Earth Hour & H.R. 875 Food Safety Bill

Today is Earth Hour! Tonight, from 8:30-9:30pm (local time) people around the world will be switching off their lights for one hour to show their concern for the environment.

This event started in Sydney in 2007 with 2.2 million homes. Last year 50 million people joined in, and many noticeable landmarks from around the world switched off the lights to show their support: the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all participated.

The goal for 2009 is for 1 BILLION people to join in and vote for the earth by switching off their lights during this time. The World Wildlife Fund will be presenting the results of this event to leaders from around the world at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year. That conference will replace the Kyoto Protocol and determine official government policies to take action against global warming, so this is one way to make yourself heard there. Get some friends together and make it a group event — drink wine by candlelight for an hour! Could anything be better on a Saturday night??

Also, I just heard about the proposed H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 a couple of days ago, and I’m still trying to figure it all out. But it seems like it could have a very similar effect on farmer’s markets to what the CPSIA could have on handmade children’s products. You can read the full thing for yourself here, or I’ve found some differing opinions about the bill and its possible effects here, here, here and here.

Sunday at the Farmer's Market by jillclardy

Basically the bill would create a new governing agency in the U.S. to regulate food safety (separate from the FDA). The way the bill is worded makes it seem like all farms, whether industrial agricultural complexes or your local produce guy at the farmer’s market, will be affected and will be subject to all the same regulations. Farmers not in compliance with the new regulations could be fined up to $1,000,000 for each offense.

One of the major things that seems to be upsetting a lot of people about this proposed bill is that the legislation was put forward by Representative Rosa DeLauro, whose husband, political strategist Stan Greenberg, has done private work for Monsanto, which is one of the world’s biggest agricultural corporations. (They’re well known for being the world’s top producer of genetically engineered seed and have sparked tons of controversy for leading the way with introducing rBGH growth hormone into our dairy products.)

I’d love to get a better handle on this proposed bill and what it all means. If anyone out there understand the legalease better than I do, I’d love to hear your interpretations of the bill and exactly what effects it could have. It’s a difficult thing to wade through, but I try to be as informed as possible about these things!

Tagged as: do good, green