Ideas For Democracy:  Goal #14

Food and agricultural security, labelling to support free market.

 

Citizens who want real democracy will actively support this policy and vote for trustworthy candidates who actively support this policy.

 

IFD - policy:  Investing is an act for the public good.  To offer money dedicated to a useful purpose is an act of hope for the future and faith in the people and a business plan designed to meet a public need.  The original purpose of enabling people in business to form a corporation is part of our history.  One purpose was to protect individual owners and managers from being held personally responsible for acts or omissions that were actually committed by group decisions and group direction.  Another was to continue the operation of the business with minimal interruptions and changes in its productivity and reliability when the founder or founders were no longer available to direct the business activity. 

 

Localvore and Agricultural Security Policy:

It is foolish for a country like the United States to make any effort to have agricultural products be produced as a regional specialty.  If harvesting, processing or storing any significant food product were concentrated in one area, that would create a dangerous threat to food security, because destruction of that one facility would cut deep into the nation's food sources.  It is a matter of national security that food production, processing and storage be spread out as evenly as possibly over the entire country.  The "localvore" movement of people consuming foods that are produced locally is essentially a national food security movement.  Food security is an important element of national security and national defense against any potential enemy attack.

 

 

Labelling of manufactured and processed food products:

A free market economy means that the consumers or customers are the sovereign economic power.  The buyers determine what is to be bought and that means accurate labelling of all food products is a basic, mandatory practice in order to support a free market economy.  Any proposal that a government agency can decide for the consumers that two different products are "equal" or similar or the same is a negation of the free market and imposition of government support for a food product in opposition to another food product that would otherwise compete with the government-supported product in the open and free market.  Such an economic system would accurately be labelled a "government-managed market" as opposed to a free market.

 

Labelling of seeds, roots, and tubers or corms:

During the second half of the twentieth century, one of the most destructive and disturbed ideas came from the Monsanto Corporation.  That incredibly dangerous and absolutely irrational concept is the production of seeds that produce sterile plants, and the production of genetically modified seeds that produce plants that can tolerate larger percentages of manufactured toxic chemicals in the environment.  It is hard to imagine how an historian or scientist would explain this astoundingly anti-life occurrence to younger generations.  How does one explain that growing sterile crops and increasing toxins in the water and soil benefits living things and human society?  It is as though Monsanto sees itself as being in the business of producing death. 

 

Prohibiting the production of seeds that produce sterile plants and seeds that produce plants tolerant of more poisons is one solution to this problem, but before that is done we could re-inforce the beneficial power of the free market simply by requiring accurate labelling of seeds offered for sale. 

 

 

Here is my proposed

Agricultural Reproductive Type (ART) seed labelling system:

ART - A1:  Classic ownership (A1):  The buyer owns the generative tissue [A] (seed, root, tuber or corm), the plant [B], the fruit of the plant [C] and all successive generations, and the seeds or other generative tissue of the plant [D].  The seeds of the plant will reproduce the original plant.

 

ART - A2:  Classic ownership - hybrid (A2) :  The buyer owns the generative tissue [A] (seed, root, tuber or corm), the plant [B], the fruit of the plant [C] and all successive generations, and the seeds or other generative tissue of the plant [D].  However, the hybrid seeds of the plant may reproduce a similar plant that produces a different breed of fruit or an unsatisfactory fruit.

 

ART - B:  Hybrid restricted (HR):  The buyer DOES NOT own the generative tissue [A] (seed, root, tuber or corm), or the seeds or other generative tissue of the plant [D].  The buyer has obtained the right to cultivate the hybrid seeds of the plant one time and harvest the fruit thereof one time, but may not collect and save seeds or any other generative tissue from the hybrid plant.

 

ART - CGM:  Genetic Modification restricted (GM):  The buyer DOES NOT own the generative tissue [A] (seed, root, tuber or corm), or the seeds or other generative tissue of the plant [D].  The buyer has obtained the right to cultivate the genetically modified seeds of the plant one time and harvest the fruit thereof one time, but may not collect and save seeds or any other generative tissue from the genetically modified plant.

 

ART - DGMI:  Genetic Modification restricted (GM Insecticide), includes plants tolerant of additional insecticide (I), pesticide or herbicide:  The buyer DOES NOT own the generative tissue [A] (seed, root, tuber or corm), or the seeds or other generative tissue of the plant [D].  The buyer has obtained the right to cultivate the genetically modified seeds of the plant one time and harvest the fruit thereof one time, but may not collect and save seeds or any other generative tissue from the genetically modified plant.  This genetic modification enables an increase in the addition of toxic chemicals to the environment, including soil and surface waters and ground waters, and the animal food chain.

 

ART - DGMS:  Genetic Modification restricted (GM Sterility), includes plants that will be sterile (S) or that will produce only sterile seeds or no viable generative tissue.  May include plants tolerant of additional insecticide, pesticide or herbicide:  The buyer DOES NOT own the generative tissue [A] (seed, root, tuber or corm), or the seeds or other generative tissue of the plant [D].  The buyer has obtained the right to cultivate the genetically modified seeds of the plant one time and harvest the fruit thereof one time, but may not collect and save seeds or any other generative tissue from the genetically modified plant.  This genetic modification may change the genetics of other plants of other owners through cross pollination.  This Agricultural Reproductive Type requires that the gardener or farmer purchase seeds for each growing season in order to produce a new crop of similar plants and another single harvest.

 

ART - DGMN:  Genetic Modification restricted (GM Nutrition), includes plants that will be sterile (S) or that will produce only sterile seeds or no viable generative tissue.  May include plants tolerant of additional insecticide, pesticide or herbicide:  The buyer DOES NOT own the generative tissue [A] (seed, root, tuber or corm), or the seeds or other generative tissue of the plant [D].  The buyer has obtained the right to cultivate the genetically modified seeds of the plant one time and harvest the fruit thereof one time, but may not collect and save seeds or any other generative tissue from the genetically modified plant.  This genetic modification may change the genetics of other plants of other owners through cross pollination.  This Agricultural Reproductive Type requires that the gardener or farmer purchase seeds for each growing season in order to produce a new crop of similar plants and another single harvest.  This Agricultural Reproductive Type has produced higher yields per unit of cultivated land than previous generative types, but the plants nutritional values may be modified by the same genetic changes that increase the bulk yield of fruits of the plants.  The nutritional values of a harvest are also dependent upon the other factors that affect a cultivated crop, such as weather, water supply, and the fertility of the soil as well as unusually rich or deficient soil chemistry.