Will it always be legal to grow our own food?

A few days ago I started a thread re the Codex Alimentarius on this Beginner Vegetables forum, but since it's generated little interest I wanted to point out that it could prevent us from growing our own food. If you read my earlier thread you'll see that the Codex is summarized at treeoflife.nu/healthrights under the topic heading "Health Freedom Rights:Codex: A Deadly Mandate for Global Under-Nutrition."
Also, there are some You Tubes about the Codex easily accessible with a Googling of "Codex Alimentarius." It sounds too extreme to possibly be true, but it's definitely in the works.
BTW, I realize "pasteurizing" refers to heating foods, and that's what's happening to all California almonds that are sold commercially, but if anyone could explain what "cold irradiation" means in simple terms I would appreciate it, because the Codex is going to mandate irradiation of many foods, as I understand it.

Your other topic didn't get much response, so you decided to start another identical topic?

No. It will not always be legal to grow our own food. Law enforcement plans to drop all of its work at managing child abuse, rape, murder, terrorism, serious drug abuse, predators, natural disasters, and the many, many other tasks that are tying up their resources and go house to house, yard to yard, to confiscate all seeds, spray roundup on all food-producing gardens, and write tickets that come with heavy fines. Oh, and we're going to bring our service people back from the multiple wars we're fighting to join in and annihilate illegal gardening.

To get the ball rolling, the legislative system is going to drop all of the work it's doing to resolve pressing issues such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, disease, pollution and global warming, and the financial and housing crises, all to rush anti-home-gardening legislation through the system.

You should be very, very afraid.

Wow.
I think that was an awfully harsh response to a legitimate question..
I mean, gardeners and seed companies are already dealing with GMO contamination of stock and subsequent "patent infringement" lawsuits by the companies who own the rights to that particular strain. (I could go on for days about what I think about Monsanto, and the potential for very bad things to happen when their patented plants are all anyone can buy, but I won't...)

Perhaps it is a bit paranoid, but really, it IS kinda scarey...I mean, what does it mean for those who gain a portion of their livelihood from farmers markets and selling organic produce?

I do see it as just another step away from self-sustenance and into reliance on mega-farms, which isn't really a good thing on many levels.

I do understand the larger issues, and I'm concerned about them. But the question in the thread title doesn't include farmer's markets or small-scale farming, as I interpret "our own food" to mean.

Issues like GMO modification, patents, and FDA regulations merit serious discussion and action, but throwing them under a provocative and misleading thread title only muddles the issue.

Plus, this is the Beginner Vegetables forum, where people come to ask how to grow potatoes or when they can plant corn or how they can deal with certain pests. Stuff like that. Plenty of people on this site are discussing these issues - in the appropriate forums.

am wondering just which forum would have been the 'appropriate' forum for such a topic.

Probably none of them.

"a) As of Nov 6, 2002, discussion and debate of a political nature, and debate of a religious nature are not allowed on the site."

that was kinda my point ;)

Anyone want some squash? It's all legal!

Oh, no!! Not you again - lol . . .

ROTFLMAO... hey Kelly... you get the feeling we are being followed? *looks around*

Stalked is more like it - lol. Aren't there laws against that kind of stuff????????

I've responded a few times on the other thread, and I think it's a huge leap to think any government is going to make food stuff illegal. But this is a legit issue. For those of us who don't pay to subscribe, we don't have as many options. Does someone who pays for the subcription have a spot in Daves Garden where these issues belong?

I understand not brining in politics to what should be mostly about trading tips and folks asking advice (like me, I've been growing a few things for years now, but can always learn from the more experienced folks).

Maybe Dave could set up a new section on this site to discuss things like GM, ethanol, urban gardening, hell, even the possibility to terra-form Mars (yeah, I know that's way out there). Something like 'Plant Theories for the Neophyte'. lol

Without plants we can't exist so maybe there should be an area set aside for more abstract things.

Now, as soon as I buy a digital camera and take pics I need someone to identify the evil worms that have been eating my broc.


Peace yall.

