The "Terrorism" excuse isn't wearing thin?

[Scott Conklin]

Read the below item, do some research on NAIS, look at what is going on outside our firearms community. The rush to control everything is on and it is gaining momentum. It's time to forget party labels and partisan rhetoric and DO something, if it's not already too late.

******************

Brought to you courtesy of the FDA and the Bioterrorism act of 2002..... via http://hayandforage.com - Feb 14, 2002 issue.

"Bioterrorism Rules Will Affect Hay Growers
The federal government's efforts to protect the nation's food supply will soon impact commercial hay growers in a big way. According to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokesman, farmers who sell hay must comply with record-keeping requirements of the Bioterrorism Act of 2002.

The mandated records include, among other things, the field that each load came from, the truck that hauled it, and names and contact information of the driver and the people who loaded and unloaded it. The buyer's name and address, and the arrival date, must also be on record.

The rules are designed to enable FDA to trace any contamination problem back to its source. According to the 2002 law, they apply to "persons that manufacture, process, pack, transport, distribute, receive, hold or import food."

FDA includes animal feeds in its definition of food. Feed manufacturers, grain elevators, alfalfa processors and other entities that process or store farm products must comply. While most farms are exempt, the FDA spokesman confirms that commercial hay growers are not. Operations with 11 or more full-time employees must comply by June 6 of this year; smaller operations have until Dec. 9.

William Kanitz, president of ScoringAg.com, Sarasota, FL, has developed a computerized system to simplify compliance with the new record-keeping rules. He's well-versed on the requirements, and will discuss them at Hay & Forage Grower's Midwest Hay Business Conference & Expo, March 14-15 at the Ramkota Hotel, Sioux Falls, SD.

The conference also will cover a number of other topics of interest to hay growers, including marketing innovations, production costs and forage analyses. Kanitz will begin his presentation at 2:45 p.m., March 15.

Registration costs $150/person. A second person from the same operation can attend for $125. For more information or to register, call 800-722-5334 and ask for Cindy Kramer, or visit hayconference.com.
_________________
Fear the government that fears its people

www.stopanimalid.org

 

[BillCA]

Most food manufacturers and packagers use lot numbers on their products which will allow tracing the product to the packing plant, date and even shift it was created. Drug companies, of course, manufacture in numbered lots.

Foods like fresh veggies, fruits and (in this example) hay, did not have such a requirement. Hundreds of tons of fruits and veggies and other "whole foods" move in this country every day. There are no methods for tracking where they came from except by the records kept of stores, distributors, wholesalers and importers. These can be less than sufficient for tracking a terrorist event.

The rules do seem like overkill to me and they are putting them at the wrong end of the chain. Farmers keeping records of the fields and/or workers isn't too bad, but the transporter info should be kept by the receiver of the goods, not the shipper IMO.

A small plane flying low over fields at night and spraying crops with a toxic agent could destroy huge amounts of food before it's harvested.

Recently though, I thought of the warnings we hear about terrorists hijacking gasoline trucks for some kind of suicide run. However, imagine the 10,000 gallons or so of fuel poured down a sewer opening that's "upstream" of a community and then ignited using a small remote control/cellphone bomb. Done properly it would be a catastrophe.