Stop The Monsanto Protection Act

A so-called “Monsanto rider,” quietly slipped into the multi-billion dollar FY 2013 Agricultural Appropriations bill, would require – not just allow, but require - the Secretary of Agriculture to grant a temporary permit for the planting or cultivation of a genetically engineered crop, even if a federal court has ordered the planting be halted until an Environmental Impact Statement is completed.

All the farmer or the biotech producer has to do is ask, and the questionable crops could be released into the environment where they could potentially contaminate conventional or organic crops and, ultimately, the nation’s food supply. Unless the Senate or a citizen’s army of farmers and consumers can stop them, the House of Representatives is likely to ram this dangerous rider through any day now.

September 30 marked the expiration of the 2007 Farm Bill, and the 2012 replacement is now sitting in the House of Representatives. Congress decided they will vote on the bill until after the elections, so food-safety advocates  have ramped up their outreach efforts around this issue in advance of any decision.
Please let your representative know how you feel about this issue by clicking the image to send a letter.

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Excerpt from NSAC -

As we close out on two full weeks of the lame duck session of Congress and head into the final three-week December marathon, there has been lots and lots of talk about farm bill options but little-to-no action.  By contrast, there has been some action on the appropriations bills to fund the government, including USDA, for the rest of Fiscal Year 2013, though final action on an “omnibus” spending bill in December seems at best a very slim possibility.

Farm Bill

Regular readers are by now well aware of “What’s At Stake?” should Congress fail to enact a new farm bill (or fail to enact a farm bill extension with renewed funding for expiring programs).  We have just published the eighth in a series of ten posts in our “What’s At Stake?” series.

So, what are the options for getting a farm bill and what are the odds?  Here they are in a nutshell:

1.  Finish the 5-year farm bill re-authorization through regular congressional order, with the House Committee-passed bill going to the House floor for amendment and passage, then on to conference with the measure the Senate passed six months ago, and then back to each body for a vote on the final measure.  The odds on this option, given the limited time remaining, are close to nil.

2. Finish the 5-year farm bill re-authorization without ever giving the House of Representatives a chance to consider it or amend it, by reaching a House-Senate deal among the Agriculture Committee leadership and, with the blessings of House and Senate leadership, attaching the product to whatever legislation ultimately moves to deal with the larger tax and spending issues most often referred to as the “fiscal cliff” issues.  The odds on this option are better, but not high. Story Continues Here

Related articles

• Monsanto’s latest Sneaky Strategy (trilliumorganics.wordpress.com)
• USDA Tells Farmers To Buy ‘Monsanto Insurance’ (misbehavedwoman.wordpress.com)
• Stop the Monsanto Protection Law (usapartisan.com)
• Monsanto insurance: USDA tells farmers to pay for avoiding troubles with agro-giant (rt.com)
• Monsanto’s Gift From The DoJ (misbehavedwoman.wordpress.com)
• Biotech industry wants organic farmers to pay for GMO contamination of their own crops (dprogram.net)
• Monsanto mafia money: USDA tells farmers to pay to avoid troubles with agro-giant (hangthebankers.com)
• EU bank offers Monsanto a helping hand with public funds (nyrnaturalnews.com)
• Genetically Modified Seed Giant DuPont to Unleash Seed Police (commondreams.org)
• The World According to Monsanto (panoffolin.wordpress.com)