BILL 510 JUST PASSED SENATE

[KirkMcquest]

I hate to spoil a good conspiracy but the bill in no way, shape, or form applies to home growers. The government has gained absolutely NO new powers under bill s 510 as regards home gardens or growing for personal use. The bill applies only to commercial producers, those who resell their product. Small growers (those who sell less than 500,000 dollars per year and sell within a 275 mile radius) are exempt from the new procedures. That was thanks to the Tester-Hagan amendment. I suggest you familiarize yourselves with the bill here;

http://farmandranchfreedom.org/food_safety_bills_09 The farm and ranch freedom alliance is a watch dog group committed to protect small farms and ranches from encroaching legislation.


I am always skeptical of new government regulation, but this one might not be the boogy-man that many have imagined.

[KirkMcquest]

Also, the bill has not passed yet. They tried to submit it with the omnibus spending bill and that was blocked so, for now the bill is not in effect. We will have to see what happens when they adjourn next year. The main thing to this bill is the tester-hagan agreement which exempts small growers from the most of the bill, the tester-hagan agreement is under fire from huge agri-business lobbies who have thrown lots of money around to oppose tester-hagan ( and to destroy competition from small local growers).

It is actually bad news that the bill was shot down because it gives the agribusiness cronies time to eliminate tester-hagan from the bill.