By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Organic farmers and owners of homegrown operations have remained out of the spotlight for years, but a bill originating in Congress (House Resolution 875) has many worried that it could eliminate organic farming and homegrown food as legal activities.

Interpretation of the bill has started an e-mail frenzy. Some refer to it as “Internet hysteria.”

“My belief is that government control over the food supply is not in the interest of families, freedom or our nation’s health,” said Marilyn Moll, in her www.urbanhomemaker website. “I am told Stalin used the food supply to gain control over the population.”

Moll is not alone. Hundreds of blogs on the Internet are filled with rants, raves and unsettled worry that the bill targets organic farmers, benefits manufacturers of genetically engineered seeds and threatens to uproot backyard vegetable gardens across the country.

HR 875, or the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, was proposed in February by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) in response to the peanut/salmonella scare.

The bill would split the Food and Drug Administration into two agencies, creating a separate entity to oversee food safety. It’s aimed at food sold in supermarkets and doesn’t refer to organic gardening, pesticides, farmers’ markets or the tomato plants in one’s backyard. Still, the wording and the interpretation of many is that Monsanto and other big ag companies are behind the bill and want to use it to shut down every small-scale farm in the country – and even some gardens.

“The main backer and lobbyist is Monsanto, chemical and genetic engineering giant corporation, and Cargill, ADM and about 35 other related agri-giants,” Moll said. “This bill would require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and toxic insect sprays dictated by a newly formed agency.

“Since this bill is currently in committee we have an opportunity to contact our representatives and senators to encourage them to read the bill and voice our opposition.”

Lori Roberts, managing editor of FactCheck.org, dispels any notion that companies like Monsanto have such motives. She believes those with green thumbs are in an uproar for nothing.

“Talk about Internet hysteria,” Roberts said. “This bill has sparked chain e-mails, blog postings and other exclamation point-filled rants, claiming the legislation targets organic farmers and benefits manufacturers of genetically engineered seeds. It doesn’t.
“The bill has 41 co-sponsors and has been endorsed by major food and consumer safety organizations, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union and Food & Watch.”

The legislation stipulates that the new Food Safety Administration (FSA) would set safety regulations for food establishments and food production facilities. Many are afraid that food production facilities could broadly refer to backyard gardens.

“But the bill states that food production facility means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility or confined animal-feeding operation,” Robertson said.

“It seems quite a stretch to think that anyone’s personal vegetable patch would be considered a farm, ranch or orchard.”

Some go so far as to call HR 875 Monsanto’s “dream bill.” In response to this frenzy, Monsanto addressed this on the company’s webpage at www.monsanto.com/monsanto_today

Monsanto stated: “The most notable inaccuracy is the allegation that Monsanto is behind this bill. The reality is that Monsanto does not have a position on the bill. Nowhere in HR 875 is there any mention of seed banks, loss of property rights or GPS tracking of animals.

“The bill seems to be nothing more than a well-intentioned effort to improve food safety laws and processes. It was no doubt written in response to public concerns with relatively recent incidents with peanut butter, ground beef, spinach, etc.”

Some feel the bill legally binds state agriculture departments to enforce federal guidelines, making those departments nothing more than food police for the federal department. Others look at the legislation as criminalizing organic farming. Still others worry the legislation is so broad-based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal.

Robertson urges peace on the Internet and states nowhere in the legislation does it state that organic farming would be outlawed or home gardeners would face regulations.

“We suppose in the grand realm of all that’s possible, or more likely, a futuristic B-movie, federal bureaucrats could decide that public safety calls for inspections of every backyard garden in the nation, leading everyday citizens to surreptitiously cultivate tomato plants in a closet with a sunlamp, lest they get busted by the cops,” she said. “But we kind of doubt it.”