Update (from Crooks and Liars):

(1) the bill has nothing to do with Monsanto, (2) Rep. DeLauro’s husband is a pollster for a company that once had Monsanto as a customer a decade ago, but he in no way ‘works’ for Monsanto, (3) HR 875 as it currently stands is very unlikely to even pass, and (4) the group behind disseminating this trumped-up propaganda is NICFA, whose mission statement maintains their goal is to ‘promote and preserve unregulated direct farmer-to-consumer trade’ and ‘oppose any government funded or managed National Animal Identification System. This organization has been aided by the support of a woman named Linn Cohen-Cole, whose unsubstantiated and exaggerated claims in an obsessive crusade against Monsanto, Hillary Clinton, Obama and anyone else in an imagined government ‘plot’ to nationalize farming does seem to indicate a serious lack of credibility.

Rep. DeLauro, one of the sponsors, is working with organic gardeners to amend the bill. It is intended to only cover commercial, interstate transportation of food, not home gardens. I suspected such, but was unable to find the link.

I know – this is going to seem as if I’m channelling Ron Paul here but sometimes that’s how life goes. The government is stupid sometimes.

There is a piece of legislation (HR875, S425) making its way through Congress that,if the tubes are to be believed, seems to make it illegal to farm organically. I skimmed the legislation, so I may be overreacting, but it looks like a home gardener would be included in the “food production facility” definition, which is expansive enough to include me and anyone who has wild blackberry canes on their property. We would be required to meet regulatory requirements for fertilizer and pesticide use as well as seed selection.

(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.

According to what I have seen on the Internet, the legislation is backed by Monsanto, Cargill, ADM, and other companies devoutly concerned about your safety to the point that your safety is all they do, all giant agri-business companies. This bill requires all farms (including organic ones – there’s no exemption for organic farming) to use fertilizers and insecticides and fungicides dictated by the newly formed agency to “make sure there is no danger to the public food supply.” This includes backyard gardens that grow food only for a family and not for sales.

If this passes, then no more heirloom clean seeds but only Monsanto genetically-altered seeds.

The name on this bill is the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. This is a list of the senators and their contact info just in case Lamar and Bob aren’t in your contact list or you live somewhere else and this one will give you the name of your representative, if you don’t happen to know it (well, as long as you know your nine-digit zip code, it will).