There is a email going around that says that two bills before Congress (HR875 and S425) will "outlaw organic farming" and make it so burdensome to be a small farmer they'd just have to go out of business. We saw a letter to the editor of the Concord Journal this week saying the same thing, too.Given how unreliable viral emails can be, we wondered if this was what these bills were actually all about. So we did some research, which we share below.
We think this is could be important because we do have to be concerned about protecting and supporting small farms of which we have quite a few in Concord, which are cherished by the community. It's also important because we all can ask our federal elected officials to vote for/against any particular bill -- and they need to hear from us to know what we think.
Online, we could find lots of repetitions of this same information, but there were also several contrary views. None of the opinions we found actually linked to the bills themselves, which is a pity, because there's nothing like the verisimilitude of demonstrating that the opiners might have actually READ the bills to back up their views. So here they are: HR875 and S425. (The stated intent of these bills is to make our food supply more safe.)
Opinions varied from "I'm an organic farmer and this bill doesn't make me do or stop doing anything I already am," to "This hysteria is disinformation by the big global agribusinesses designed to protect THEM from this bill, not small farmers," to "The food supply is in danger and we gotta have these bills pass!" And then here is "Myths and Facts about H875" from the office of Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro who sponsored this bill.
Phew! Lots of sparks and smoke, but what's a person to actually think, much less do?!
We find that the Organic Consumers Association had a most balanced and sane view on this topic. Yes, there is very rightful concern about the safety of our food supply, and we do indeed need to take legislative action to protect it. However, these bills are not the right legislative tools for several reasons (take a look at their brief but informative action alert).
First, it does not distinguish between foreign and/or world-wide agri-businesses and small, local farms. "The bill should be amended to protect local and organic producers from burdensome one-size-fits-all legislation". Until exceptions for small and/or organic farms is a part of the bill, OCA will not support it.
Second, some of the problems that cause the tainting of our food are simply not addressed in the legislation. Of top concern are the dangers of factory farming of animals for food in particular, and of industrial food farming in general. Any legislation that does not address these issues well is not worth supporting.
Third, the legislation does not provide large-scale support for what they feel is an important way to address the dangers to our food supply: large-scale promotion of a transition to organic farming practices.
We do like both the comprehensive view and the lack of hysteria with which they treat this important subject. Do note that they made is no mention of "outlawing" of small or organic farms; such "outlawing" is also hard to find in the proposed bills.
If you like this middle-of-the-road approach, fill in your zip code and click on the link at the bottom of the OCA's action alert to have a letter sent to our Congressional representative, Niki Tsongas (the text of which you can modify to your heart's content). We certainly do want to both protect our food as well as protect our local farms.
