I am not one that likes big government or goverment controls, But we are getting more and more government controls everyday in all walks of life and many are more intrusive than this bill. What I detest about these threads is the repetition of such obvious lies and blame gaming. This bill in its worst scenario only affects market growers who cross state lines. States will continue to control within the state. That will probably change in the future, but at present the feds only regulate interstate commerce. The driving force is the recent Salmonella and E, coli scares. Monsanto, Syngenta, Vilmorin, Dupont etc has little to do with it. It does not have a huge impact on ag chemical sales which is their big concern.

If one were to actually read what the Organic Consumers Association has to say they would find that most of what sandybeach has written is hogwash. There is nothing in this bill, meant to require the USFDA to do the job it was meant to do back when Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure food and Drug Act that established the FDA as part of the USDA. Much of what the FDA is supposed to do was made nearly immposible during the Reagan administration when major cutbacks in personnel kept inspections from being done.

We live in the mountains of North Carolina, at 4200 ft. That makes gardening a challenge, since so many days aren't quite as sunny or warm as they are in the valleys. That established, we grew our own tomatoes last year for the first time. We found that the south side of the house was ideal in terms of the quality of the sun, and the duration. We only spent $2.00 per plant at Walmart, and had 5 plants. We didn't spend money on cages. We just staked with stuff we had. We did have to spend on a couple of beers to trap the slugs/snails. We didn't buy a single tomato as long as our plants were producing (which was about July through September). when the harvest ended, it was really a disappointment to have to go back to buying them -pricey and not very tastey. This year we decided to grow veggies in some pots that we had saved from previous nursery plants. We have been experiencing a severe drought in the South East, so we are conserving water. I figure that watering potted plants is more conservation-friendly, since the water doesn't just get swallowed-up by all the dry adjacent soil/plants. We have tomatoes; yellow bell peppers; zuchinni; and yellow squash, all growing in their own individual 5 gallon pots. We also decided to try our own romaine. I planted all nine plants in a large, clear plastic storage tub. We lost two plants to wilt, but the rest have been growing, and we have already been harvesting outer leaves for salads. I suppose the plants will eventually stop producing new leaves in the center, and grow rather leggy, but til then the romaine is really tender and nice. We had to spend more for the plants this year ($2-$3 per plant),and some potting soil, but we had the pots. We did buy some tomato food, too. Being a farmer isn't cheap.

Please put the tinfoil shiny side out! http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/organic.asp