New Food Bill in New Zealand Takes Away Human Right to Grow Food -- Same Is Happening Here

New Food Bill in New Zealand Takes Away Human Right to Grow Food -- Same Is Happening Here

This from Dave Wetzel of Green Pasture:

I was shocked to learn from a friend on the weekend that a new Food Bill is being brought in here in New Zealand. The new bill will make it a privilege and not a right to grow food.

I find two aspects of this bill alarming. The first is the scope and
impact the new bill has, and secondly that it has all happened so
quietly. There has been VERY little media coverage, on a bill which
promises to jeopardise the future food security of the country.

I read that the bill is being brought in because of the WTO, which of
course has the US FDA behind it, and of course that is influenced by big
business (Monsanto and other players). It looks like this NZ
food bill will pave the way to reduce the plant diversity and small
owner operations in New Zealand, for example by way of controlling the
legality of seed saving and trading/barter/giving away; all will be
potentially illegal. The best website to read about the problems with
the new bill is https://nzfoodsecurity.org (I have no connection with this website)

Here are some snippets:

- It turns a human right (to grow food and share it) into a government-authorised privilege that can be summarily revoked.

- It makes it illegal to distribute “food” without authorisation, and it
defines “food” in such a way that it includes nutrients, seeds, natural
medicines, essential minerals and drinks (including water).

- By controlling seeds, the bill takes the power to grow food away from the
public and puts it in the hands of seed companies. That power may be
abused.

- Growing food for distribution must be authorised, even for “cottage industries”, and such authorisation can be denied.

- Under the Food Bill, Police acting as Food Safety Officers can raid
premises without a warrant, using all equipment they deem necessary –
including guns (Clause 265 – 1).

- Members of the private sector can also be Food Safety Officers, as at Clause 243. So Monsanto
employees can raid premises – including marae – backed up by armed police.

- The Bill gives Food Safety Officers immunity from criminal and civil prosecution.

- The Government has created this bill to keep in line with its World
Trade Organisation obligations under an international scheme called
Codex Alimentarius (“Food Book”). So it has to pass this bill in one
form or another.

- The bill would undermine the efforts of many people to become more self-sufficient within their local communities.

- Seed banks and seed-sharing networks could be shut down if they could
not obtain authorisation. Loss of seed variety would make it more
difficult to grow one’s own food.

- Home-grown food and some or all seed could not be bartered on a scale or frequency necessary to feed people in communities where commercially available food has become unaffordable or unavailable (for example due to economic collapse).

- Restrictions on the trade of food and seed would quickly lead to the
permanent loss of heirloom strains, as well as a general lowering of
plant diversity in agriculture.

- Organic producers of heirloom foods could lose market share to big-money agribusiness outfits, leading
to an increase in the consumption of nutrient-poor and GE foods. The key factor is seeds. In many cases they specifically are food, of course. Grain seed, seed potatoes, rice, maize, quinoa, many staples etc etc – as the bill stands all these will explicitly be controlled substances, with similar penalties for possession as drugs.

This being so, the unenforceability of prohibiting people from growing food for local distribution becomes a moot point. No good seeds means no good food (if any food at all) to distribute.

One of the few newspaper articles that I’ve seen, highlighting some of the problems with the bill. This from the Timaru Herald newspaper

URL https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/new… (sorry,link is incomplete)

Some snippets:

The woman behind the Oamaru community gardens is concerned a bill going through Parliament could jeopardise the project.

Gardens co-ordinator Annie Beattie said the Food Bill, which passed its first
reading on July 22, was more commercially driven than about food safety.
“It’s all about big companies wanting sole rights to seeds because they
don’t produce seeds and you have to buy them again each year. They are
contaminated seeds. “I have to say I am furious about these bullying
tactics.”

She has signed an online petition opposing the bill.
“This to me is a dictatorship and certainly not a democratic society. “I
think its time for people to open their eyes be responsible and stand
up for their rights. “I would go to jail if I had to and will be
defending the right to have community gardens and share our food and our
knowledge of the importance of good, safe, real food.”

I found the website for the gardens: https://www.marketground.co.nz/waitakicom… (sorry, this link is incomplete) and waicomgardens at hotmail.com for E-Mail.

I have been a member of this site for over a year, and this is my first
post. I did not think it would come to this in little old New Zealand,
literally at the ends of the earth. Very serious stuff indeed.

Liz's note: If this bothers you, you might consider voting for the only presidential candidate who will not stand for such things, Ron Paul.