Is "conventional" agriculture feasible?

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

What do the Yanks on the list think of this please?
Campaign For Liberty — HR 875 The food police, criminalizing organic farming and the backyard gardener, and violation of the 10th amendment
Does anyone see any irony in this and Mrs. obama starting an organic garden?

After reading the link you posted, and skimming over the bill's contents, I think there's a bit of confusion.

The obama garden will not fall under this regulation.

"(13) FOOD ESTABLISHMENT-
(A) IN GENERAL- The term ‘food establishment’ means a slaughterhouse (except those regulated under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or the Poultry Products Inspection Act), factory, warehouse, or facility owned or operated by a person located in any State that processes food or a facility that holds, stores, or transports food or food ingredients
(B) EXCLUSIONS- For the purposes of registration, the term ‘food establishment’ does not include a food production facility as defined in paragraph (14), restaurant, other retail food establishment, nonprofit food establishment in which food is prepared for or served directly to the consumer, or fishing vessel (other than a fishing vessel engaged in processing, as that term is defined in section 123.3 of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations).

(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation."

(19) PROCESS- The term ‘process’ or ‘processing’ means the commercial slaughter, packing, preparation, or manufacture of food.

When a large farmer harvests tomatoes (for example) for sale, it is still in the manufacturing process. It goes from the field to another point of sale before product separation begins. Some gets washed and packaged for "fresh sale" some goes into spagetti sauce. That is determined by the buyer and the responsibility is with this buyer. Some of these big farms in California bring the product from the field into a Production plant where they package the items for direct sale to the consumer (via big grocery chains). They will be responsible for following these regulations.

Reading laws is difficult because there is so much cross-referencing other laws/definitions.

When reading this the first time, I can see where people become alarmed. Most states already have specific laws and regulations regarding this that will already be in compliance with regulations.

Added:
An example would be "organic certification". If you take the time to read up on various state requirements for producers to hang the term 'organic' on their products, the rules and regs outlined in this new legislation would most likely (depending on state) already cover issues and require the organic farmer to change nothing they already do in their operations to qualify on the state level to use the term organic in their sales.

[lemit]

Thank you, Cedars, for saying what I was trying to say in a much less divisive way. I think what you added complements and ameliorates what I said very well.

--lemit

[lemit]

I'd like to revive this thread, because I think conventional farming offers a lot of things to a lot of people.

The kind of farming I grew up in was organic without understanding that it was organic. The practices of family farming, diversified farming, crop rotation, and selective breeding (outside the lab) seem to be what both the organic people and the family values people want.

Why can't we make people interested in this kind of farming? The beauty of the fields and pastures and woods where I grew up should attract anyone.

I hope people will read this and respond.

Actually, if anybody wants to live on my farm and create a diversified farm, I'd be happy to rent or sell it. Any takers?

--lemit