I just arrived home to find Peter DeFazios newsletter in my box. I opened it with trepidation... sure enough, p3--> The FDA gives Monsanto & GMOs the OK While Attacking Small Farms. Im pretty sure I know how most of the scientists feel about this, but I would certainly love to hear the perspectives of the folks here who make their living on small farms... **** **The FDA gives Monsanto & GMOs the OK While Attacking Small Farms.** Federal food safety bureaucrats are running amok, attacking small family farms, organic growers, and craft brewers while ignoring real threats to our food supply from industrial agricultural conglomerates. I have joined our small farmers and food producers to push back on increasingly senseless regulations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I was stunned when the FDA sought to heavily regulate spent grain, a by-product of the brewing process that local farmers recycle into perfectly healthy and inexpensive livestock feed. The Beer Institute estimates that if the FDA moved forward with this new rule, nearly 3 million tons of spent grain, including 140,000 tons in Oregon alone, would be diverted away from cattle feed and go directly into landfills, driving up costs for farmers and craft brewers. This is beyond absurd. The FDA has also proposed extensive an burdensome requirements for irrigation water, and new composting regulations that would cripple organic farms and conflict with the national organic standards. Additionally, the FDA is going after artisanal cheese makers, dozens of them in Oregon, for using wooden shelving, a practice used for centuries to age cheese. According to the FDA, wood aging is a potential food safety risk. These are just a few examples of why Im standing up to the FDA to ensure that any new food safety regulations dont unnecessarily burden our nations local farmers, craft breweries, cheese makers, and other small businesses that produce high quality and safe food products enjoyed by Oregonians. The FDA should focus on keeping the public safe by preventing catastrophic foodborne illnesses from industrial farming and food processing practices, not waste time and money on regulations that make no sense and do little to protect us from real food safety risks. Sadly, while the FDA focuses on burdensome and unnecessary regulation, it is ignoring calls by consumers who want basic information about the food that they eat. While the FDA targets small farmers and brewers, the agency refuses to require labeling of genetically modified foods so that giant food corporations can continue to hide and mislead you about whats in your food. Ive introduced legislation to mandate national GMO labels. The European Union, Russia and even China have joined 64 nations around the world to mandate GMO labels. Its time the FDA stopped protecting a handful of major food companies and instead gave consumers the basic information they want **** Wow, Ill bet a lot of you found parts of that to be pretty rich, huh? I really have to wonder whos writing this and advising DeFazio on this topic. I have generally appreciated DeFazio to varying degrees and thought of him as a pretty straight-shooter all these years, but this is really bringing his credibility down more than a couple of notches. Either 1) hes just really behind the curve and hasnt personally done enough of his own research on the subject, or 2) hes knowlingly sacrificing intellectual integrity for the sake of political points. This article is a great example of DeFazios savvy in appealing to the populist sentiment that he has ridden for his entire career (often for the public good in my opinion, dont get me wrong). Its interesting how he titled the piece, considering Monsanto isnt mentioned even once in the entire article, and he doesnt even get around to talking about GMOs until the small runover on p.4. Rather, he skillfully sets up his case against burdensome regulations and his defense of small businesses in and then carries over that momentum to stump for GMO labeling at the very end. Very clever, but disingenuous nonetheless. Ill link a related petition he put out recently... he seems to be playing this card really heavily, and its rather astounding to see him citing things that have so thoroughly debunked. If he is truly unaware of how off base he is with this rhetoric, then that would be bad enough. But if he and/or his staff *is* aware of the poor quality of this information and this is really all about cashing in political points from a gravely misinformed populace, then I think Wayne Morse is rolling in his grave. I hope we can hold his feet to the fire on this. Here is a list of 20 Town Hall Meetings he will be having across the state starting next Tuesday. Lets see how many of us we can get down to these, as well as flooding his office with calls and emails beforehand! **Tuesday, August 12** Reedsport 10:30-11:30 AM Community Building, Reedsport City Hall 451 Winchester Ave. Bandon 3:30-4:30 PM Bandon City Library, Sprague Room 1204 11th St. SW Gold Beach 6:00-7:00 PM Gold Beach City Hall Council Chambers 29592 Ellensburg Ave. **Wednesday, August 13** Brookings 10:00-11:00 AM Chetco Activity Center, Rooms A&B 550 Chetco Lane Port Orford 1:30-2:30 PM Port Orford City Hall 555 W. 20th St. Coos Bay 5:15-6:15PM Coos Bay City Hall Council Chambers 500 Central Ave. **Thursday, August 14** North Bend (Focused on Veterans Issues) 11:30-12:30PM North Bend High School, Hall of Champions 2323 Pacific St. Springfield 6:00-7:00PM Willamalane Center for Sports and Recreation, Ken Long Room 250 S 32nd St. **Monday, August 18** Cottage Grove 10:00-11:00AM City Hall 400 E Main St. Grants Pass 5:30-6:30PM Anne Basker Auditorium 604 NW 6th St. **Tuesday, August 19** Myrtle Creek 1:00-2:00PM South Umpqua High School Auditorium 501 Chadwick Lane Roseburg 5:30-6:30PM Roseburg City Hall 900 SE Douglas Ave. **Wednesday, August 20** Lebanon 12:00-1:00PM Lebanon Public Library, Community Meeting Room 55 Academy St. Albany (Focused on Veterans Issues) 2:30-3:30PM American Legion Post 10 1215 Pacific Blvd. SE Corvallis 5:15-6:15PM Corvallis Public Library 645 NW Monroe Ave. **Thursday, August 21** Florence 11:00-12:00PM Suislaw Public Library 1460 9th St. Veneta 4:00-5:00PM Veneta City Hall 88184 8th St. **Monday, August 25** Eugene (Focused on Seniors Issues) 1:30-2:30PM Petersen Barn 870 Berntzen Rd. Eugene 6:30-7:30PM Hilyard Community Center 2580 Hilyard St.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 20:32:12 +0000
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