

    (7) include a description of the variance process under subsection (d) and the types of permissible variances which the Administrator may grant under such process.

    Is registration required? Yes. Is compliance with inspections required? Yes

    TITLE IV–ENFORCEMENT
    SEC. 401. PROHIBITED ACTS.

    It is prohibited–

    …

    (3) for a food establishment or foreign food establishment to fail to register under section 202, or to operate without a valid registration;

    (4) to refuse to permit access to a food establishment or food production facility for the inspection and copying of a record as required under sections 205(f) and 206(a);

    (5) to fail to establish or maintain any record or to make any report as required under sections 205(f) and 206(b);

    (6) to refuse to permit entry to or inspection of a food establishment as required under section 205;

    So what might happen if I refuse?

    SEC. 405. CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES.

    (a) Civil Sanctions-

    (1) CIVIL PENALTY-

    (A) IN GENERAL- Any person that commits an act that violates the food safety law (including a regulation promulgated or order issued under the food safety law) may be assessed a civil penalty by the Administrator of not more than $1,000,000 for each such act.

  • US legislates against farmer’s markets

    The “food safety” bills in Congress were written by Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc.  All are associated with the opposite of food safety.  What is this all about then?


    In the simplest terms, organic food and a rebirth of farming were winning.  Not in absolute numbers but in a deep and growing shift by the public toward understanding the connection between their food and their health, between good food and true social pleasures, between their own involvement in food and the improvement in their lives in general, between local food and a burgeoning local economy.

    Slow Food was right – limit your food to what comes from your region and from real farmers, and slow down to cook it and linger over it with friends and family, and the world begins to change for the better.
     
    And as we face an unprecedented economic crisis, and it is hard to be sure what has value, one thing that always does is food.  Which is why the corporations are after absolute control over it.  But what obstacles to a complete lock on food do they face?  All the people in this country who are “banking” on organic farming and urban gardens and most of all, everyone’s deepening pleasure in and increasing involvement with everything about food.

    Farmers markets.  Local farmers.  Real milk.  Fresh eggs.  Vegetable stands.  

    Those are things we not only all want, but things we are actively getting involved in, and things we very much need.  And where they are truly good, they are growing.

    The international financial corporations which have wreaked havoc around the world with astounding nonsensical “solutions” that are destructive of everyone but them, are brothers to the international agribusiness giants (Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc.) which are just as aggressively after their own form of “taking.”  Just seeds, animals, water, land.  

    And freedom. 

    Because human beings are by in large good and by in large incredibly resilient and clever, and left to their own devices – that is, free – they would handle this gargantuan financial stupidity the corporations brought us with NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT and all other globalized schemes (which they hope to eventually top off with CODEX).  How?  By being productive in real ways and locally.  And farming is the solid ground under that.  Farmers produce something of real value (something we used to take for granted), and from that base, businesses grow up.  Local markets, local food processors, local seed companies, local tool and supply companies, local stores … and an economy based on reality and something truly good for us, too, begins to grow.  

    So, look again at what has been exciting us – Farmers markets.  Local farmers.  Real milk.  Fresh eggs.  Vegetable stands. – and realize that they are not only wonderfully healthy but fun and naturally community building.  And more, they are a real economy and deeply democratic – and just at a time we need something that works economically, that supports our democratic rebirth, and that protects food itself and our easy access to it.

    And it is all those things that threaten the corporations … which is why we now have these massive “fake food safety” bills in Congress.  Everything is going under thanks to these fools, and they wish to be there like vultures to make sure that every drop of blood that can be sucked out of our resources and us, is theirs.  To wit, they must get rid of such good and innocent things and yet truly powerful things as:

    Farmers markets.  Local farmers.  Real milk.  Fresh eggs.  Vegetable stands.  

