Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Its Over: Buy Your Seeds Now!

The biggest U.S. food-safety overhaul in more than 70 years won Senate passage as lawmakers sought to curb food-borne illnesses that cost the nation an estimated $152 billion a year.
Uh huh.
Will this work?  Who knows.  And how much of the food-borne illness is due to improper preparation?  A lot - maybe most.  Will this address any of that?  No.
The concern lies in many of the provisions in the legislation that, if I'm reading it correctly, will make processing seeds for the next year a regulated activity.  Well that's very convenient - for Monsanto and similar.  It's not so good if you want what are known as "heirloom" seeds - those that not only germinate but produce seed in the resulting crop so you can have a nice, natural cycle of growth, instead of relying on the big seed producers (all of whom would love to legislate away what nature would otherwise make a low-cost alternative to their products.)
The bill had awaited a full Senate vote since winning unanimous approval a year ago by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. It was prompted partly by recalls of cookie dough, spinach, jalapenos and salmonella-tainted peanuts that killed at least nine people and sickened more than 700 in 2008 and 2009.
Let's see.... nine people over two years, or 4.5 people/year.  Your odds are 1 in 73 million.
350 people a year sickened?  One in 943,000 anually.
To put this in perspective you have a one-in-7,800 chance of being killed in an auto accident, and several multiples of this for injury in an accident - or more than 100 times more likely that you will get injured or killed in an auto accident.
I'm not impressed with the argument here, just as I'm not impressed with the argument for the TSA.


9 comments:

  1. Unless you are decently prepared and live in a moderate weathered area seeds aren't really that good.

    I recently tried to grow what amounts to be edible weeds...I read and prepped for it, got very good soil, watered it well, protected it from the cold and still...NADA.

    Many here see themselves as some Apocalyptic farmer...Thing is growing things is harder than it seems...Especially fruit trees that take up to 3 years before they start giving fruit.

    Since I own no land...I'll collect the seeds and wait...But for results canned food and sealed food works long enough to get you through a Long Emergency of months or years.

    It's like starting a new business...You won't see any results for awhile so have a second option till it kicks in.

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  2. We have basic home cooked meals all the time and many months ago began turning down invitations to eat out. The reason? We realized that most times we felt like we had a rock in our stomaches...it just didn't digest properly. We also realized that resturant prepared foods tended to have an after-taste we couldn't identify. Seasoning? Fillers? Preservatives? We have no idea. Our container garden failed this summer due to extreme heat, in spite of all the water we gave them. But already planning next years. It is true that food from a garden is much more flavorful...when the weather co-operates. If nothing else, try a tomatoe and some loose leaf lettuce. It's worth the bit of work! If you try home canning, be sure you follow directions exactly. And take into account the amount of supplies, water and energy required to do it. It can be very labor intensive and costly. Best of luck.

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  3. "Since I own no land...I'll collect the seeds and wait...But for results canned food and sealed food works long enough to get you through a Long Emergency of months or years."

    Collecting seeds won't really work since the number of seeds that will sprout decline. After about 4 to 5 years the seeds will no longer sprout. You would need to grow them an replace your old seeds with new ones every two years.

    Clearly this bill is not about food safety but to drive all of the small players out of business. This is not just including the Seed companies but small farmers too.

    Big Agra has bought Washington and now dictate the rules. Gov't messing with food production on who can grow is a disaster in the making. If the gov't messes with Money, Tax, people will get hurt, but they are less likely to starve to death. Food is one taboo that gov't should refrain in controlling production unless they want 250 Million starving voters.

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  4. 1:20 they want 250 million people to control. That includes feeding, taxing, housing, banking, etc..soon you will not be able to travel out of the country unless you have a REAL GOOD REASON.

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  5. you can cook and can without electric or propane, and without using an entire tree to burn, like the campfire types who burn it up heating 1 can of soup..lol
    necessity breeds invention, most who already have some knowhow will figure it out, just hasn't been necessary til now. if u can find an outlet for heirloom seeds local ask where they get their seeds also, if own source local then your better off, trial and error you'll find what grows best on your plot or where you plan on being, visit a local farm, orchard and see what they do etc etc..different lifestyle, different networking, new things to learn.

    with fake fish, beef, chicken, eggs, veggie's, milk..what else to do but grow yours, raise yours, hunt, fish, trap, learn the in's and out's and inform others of things going on

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  6. "1:20 they want 250 million people to control. That includes feeding, taxing, housing, banking, etc..soon you will not be able to travel out of the country unless you have a REAL GOOD REASON."

    The pretty much already control most people. Consider that ~200 million Americas can not afford to relocate outside of the US as it is.

    This is about Washington politicians getting kickbacks from Big Agra. The issue is that when something fails the whole system will collapse. Messing with Food production is one of the things that can lead to a fast collapse. But they don't care. All the want is there share of Big Ag. profits.

    Those in washington are trading short term gains for long term poverty. Much like selling the farm and living like a playboy for a year or two on the farm proceeds. After the Money is spent, there is no farm to go home to. They are just idiots. Congress is no better than a two bit street con man.

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  7. Definitely agree this and much else going on is about "control". The less self-sufficient we are the more control they have.
    3:14, yes cooking can be done, but with canning you must know what you are supposed to do and do it properly. If you don't you risk making yourself and family very ill...or worse!
    There are many excellent sites with what you need to know about it. Especially look for county extension sites. Many are based through various universities also. Certain vegetables and definitely meat MUST be prepared certain ways. This isn't something you should experiment with. Some canned products can look and smell fine, but are not. That's why the caution to do it correctly.

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  8. Throughout the history of the world, dictators have used food as a weapon to starve and control the masses. Sadly for us, our time has come.

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  9. Throughout the history of the world, dictators have used food as a weapon to starve and control the masses. Sadly for us, our time has come.

    This is the everyday weapon monopoly pricing and debt creation the Ruling elites of the First world uses in the third world, keeping people poor with the small farmers unable to compete with capitalintensive ,subsidised ,big farming ,extracting monopoly profits by controling food supply.

    america may soon join the Third world and perhaps will soon learn a little humility ,humanity and empathy with mankind that are suffering right now in this economic system and particularly the dollar hegemony in world trade and finance.

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