Heres a link where you can discuss this till you are blue in the Face .. As it was posted ,
"a) As of Nov 6, 2002, discussion and debate of a political nature, and debate of a religious nature are not allowed on the site."

Codex Alimentarius was created in 1962 as a trade Commission by the UN to control the international trade of food. Its initial intentions may have been altruistic but it has been taken over by corporate interests, most notably the pharmaceutical, pesticide, biotechnology and chemical industries.


http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=157

Seems like it's in the Sustainable Alternatives forum http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/gogreen/all/ where people tend to exchange information about legislation related to gardening and agriculture, talk to each other about what affect it will really have on people, what it really means. Click around or use the search as well. Stuff pops up here and there.

I know that lots of people have limited budgets (I sure do), but the $20 a year or whatever for a subscription is definitely worth the price. I've been at this for less than a year and I've read so much on here that I've found myself advising a couple of "master gardeners," so they say.

If your broccoli worms are green, almost the color of the plant, maybe a little darker, they're probably cabbage worms, the caterpillar of the mostly white cabbage butterfly. Another sign is yellow eggs on the undersides of the leaves. Pick the eggs and caterpillars off and squash them. Do a search and you'll find some stuff you can spray, as well. Some organic, some not.

You can also use various barriers, such as floating row covers, to prevent the butterfly from getting to the plant to lay eggs on it. Too late, at this point. But I think I read somewhere that someone recommends putting some kind of bag on the broccoli head to keep the worms out. And you can soak it in salt water when you harvest to flush them out.

If that doesn't sound like what you have - you're right. Your best bet is to get a digital camera and take a picture. It makes it much easier for people on here to identify. And there's always someone that comes along that's seen what you have and knows how to deal with it.

Happy gardening!

neworleansdude - indy is correct - if the caterpillars are light green they are the offspring of the cabbage butterfly. Personally, I let the black wasps take care of them - they feed them to their young, which means there are even more wasps to eat even more caterpillars! (Evil grin)

indy_v: Be glad you don't live in Bakersfield. Here the Municipal Code Enforcement people are always issuing citations to people who have a few weeds in their flowerbeds to either get rid of them or have the city do it at considerable expense to you. Seriously, it happened to four families I know, so I think if growing food were illegal they'd be on to you right away. It wouldn't take that long to amble through the average homeowner's property and search out the contraband tomato patch and grapevines, after all. That's why people don't grow marijuana outside, of course, and if all food crops were also illegal, the same situation would exist. You just wouldn't need that many inspectors, especially if random, unannounced searches were permitted. In this county dozens of people were wrongly convicted of being participants in large-scale child molestation rings ( a TV movie recently aired about this and Sean Penn, the narrator, came here for a local screening) and a bestseller called "Mean Justice" was written about our overzealous District Attorney's Office. Just yesterday a medical marijuana dispensary was raided because Federal law is at odds with California law on this issue. My point is in some places law enforcement would actually be after you if the Codex were passed.
Everyone else, thanks for taking the time to post your comments. I probably am overreacting, but I did lose a sister to breast cancer, and she had the best conventional medical care available --- Stanford University Medical School/Hospital -- and maybe I'm paranoid regarding the medical and phamaceutical establishment, but I'm quite certain pure, organic fruits and vegetables are the best health allies we have, and that's why I wanted to at least inform my fellow gardeners what the Codex
is about.

Indy: thank you for that link. I've been on here for a bit over a month now and didn't realize that area existed. I guess at some point I should just cough up the money for the subscription.

I've basically given up on the broccoli...it may be cabbage worm but there are actually two different ones eating the heck out of it. Bug A is small and solid off white, Bug B is mostly green with a yellow stripe running lenghtwise down the middle and the top half is darker. I have ONE very small crown growing now, my girlfriend jokes at some point I'm going to have to pick to have my single bite! We're moving in less than a month so at this point I'm sorta 'blah' about some of the plants. Let the bugs have 'em, they're hungry and don't know about the grocery store.

Hopefully sometime before the end of summer I'm going to set aside the money to buy a digital cam so I can start taking part in the photo sharing and 'what the heck is this' sections.