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Mar 31 2009, 10:48 AM EDT (current) BethDougherty 280 words deleted
Mar 31 2009, 10:46 AM EDT BethDougherty 280 words added

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The corporation in action!I read about this and got fairly worried. You may want to send this 'round, as it's apparently one of those things that'll be snuck in under the radar otherwise. There are two bills being pushed through legislation in the next two weeks that will severely impact farming, including organic. The Bills are: House HR 875 Senate S 425 There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next 2 weeks before people realize what is happening. Main backer and lobbyist is (guess who) Monsanto. This Bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to "make sure there is no danger to the public food supply". You can read the content of the bills on-line here: House HR 875
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875 Senate S 425 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s425: Note that the Library of Congress doesn't seem to have the House bill on-line. Take Action with the Grassroots Netroots Alliance http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=12878056 Five Minute activism - Things YOU can do: 1. Contact your members at 202-224-3121 and ask them to oppose HR 875 and S 425. -While you are at it ask them if they personally have read the legislation and what their position is? -If they have not read the legislation, ask them to read it and politely let them know that just because other representatives are not reading the legislation and voting on it, does not mean they can do the same. 2. Get in touch with local farmers and food producers and tell them about this.
3. Find out who sits on your states agriculture and farming committee and contact them with your concerns.



First test is Saturday 21 March, followed by work on the next segments of the projects. A student has put together an excel spreadsheet that helps cross-reference terms and ideas from the book. I'll link it under study guides. Thanks, Janna!

There is a study session scheduled for Tuesday at noon, in the cafe at the local Borders (Danada Center) for which I will also show up, to answer questions. However, you will be responsible for coming with questions and helping provide answers!



First day of clas is here. I'm sure there are some confusing things going on with all of this. I'm here to help, but there is also a handy FAQ sheet that explains some of this clearly. I look forward to getting to know you all, and hope that this will be a productive learning endeavor.




lalalala.