I heard from a garden gnome...

[Bo Atkinson]

...that we are in for the worse kind of Orwellian bureaucracy where the pawn has to pay for self-torture, oh well ;-( At least the pawn and the king go back in the same box, after the game ;-)

Although it may take me much longer to study, this lady seems way ahead of the curve. A researcher's researcher! (Though she claimed to simply be a grandma, looking out for her family's welfare).

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Merrigan-as-the-show-Mons-by-Linn-...

[Afriendof B]

Can't speak to the validity of the "grand conspiracy". BUT, the bills mentioned definitely have the potential to shut down most small farms, effectively eliminating all the small players in the food production game. They also consolidate power in the hands of a single bureaucracy, which almost always results in huge amounts of waste, inefficiency, and corruption. You don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to see that these bills are bad for small farms, farmers markets (where most of the vendors are small farms) and consumer choice. Whether they were written this way in a deliberate attempt to consolidate power and eliminate competition, or just out of lack of vision and lack of willingness to consider the issues from all angles, they are still poorly written and potentially very damaging to the food system while doing nothing for food safety. It is important to push awareness of the problems and encourage active opposition to these bills.

[Bo Atkinson]

A little April humor to ease this political cluelessness.... Here and there, a message might get across to ease the divide, between misguided materialism and common sense. No offense was intended to the office-culture or to current touch bearers. My very dear mother worked in large offices for many decades and worked her own way through college in the great depression. I have the highest respect for individual fortitude.

My humor was aimed at the prospective spectacle, of a small business, forced to finance expensive data systems, to excessively track a rural farm stand. Aimed at the absurd seed-monopolies, intended to replace heirloom collections. Aimed at Orwellian factories monopolizing every gram of foodstuff. The fatal flaw is the lack of exceptions or exemptions, without which, we are all doomed to a cloned future.

I would miss my pet flock of chickens and would hate to loose my self-sufficient-ish garden. Also my hopes of working for other small, rural businesses might have to stop. The politicians seem to expect everyone to migrate to the cities, as if hapless lemmings on a dumpster dive to the bottom. Small business and the self employed have always been suppressed by politics and these proposed laws utterly fail to respect societal diversity.