    And how will those who contaminate our country’s food with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and more, do that?  Why, by setting standards for “food safety” that are so grotesquely and inappropriately and even cruelly applied to a local, independent farmers and ranchers that there is no way they can manage.  Imagine your being faced with a 100 page IRS form and facing a million dollar a day penalty for screwing up.  That would be in the ball park of the impossible complexity mixed with threat facing our farmers.  Imagine having the government and corporations deciding every single thing you can do and must do in your kitchen and backing that up with the threat of 10 years in prison for screwing up – though you have never made anyone sick, and those corporations have.  Imagine being surveilled 24 hours a day by GPS tracking devices that feed into … a corporate data bank, one they have now moved out of the country so no one here can have legal access to see what is in it.  

    Imagine the devil himself – or a whole boardrooms of them, dressed in suits – defining the only safe and healthy food in this country as dangerous and burdening hard working farmers with more work then anyone could bear, while his own, their own, food is so dangerous at this point that in the last 10 years alone, diabetes has gone up 90%.

    And how did they get this far with such a scheme to apply insane industrial standards to every farm in the country?  Through fear of diseases and of outbreaks of food borne illnesses, both of which they cause themselves. 

    How it works:  Tyson helps Bill Clinton get into office.  Bill Clinton immediately and significantly lowers contamination standards for poultry as a thank you.  And it is such contaminated waste from transnational poultry factories which is now implicated as the source of bird flu. Then fortunes on made on that fear.  And then poultry industry uses the crisis they created to push out small farmers and take greater control than ever.  Their mantra?  Biodiversity not only be damned but be eliminated.  And get rid of those damn farmers who protect it while we’re at it.

    The bills would require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally – a fruit stand, at a farmers market –  no one could manage it.  And THAT is the point.  The whole dirty tricks point.  The whole “be in tight control of everything needed for survival because it’ll be worth a fortune” point.


  • Dock delays threaten wheat exports

    “It would be bad enough if it were just the Koreans threatening to pull out of the Australian market.

    “However, Dow Jones Newswire is reporting that ‘shipment delays have left most, if not all, Indonesian wheat importers scrambling to source the grain from other suppliers such as the US, Canada and Russia’.”

    The Dow Jones Newswire is also reporting: “In previous years, when AWB was the major or sole exporter, shipments were more evenly spread out, limiting the stress on the system at any one point.

    “But with 22 different players jostling for space for the first time this year, the existing system has simply not been able to cope with demand amid the rush by everyone to get their cargo out at the same time.”

    Mr Cobb said the Rudd Government was repeatedly warned that by handing CBH Ltd an effective ‘single desk’ monopoly on transport and ports, that bottlenecks would occur which could lead to the loss of markets.

    “Minister Burke continually ignored this advice and now every Australian will be paying for his negligence,” Mr Cobb said.

    “Agriculture is the one area of the Australian economy which did not contract last quarter.

    “The loss of these major export markets could be an absolute economic disaster, not just for farmers, but for the whole nation.”

  • Tropical pastures may help fight climate chaos

    The related article below is from The Land

    A specialist researcher believes there are opportunities and significant challenges in reducing greenhouse gas emission from livestock production systems, while maintaining and even increasing productivity.

    The researcher is Beverley Henry from Meat and Livestock Australia’s Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change unit, who will be a speaker at the Australian Tropical Pastures Conference at Goondiwindi, Qld, on March 18-19.

    Dr Henry said about 60pc of Australia’s total methane emissions were derived from livestock industries.

    This represented about 11pc of total national greenhouse emissions.

    She said on current knowledge, the greenhouse emissions could be reduced by about 20pc.

    “The challenge is particularly difficult for extensive production systems where few options currently exist for practical intervention,” she said.

    “In some intensive livestock industries, strategies such as feeding supplements and using nitrification inhibitors can be developed for widespread application.”

    An acknowledged global authority on carbon sequestration under tropical pastures will speak at the conference dinner.

    He is Myles Fisher, a researcher and consultant from the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, Columbia.

    Dr Fisher has been involved in considerable research on the environmental benefits of tropical pastures in Africa, South America and other countries.

    Dr Fisher said pastures had a massive role to play in providing ecosystem services.

    “In South America, for example, there are 50 million hectares of introduced pastures that could impact on the global carbon balance,” he said.

    Dr Fisher said the spot price for accumulated carbon sold as an environmental service is $40/tonne on European exchanges.

    However, there were requirements that would have to be met before this option would be considered by buyers, he said.

  • Wine prices chaotic as market and crops fail

    From The Land

    Australia’s era of cheap plonk is over, with vineyards struggling against nature and the global financial crisis.

    In the Barossa Valley, grapes are shrivelling under the blistering sun.

    In the Yarra Valley, the damage from the devastating bushfires that ripped through the region is still being assessed.

    At least the Hunter Valley seems to have overcome high temperatures and recent heavy rains to produce a good harvest.

    And in London restaurateurs are spending long nights looking at empty tables, spelling an end to the party on the other side of the world.

    Wine growers are expecting a rationalisation as the twin burdens of a lesser crop and slowing economy inflict wrath on their grapes.

    In the 12 months to January the industry’s peak body, Wine Australia, found that export volume dropped by 9pc.

    As growers finalised picking their white grapes this month, they are also facing the prospect of a 15pc fall in crop yield this year because of heat stroke and bushfires.

    The falls are expected to eat away the oversupply of grapes enjoyed from 2004 to 2006, when it was estimated that the industry was 20pc too large.

    Lawrie Stanford, Wine Australia’s general manager of information and analysis, said this season would have a profound effect on the industry with Australian wine exporters yet to convince foreigners they’re among the best in the world.

    “The era of cheap wine is definitely going to be over,” Mr Stanford said.

    “We simply can’t sell that wine any more – it’s over because growers have the aim to be a smaller industry, and it’s going to be over because after the global financial crisis passes, the programs in place in the industry to promote our higher priced wines will be what carries us through.”

    Wine Australia will release its annual survey on Friday of this year’s wine yield, but early estimations are that output will be lower than the 2007-08 season.

    Tony Jordan, from the Yarra Valley Winegrowers Association, said he expects a fall of as much as 15pc nationwide, though his region has experienced a more modest fall of about 5pc.

    Barbara Storey, from the Barossa Grape & Wine Association, expects crop yields to be down 20-30pc on a normal year after this month’s heatwave.

    “The ripening has been accelerated by the heat,” Ms Storey said.

    The main task for growers will be winning back the confidence of foreign drinkers when trade picks up again, especially our two biggest export destinations, Britain and the US, which spent 18pc and 26pc less on Australian wine in 2008, respectively.

    “We know that we haven’t quite done the job of convincing overseas consumers,” Mr Stanford said.

    “We also need to take into account that there’s been a fundamental shift in world market which will still be there when economic recovery occurs.”

  • Food prices to soar after fire and floods

    Story from The Land

    The impact of the North Queensland floods and the Victorian bushfires will be felt by consumers, according to Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke.

    While there are estimates of up to 150,000 cattle killed by the floods, it will be some time before an accurate figure is known.

    However, Mr Burke said estimates already showed that up to 20pc of the cane crop had been lost in some areas.

    And with the Victorian bushfires devastating fruit crops, consumers are in for a shock at the supermarket shelves.

    “Sugar cane’s taken a 20pc hit in parts [as have] a number of our fruits, our stone fruits,” Mr Burke said.

    “Similar with apples down south, there’ll be a number of fresh produce items where if people are willing to put up with more blemished fruit the next couple of months, that will certainly help the farmers to do the best with the produce that has survived.

    “If there was ever a time to be picky, it’s not the next few months.”

    Mr Burke said there would not be an immediate shift in meat prices in the supermarket, as it would take until “the first muster in May or June before we know exactly what the cattle numbers are”.

    “Some cattle, the stronger ones, can swim for a couple of weeks, but certainly most of the calves of the last season will have been taken out,” Mr Burke said.

    “And you’ve got to remember, Queensland is the calf factory for the Australian beef industry so there will be some very significant challenges in total beef numbers.”